A night of good play at the club – Thur. March 29th, 2007 March 31, 2007
Posted by Hans in Club Results.trackback
Another night at the club. I played relaxed and tried my best. Hopefully this newfound attitude along with the studying that I’ve been doing will help me in the upcoming tournament this weekend (Cambridge, Ontario).
Game #1 vs. Allan B (view full game)
Not much to say about this game. I made a good find of THORNIER using an existing E on the board. Allan came back with ANIMIST that I challenged incorrectly. I didn’t know TEETHES had an anagram (ESTHETE) and I completely missed DETOXES and mANSION. Gotta study some more of the high-probability bingoes.
FINAL SCORE: 363 – 320 (WIN)
Game #2 vs. Ann H (view full game)
I had some good tiles this game and used them to my advantage. One interesting play – I played HORDED/QAID and Ann immediately challenged me. She made me wonder if I spelled HORDED incorrectly. Later, I made a stupid ENACTERS which was challenged off. Luckily for me, on my next turn, I noticed the free B on A1 and I played BRACKETS (I had ACERT?? on my rack – 154 possible 7 letter bingos). I made solid plays and closed the game out. Apparently, I missed RESHOED on my opening play – didn’t know that was a word.
FINAL SCORE: 455 -244 (WIN)
Game #3 vs. Percy F (view full game)
I continued my string of good play. I had some decent tiles and again made good use of them to build a lead on each and every turn. I only had one bingo opportunity and I played PHASING (G was a blank). I was hoping to make more use of the J, but I only was able to play RIoJA for 41 points. Having studied the J4–6 (still working on the J7–8), I’m not worried about getting the J now.
FINAL SCORE: 394 – 251 (WIN)
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One thing I noticed early in the evening was that I was starting to see words and possible words that could be formed with my tiles. The weird thing was that I was seeing a number of 8 letter words. For example, I mentioned that in game #1, I missed DETOXES. What I actually saw was DEXTROSE and was hoping for Allan to give me access to an R – never happened, but I was encouraged that I was starting to see possible words. In game #2, I remember seeing CRAFTILY, playing through an I that I had left on a previous play. Again, I wasn’t able to play because Ann unknowingly blocked my spot. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue to see the plays during the tournament in Cambridge on Saturday. The tournament is 7 games and I’m currently ranked 6th of 16 players in division 5. I hope that I have a strong performance.
enjoy reading your blog. i’ve read word freak and have gotten into the game a lot these past few months. i am really bad at seeing bingos though, even simple words that i know in my vocabulary. i know enough of the 2s and 3s and short jxz’s to do pretty good but i’ve only bingoed once. how have you gotten better at seeing bingos?
Thanks for the comment, Anthony.
My only advice would be to keep at it and to try and study some hi-probability words. I found that once I learned some bingo stems (e.g., TISANE + blank), my confidence started to grow. I’m not sure what else to say. I still think I’m not very good at anagramming (seeing different words given a set of letters). It’s just recently, for some unknown reason, I just see words (not all of the words, but more words). You could also try and ask some higher rated players for their advice. I do that whenever I get a chance and most of their advice is very helpful.
Good luck on your Scrabble adventure. Maybe we’ll play one another at a tournament some time…