Scrabble Club / May 14, 2026

I won all three last night to take my record to 75-9:

459-266 against Richard. I played OLEFiNS (76) and QUESO (92) like this:

The Q was on the TLS and the O was on the DWS.

446-396 against Jean. Jean played BASTiON (72) and I played LIEVEST (81) and IDEnTIC (80). By the time of my second bingo Jean was ahead 356-331. My rack at this time was AAEEHTU. There were two letters in the bag and the remaining tile pool was ILOOPRRRY. The left column remained open for many plays after Jean played DOR. With three O’s at that time left in the bag, it was just waiting for a front O-hook to claim the left TWS row. Jean got one of the O’s to play WO elsewhere, so perhaps she didn’t see the ODOR opening. I decided to un-double my AE to score 15 for ACE, keeping AEHTU, in the hope of drawing one of the remaining two O’s and one of the remaining three R’s to go out with OUTHEAR. Jean’s last play brought her to 396 and I was at 346 before bingoing out with OUTHEAR / ODOR (88). Two of my interesting racks were IKNSTRW which only builds through an O to make TINWORKS, and ACCDITU, which I drew after playing LIEVEST, which only builds to a Y to make CADUCITY. That word was not unknown to me; I considered playing CADUCEI but the only open E on the board wouldn’t allow it. I played ADUNC (18) instead.

460-314 against Sid. I played RACEWAYS (73), aDAPTING (74) and GISARME (68). I went second and my first rack was AACRSWY. I saw the possibilties of CARAWAYS or RACEWAYS, so I felt pretty good about getting either bingo down. Sid opened with DIET (10). I could also have played that rack through an H for ARCHWAYS. I held the rack AENRRTY and the bottom TWS was open, with the chance of slotting the Y on the DLS. I looked and looked and decided to play ENTRY (45), keeping AR. Turns out I missed a bingo, TERNARY, which would have scored 101. However two turns later I used that AR to play GISARME, stacking the -ME onto the EN- of ENTRY. Sid played CERaTINS (68).