No-one to blame except myself… July 13, 2007
Posted by Hans in Analysis, Club Results.1 comment so far
We had a quiet night at the club with only 17 people showing up. Craig is off to Europe for the next four weeks, so Valeria was running the show. With so few people showing up, pairings were more open and Valeria even entertained requests. I ended up winless, but I only had myself to blame for this result.
Game #1 vs. Brenda S
Brenda had some great tiles to start and pulled out to a huge lead. Her first few turns were: SCHOLAR (73), WARKS (49), and ZOOM (30) with me managing a measly 49 points during that span. I made a good play of JINGLE (non-bingo) for 66 points. I played URINASES, thinking it was some sort of enzyme (it is not an acceptable play). On my final turn, I had AEINTU?. I was down 377 – 307. There were three bingo lanes available to me: through a B at 1H, through an A at K5, or through an S at L5. I ended up playing UNBAITED, but it only scored 60 points (Brenda had GOT for 8 points in her hand). Brenda accepted the play even though it wasn’t good.
Apparently, I missed INSULATE through the S (dumb, dumb, dumb!) and INCUBATE, URBANITE, and INTUBATE through the B. I was so focused on trying to make a word beginning with UN that I totally missed the IN prefix. Could’ve had this game, even with my phoney bingo of URINASES (FYI – URINOSES is the play).
FINAL SCORE: 377 – 375 (LOSS)
Game #2 vs. Kaveri R
I’m not sure how to summarize this game. Kaveria played a very good game. We both had one bingo each: I played OBItUAr(Y) burning up both blanks and Kaveri played SITTERS. Kaveri made a few more higher scoring plays than me and got the win. I’m not sure I could have won this one.
FINAL SCORE: 385 – 322 (LOSS)
Game #3 vs. Priya F (view full game)
I was surprised to be matched with Priya, as she’s one of the better players at the club (she’s in division A – 1505 rating) and a very respectable NSA rating near 1300 (via cross-tables). To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a win, even though I probably could have won had I not made some bone-headed mistakes.
On turn #2, I played EQUINE for 30 points leaving a juicy possibility of hooking with an S. As luck would have it, Priya hooked to play SYNC for 50. She chastised me for giving her free points, but I’m not sure that was such a mistake. When I simulated this in Quackle (over 6000 iterations), EQUINE still came out on top as the best choice at over 50% (#2 was KEN for 18pts at 9C). I suppose it’s somewhat dangerous, but I didn’t figure she had an S early on. Maybe that’s something to think about for the future – I’ll ask some other expert players next week at the club.
Anyway, Priya’s turns were WIG (24), SYNC (50), JONES (43), COMFY (48), and AVERAGE (82). Before her bingo, she challenged my play of JITTER. I responded with ROASTED to make the score 247 – 218 for her. This is when I made my fatal error. She played EPHA at A12, overlapping RAgE. I got fixated on the word EPHA that I forgot about the overlaps. The H was beside a blank tile. After holding her for about 3 minutes, I accepted the play. As I started to write the play down on my scoresheet, I saw the G and realized I could have challenged the play off! Dumb, dumb, dumb! EPHA scored 47 points and I really couldn’t catch up after that. Priya was just as surprised when I told her about the mistake, as she didn’t even realize what she had done. She said that she thought the blank was a vowel.
I was able to play ZOA (48) and HEW (42) to keep the game close, but she blew the game open with RETINES (71). Apparently, I missed MURAL fo 48 points (turn #11). Had I played MURAL, Priya couldn’t have played ABED for 46.
The combination of a brutal mistake (missing the HG that I should have challenged) and some sub-optimal plays (i.e., RUM for 19 instead of MURAL for 48 in the same spot) led to this loss. As with the first game, I have no-one to blame except for myself for this loss. I could have won. I basically gave Priya 65 points while scoring about 30 points less. That’s no guarantee that I would have won because the tiles could have played out differently, but look at the final score – makes me shake my head…
FINAL SCORE: 465 – 392 (LOSS)
Toronto Scrabble Tournament (July 2007): Another disappointing weekend July 9, 2007
Posted by Hans in Tournament Results.add a comment
Well, another tournament, and another disappointing result. I finished in sixth place (Division C, 12 entrants) with a record of 6 wins and 6 losses. I really can’t blame anyone for this sad performance except for myself. Other than one game (Game #7 vs. Paul W), I had decent to good tiles for most of the tournament. I just didn’t play very well and I got frustrated with players clogging up the board. Not studying words for almost two months isn’t helping. Quackle simulations will be done sometime later this month, so I’ll post them later. Here is a quick recap of each game.
Game #1 vs. Ade A (LOSS)
This game was pretty close. I got a bit frustrated because Ade was closing the board and then started making some risky moves in an attempt to open up the board. I missed a bingo that could have won the game: ACELNPS. I didn’t know this word. The word is SPANCEL.
RECORD: 0 – 1
Game #2 vs. Sharmaine F (WIN)
This game was tight as we both seemed to get some crappy tiles at the beginningo f the game. We both got away with phoney bingos (DOURIES for her and PELATONS by me). Sharmaine played CUDDLIES to make the game close and I let it go even though I was pretty sure it was a phoney (72 points). I was ahead by about 100 points with about 35 points on my tile rack. The only way I could lose would be to challenge the word. I let it go and took the win.
RECORD: 1 – 1
Game #3 vs. Christine W (WIN)
A very close game that I managed to win. Somehow this board got shut down. The turning point of this game was when I played TIU (an honest mistake) and then Christine tried to hook it for her bingo LEANERS/ETIU. I held because I didn’t like the word LEANERS, but then I realized that ETIU isn’t good. I challenged it off and she was very upset, accusing me of playing “dirty”. She had a late bingo of SEETHING to make things close. I took my time and played out the possibilities and realized that she couldn’t win with the one tile on her rack. Final score was 360–359 – talk about a close game!
RECORD: 2 – 1
Game #4 vs. Eric P (LOSS)
I was very frustrated with this game. Eric played a very conservative game – probably because I seemed to be getting better tiles. I’ll have to look this game over, but it came down to the wire. I think I made some very sub-optimal plays and that came back to haunt me in the end. Eric tried to go “out” and stopped the clock, but he had one more tile on his rack. I lost 10 points for going over. The score was 340–339 before I lost 10 points.
RECORD: 2 – 2
Game #5 vs. Jillian B (WIN)
I enjoyed playing against Jillian. We both lamented about the closed boards and we played a very wide-open game. I managed to get away with a phoney, QUINEAS, which I mistook for QUINOAS. We both had two bingos each and neither could complain about our tiles. I managed to hold on for the win.
RECORD: 3 – 2
Game #6 vs. Christian J (WIN)
Not much to say except this game was very close. I played the only bingo, FILTHIER, but Christian made-up with a great play of IZAR for 60 points. A few better tiles at the end of the match allowed me to pull out the win.
RECORD: 4 – 2
Game #7 vs. Paul W (LOSS)
This game was one of those games where everything went wrong. I realized I wasn’t getting good tiles and had a “bad” feeling about the game. Somehow I managed to keep the game close until Paul played DITTIES. My challenge compounded that play and the game was over. He used his better tiles to put this game away. I had no play with the only bingo rack I had (ARCSINE, CARNIES, ARSENIC). Just happens and I got spanked – 433 to 251 (ouch!). Paul, I owe you one.
RECORD: 4 – 3
Game #8 vs. Robert H (WIN)
I made up for my brutal loss with a laugher (474–321). I had great tiles and I was able to play an open game. Three bingos broke the game open: SLATIER, CLAXONS, and LINGERS.
RECORD: 5 – 3
Game #9 vs. Donna B (LOSS)
I was a bit upset with this game. I think I could have played better, but I had mostly vowels the entire game. Donna had some very good tiles in the middle and just took a big lead. I managed to make it close with ZEKS for 61 points, but then she got better tiles at the end. To her credit, she made some great plays. I just couldn’t keep up with my vowel heavy racks. On a side note, I was a bit annoyed at her because she has this habit of chomping on her gum with her mouth open, making a noticeable sound – it’s quite distracting. She also likes to slam the clock emphatically when she’s done her turn. Oh well…everyone has his/her own quirks.
RECORD: 5 – 4
Game #10 vs. Fraser S (LOSS)
I made one…questionable move and I lost because of it. The board got very closed and I made a small move to open up the board. Fraser pounced with a bingo and I couldn’t catch-up even with some great tiles. After his bingo, WELDING, I had to try and open up the board. Fraser did a great job shutting down my bingo lanes.
RECORD: 5 – 5
Game #11 vs. Emilie H (LOSS)
The story of this game was that I couldn’t remember all of the anagrams for a bingo stem – RETINA+H. I quickly saw THERIAN and HAIRNET, but neither played. Had I remembered INEARTH a bit sooner, I could have won the game. Instead, I made two attempts at hooking TIC with an E or H. If I remembered INEARTH, I would have been only 10 points back and picked-up some great tiles including the last blank. Instead, Emilie picked those up and won. I blame only myself for this loss.
RECORD: 5 – 6
Game #12 vs. Christine W (WIN)
I managed to end the tournament with a win. I started off with LATICES and didn’t really let up. A few turns later, I played FELONIES and a few turns after that, I played IRONERS.
RECORD: 6 – 6
