Mark and I played two games this past weekend and each won one:
457-294. I played RADIATeD (86, the only DWS-DWS possible) and ENTICER (74). It was very interesting how I was able to play my second bingo. I knew that RADIATeD took a front E- hook, yet didn’t know if Mark realized this, as he had played his E’s elsewhere on the board. I myself couldn’t take advantage of it as I couldn’t draw an E, yet Mark impressed me later by playing EVIL / ERADIATeD (24). A later play by him spoiled the row above ERADIATeD to slot an R- front hook in any place other than final position. I was fortunate to play ENTICER / RERADIATeD, thus making a rare 10LW on a Scrabble board. One of my racks was EEIIRTV which makes no 7LW and I saw two of its possible 8LW (REINVITE and VERITIES) yet neither was playable. I looked at an open R yet didn’t see the third possible 8LW, TIRRIVEE, which is unfortunate since I have played that word before. However, I can’t get too upset about that because I played ENTICER afterward and scored a lot more for it.
408-462. I got burned by the tile gods in this game. Mark opened with MALTERS (74) which I held him on and definitely did not like, but I was so focussed on the A because it gave me a DWS-DWS snapback for OUTGAZED (126). I figured I would let his phony go, to enable me to score big and be 52 points ahead. Otherwise I challenge MALTERS off and I am left with DEGOTUZ. What would I play with that? Definitely not ZED, as that word takes both a rear -A and -S and Mark might have found any of the three acceptable anagrams in the MALTERS rack (ARMLETS, LAMSTER, and TRAMELS). Mark’s rack does not build through ZED to form any 8LW yet those three other valid 7LW were too risky to give him a second try in laying one done, in the process getting 14 extra points for making either ZEDA or ZEDS. In fact, I really wouldn’t have wanted to play any word at all that allowed an easy -S hook. However, since Mark played a phony 7LW in the first place, would he have seen any of the three legitimate bingos in his rack? All the subanagrams I see with my DEGOTUZ rack offer obvious front or back hooks, however TOED doesn’t. The only 8LW Mark could play if I opened with TOED would be through the T, to make MALTSTER and MARTLETS. Would I have played this, though? And kept GUZ? No. I saw the available A for a DWS-DWS and slapped down OUTGAZED.
From then on, the tile gods frowned on me. I can’t really say I was doomed, as 408 is not a bad losing score and I did draw both blanks, but my replacement rack was CGGOQVV which was a bad omen. I had to exchange, keeping the C. Mark fought back, placing high-scoring letters on hotspots and getting down two more bingos, LIONESS (72) and FATIGUES (66). I played one more: REGeARS (72). I was hoping to play DEGREASeR from an open DE- but Mark made a play that obscured the spot for a flashy 9LW. I see that if the DE- was left open, I could have also played DEGRAdERS or DERAnGERS. My replacement rack after REGeARS also killed me: AEEEOTY. The second blank came very late in the game when there were no bingo lanes available.