Scrabble Adventures

For some reason, the mood at last night’s club was quite animated. I don’t know why, but the room seemed more alive maybe because of the proximity to a few upcoming tournaments, or maybe because a few Toronto Club members joined us, or maybe because of a combination of the two. All I know was that there seemed to be more energy. I know I’m looking forward to the upcoming Oshawa tournament.

My goal for the evening was to try and test out some of the new words I had been studying (a couple hi-prob stems, some vowel dumps, and some short power-tile words). Yes, winning is nice, but I’ve been approaching club games differently from last year. I’m using the games to test out new words, try out different strategies, focus on end-game play, and basically learn new things. So, if there are words I’ve never seen and I’m not sure, I’m planning on challenging them.

Here are the recaps:

Game #1 vs. Shauna
My opening rack was EGILNT? and I hooked Shauna’s opening play of IOTA to play bELTING. For this opening rack, I had a choice of 28 possible 7 letter bingos. Basically, I started off with a bang and didn’t really let off the rest of the game. Later in the game, I missed one bingo opportunity. My letters were: AENRSSY. There isn’t a natural bingo there, but I apparently missed AN(AL)YSERS and (G)RAYNESS. Analysers was a tough find because a) I had to play through two letters and b) I had to hook three different words to make that word fit. The second word, grayness, maybe I should/could have found. Tough to say.

A few turns later, I played another bingo with EDIKNS?. I hooked a few words and played SLINKED for 87 points. I’m not complaining, but I had the majority of the good tiles up to this point in the game. Shauna traded all her tiles and then played SUNRISE on her next turn – talk about a great trade. On Shauna’s second last turn, she played AURAGER for 81 points to make the game 415 – 354 (for me). I held her on the play and didn’t think the word was good. She had some decent tiles left and I thought that if my challenge wasn’t good, there was a chance that I could lose. So, I decided to let the word go and played to get rid of my tiles and score points – I finished in two turns before she could finish.

FINAL SCORE: 470 – 390 (WIN). I believe that’s my highest single game total.

Game #2 vs. Joy B
Off of a solidly played game, I was looking forward to playing again. My opening rack was: CDEEIKU and I didn’t really see any great plays. I opened the game with DUCK (22). Quackle suggested DUCKIE for six more points. My next rack was AEEEHIL and I was thinking of trying to balance my rack. So I played A(G)ILE. So far, I wasn’t really feeling great about this game, but I thought that I needed to stay positive. Turn #3, I had EEHINOR and I played HEROINE for 74 pts and opened up the top right corner of the board. Joy was able to stay close with a few (somewhat lucky) plays of 30 points (YEW, PIT) and I was hoping to pull away.

After my bingo, I had a rack of AAOTV?? – I’m starting to have more difficulties finding words when I have two blanks. I was turning my tiles over and trying to find a word but couldn’t. I played off VAT. Did you find the bingos? I missed the three “natural bingos” (OCTAVAL, AVIATOR, or OTTAVAS) and the 8 letter bingo (ADVOCATE) which I could have played through a D or played to the E. Aviator I probably should have found, but the other two, no way I would get those. Luckily for me, on my next turn, I played OUTPLAY, which was one of 17 possible 7 letter bingos. I did miss an 8 letter word: AUTOPS(I)C which I didn’t know even existed. No other bingo opportunities this game (either as a natural bingo on my rack or a possible >7 letter play).

I made some decent plays the rest of the game. One play did, however, catch my attention. Joy played Q(U)A at H7. I ended up playing ZOA at 6F for 45 points. Quackle pointed out an even better play: H11 (A)ZONS for 72 pts. One thing I’m realizing is that I may need to slow down a bit to find either a higher scoring play or a more “optimal/strategic” play. My play right now isn’t too bad, as I’m getting many of the top plays (at least for the words that I know). If I’m ever going to get better, I need to improve in this area.

Toward the end of the game, Joy had an interesting series of plays: Trade 4 tiles, play A (to make ALINER), SATINET 68 points, and then BASINET 85 points. Up until her two bingos, I was winning 361 – 186 so I wasn’t too worried. But, two bingos in a row will make you wonder. After her play of BASINET, the score was 374 – 339. I had EONUWY and from tracking, I knew she had CFGEE. There weren’t too many places for her to play so my goal was to block her scoring opportunities, play off as many tiles as I can, and score. I finished the game in two plays: (T)WINE and then YOU.

FINAL SCORE: 420 – 353 (WIN)

Game #3 vs. Paul
I was looking forward to try and play another good solid game. My first couple of racks were interesting:

• EIQPRST: I played QI to open the game, hoping to get some tiles to make a bingo play.
• EPRSTXZ: I pick up XZ!!?? after playing QI. Paul played HIND underneath QI, so I played EX. Again, I was hoping to use the good tiles of PRST for something. Maybe I should have just played ZEST or ZEPS.
• AEPRSTZ: My rack was starting to get more balanced, but seemingly still had a way to go. I totally missed a bingo PATZERS which apparently means (an inept chess player). I didn’t know that word.
• Turn # 6 I had EEISTW?: For some reason, I didn’t see anything and missed the four possible bingos of WEBSITE, DEWIEST, SWEETIE, and PEEWITS. Ugh.
• Turn #7 I had EEELST?: Luckily I played STEELED which was one of 13 possible bingos I could have played.

The rest of the game was back and forth as we both tried to score and keep the board relatively open. I did miss one phoney when Paul played ATONIES hooking PORT to make PORTO. Two turns later, Paul played ORNATES and I challenged it off (he didn’t have anywhere else to play). So, I knew he had SENATOR, ATONERS, TREASON, or SANTERO with no real place to put it. Unfortunately, this is when I made my game losing play. I played R(U)LE at 8L for 25 points. I had EEILORT and didn’t really think things through. After I challenged ORNATES, the score was 272 – 266 for me, and my turn to play. In retrospect, I should have though to just play off a few letters and fish for some better ones, without opening anything up. But, I made the mistake of opening up the bingo lane and he played RESONAT(E) for 77 points (343 – 297 for him). After that huge mistake, I made some good plays with some awful tiles to catch-up as best as I could.

FINAL SCORE: 390 – 385 (LOSS).

Could I have won this game? Yes. Would I have won if I didn’t play RULE? No idea. But, I know that I wouldn’t have lost the game on one play, especially when I made a mistake. This one stings.

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Well, there’s one more week until the Oshawa tournament, so I’m going to keep studying. My hope is that I’m going to practice slowing down a bit and looking for a better play. I think I “give-up” on racks a little too easily or I try to make a “perfect” rack and try and balance rather than trying to score and make good plays. That’s something I need to work on – learning how to find a healthy medium between trying to balance a rack to try and bingo and playing what I have to score and (ultimately) win the game.

Unlike last week, this week seemed better. I was able to control my emotions better and play better. Hopefully I’ll keep up my good play in the upcoming tournaments.

Game #1 vs. Paul W
Paul and I usually have good competitive games. This game started slowly but ended in closely fought match. I had only one bingo rack AEKLRSS (a natural bingo of SLAKERS) and I was able to play through a T to make S(T)ALKERS for 94 points. After that play, I was stuck with most of the vowels. Paul played two bingos: TOAdIES and RELATEs. In the end, he got stuck with only consonants. I was able to eke out a victory.

Reviewing the game on Quackle, I noticed that both Paul and I missed an open 48 pt. play. Paul played JEEP on H10 previously. Neither of us knew that the word JEEP could be used as a verb. Quackle pointed out JEEPED several times. Oh well, you live and learn. FINAL SCORE: 402 – 390 (WIN).

Game #2 vs. Kevin T
My second game was against Kevin. For some reason, this game was pretty ugly as neither he nor I could get letters to score. Kevin played some exotic words like MIZEN, FARAD, CYTON, and AGOUTIE (this one is a phoney – AGOUTI is the correct spelling). After reviewing the game on Quackle, I missed two bingo opportunities (both 7 letter natural bingos). I didn’t know either of these words.

• BILORST: STROBIL or BRISTOL
• AEIOSS?: AbIOSES

The last one (AbIOSES) hurt because I could have finished the game with a bingo and gotten a win. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch-up after Kevin played CYTON. I had some really ugly tiles in this game. FINAL SCORE: 284 – 263 (LOSS).

Game #3 vs. Dave K
The past few times I’ve played Dave, I’ve won the majority of them. One thing I’ve noticed is that Dave takes a long time to make plays. The most suprising thing is that even after thinking for a few minutes, he only makes small 10 pt. plays. I missed both a 7 letter bingo with the ADEMNOS (DAEMONS, MASONED, or MONADES) and an available 8 letter bingo – (A)DENOMAS . Fortunately, I was able to play DEAFENS a few turns later. Dave had the Z and got a total of 103 points out of it (ZEST and later CHEZ). Later, I finished the game with a bingo AStRIDE (there are 44 possible 7 letter bingos). I didn’t look for an available 8 letter bingo starting with an H in the bottom right corner (HARDIESt, HAyRIDES, or HAgRIDES). I think I had some better tiles that Dave and I made good use of them. FINAL SCORE: 434 – 281 (WIN).

Final Thoughts
Based on the past few weeks, I think I’m noticing that my 4 and 5 letter word knowledge is pretty weak. I think I’m going to have to spend some time studying these words, especially the words containing a power tile (J, Q, X, K, Z). My strategy seems to be acceptable given that my word knowledge isn’t as good as it should be. I’m going to try and spend some more time studying the high probability bingos before the upcoming tournament in Oshawa.

Another tough night at the club (Thursday Feb. 8th, 2007).  For some reason, I just didn’t feel very comfortable all evening and kept doubting myself.

Game #1 vs. Laurinda
Normally I play fairly well against Laurinda, but tonight I just didn’t “bring it”.  I opened with AGO but totally missed WAGON on my rack.  Laurinda then played BOuNCES/S(AGO).  I hadn’t seen SAGO before and decided to challenge (besides, Laurinda plays quite a few phonies).  Oops.  Lost that challenge.  After that, I got a bit gun-shy and missed challenging OOF and FONTE.  Looking back at this game, I can’t believe that I let those go.  Quackle pointed out some fairly obvious plays that I just missed.

Reviewing the game, I only had three bingo racks:

• ADEILRS:  DERAILS, DIALERS, and REDIALS
• AELNOST:  ETALONS, and TOLANES
• ADENOST:  DONATES

Unfortunately for me, those racks came toward the end of the game with no where to play them.  FINAL SCORE:  391 – 290 (LOSS).

Game #2 vs. John H
With a disappointing loss, I next played John H.  Honestly, I wasn’t really looking forward to this game.  John plays very conservatively and clogs up the board with two and three letter words.  In this game, he played his usual style.  For some reason, I got very frustrated this time.  I only had one bingo opportunity, and I made the most of it (CDIRSU?:  CRUISED, SCIURID, DYSURIC).  I played CRUISED.  On Quackle, there were a few higher scoring plays, but I took one that scored a few points less (6 I think) so that I could open up the board.  Up to this point, we were only able to play in the top “half” of the board.  The combination of John’s good tiles and some poor play by me led to a predictable outcome.  The most disheartening part is that I lost my “cool” and let my emotions affect my play.  FINAL SCORE:  380 – 282 (LOSS).

Game #3 vs. Dave
I wasn’t feeling great about the final game of the night.  Losing to John really bothered me.  I tried to forget the past two games and focus on this one.  On turn #3, I had a natural bingo but nowhere to play it (QUALIFY).  Luckily, I was able to play QUA(L)IFY for 52 points.  On my next turn, I missed a bingo BITTERN (didn’t know this word).  Later in the game, I had one more bingo that I apparently missed (CARLINS), but fortunately for me, there was no place to play it.  This game seemed to go back and forth as we both seemed to be “fighting” the tiles.  I spent a great deal of time trying to balance and manage my tiles.  I was able to pull away at the end because I tried to make the most of my tiles, scoring decent points (~25 pts/turn) while Dave took a few turns of scoring 8–14 points.

On the second last turn, I knew that Dave had the following tiles:  DEEINS? and knew he could bingo on his last turn (there are 21 possible 7 letter bingos).  AGIO was on the board and he could play off of it.  He could also possibly play off O1 to make a TWS bingo, but he had to end the word with an H.  I decided to block the easier bingo lane.  I figured that if he could find a word ending with an H, all the power to him – I just wasn’t going to make it easy for him.  With the board set-up like it was, he still had 4 possible bingos to play, even after I blocked him.  He missed all of them:  NErDIES(T), NEEDIeS(T), bENDIES(T), or INmES(H)ED.  FINAL SCORE:  337 – 249 (WIN – yeah!).