adios to ISC October 20, 2007
Posted by Hans in Uncategorized.2 comments
I had some time today and decided to play a few games on ISC since I haven’t played online in a while. Now I remember why I stopped playing on ISC. While playing games is fun, I can’t stand people accusing me of cheating. I don’t care if my opponent cheats – it makes it more of a challenge to win and forces me to play better (better board vision, strategy, and words). I just can’t stand when people accuse me of cheating.
In one game, I was playing a hi-rated player (1800+) to test myself out. I’m currently rated around 1600 on ISC (handle: hansmixer). After winning the game, the person asked what I studied for my PhD – thought I was a liberal arts major. Then the person acused me of cheating because on my profile I indicate that I’m a 1100 NSA rating/1350+ club rating.
I played two bingos that game – the words seemed pretty obvious to me. Here are the two racks I had when I played the bingos:
- AILNRT? – multiple places to play and so I played RATLINe. Come-on, I can see at least 5 anagrams to this one (TReNAIL, LATRINe, ReLIANT, ReTINAL, and RATLINe) – I’m sure there are more. This one comes immediately to me as it’s a derivative of the TISANE, RETINA, or SATIRE stems.
- EIOPSTX – my first thought was EXPOSIT, but then the person played a bingo to block my original spot (RUINERS I believe). But, then I remembered Paul Wigley telling me there was another anagram to that rack: POXIEST. Much to my surprise, it fit and I scored 132 (TWS with the X on the DLS square)
I don’t know about you, but the two above racks don’t seem too exotic.
Hey man, I’ve been going over my power tile 2–8 letter word – so far J, Q, and Z with X next. I feel very confident playing those tiles. In fact, I *want* those tiles now because I have confidence to score with them. After finishing the power tile 2–8s, I plan to go over the 7 letter stems. Looking over the past few weeks of games, I’ve noticed that I could bingo more often if I knew the 8s. I’ll hold off on the 5s for a while, unlike Kevin who’s killing the 5s and who knows what else he’s been studying.
Looks like I won’t be playing on ISC again for a while. I find playing against Quackle to be a better test – granted that program seems to get some amazing tiles. When playing Quackle, I can only win one game out of 10. Most of the time, I get totally crushed, but it’s practice so I don’t really care.
Riding the wave… October 18, 2007
Posted by Hans in Club Results.add a comment
I had a very good night at the club winning all three of my games against Don B, Kevin, and Brenda. Honestly, I had great tiles all night and really made use of them. I’ll ride this wave of good luck – hopefully I’ll draw this well at the Brantford tournament. My highlight for the evening was playing six bingos.
Game #1 vs. Don B (WIN)
For some reason, I’ve had trouble playing against Don and have lost most (if not all) of my games against him. I was getting great tiles and after an early bingo, I just kept the board wide open and made some decent scoring plays. On Don’s last play, he tried RAILMEN(T). I thought it wasn’t good, but I had an out bingo available to me, so I let it go.
BINGOS: Me – HASTInG, tOXINES, UNI(V)ERSE; Don – RAILMEN(T)*
FINAL SCORE: 458 – 360
Game #2 vs. Kevin T (WIN)
This game was pretty close. Kevin pulled ahead with an early bingo, but I was able to nullify that with OX (52). I think I had slightly better tiles, even though Kevin had both blanks and a few Ses. He definitley picked up junk at the end – I tracked him with something like ELNNTT? after he played a V. Ugh – tough to go out with that.
BINGOS: Me – INTERNS; Kevin – IROnIES
FINAL SCORE: 392 – 319
Game #3 vs. Brenda S (WIN)
From playing Brenda in the past, I knew that Brenda likes to hoard the S and the blank until the very end and also play several small words to try and play a bingo. Knowing this, I decided to just play a very open style and score as best as I can. The board was wide open and I played several 5–6 letter words. Again, I noticed that Brenda played short words and seemed quite worried about me bingoing. I unknowingly played a phoney – ORDINE* – apparently only ORDINES is good. I knew that ORDINES was good and thought it was a plural form – apparently it’s not.
BINGOS: dI(A)STOLE, RETAILs; Brenda – none
FINAL SCORE: 416 – 219
**********
I had great tiles all evening, so winning all three games wasn’t too much of a surprise – although it sure does feel nice. In my game against Kevin, it could have been much closer, but he gave me a nice juicy bingo lane to play INTERNS. If he didn’t make his play, I’m not sure that I could have played a bingo. Oh well, I’m not going to complain about good luck.
I think I’m slowly reaching a threshold on improvement. Sure I can win games at the club, but if I want to start playing and competing against higher rated players, I really need to study. There are so many words that I don’t know. The weird thing is that all of the studying I did last year and early this year only seems to be kicking in now. I’ll probably need to spend more time studying for me to even have a chance at moving up to the 1300 or 1500 rating for tournaments. My club rating is going to be in the high 1300s now, but I suspect that club ratings are about 200 points higher than tournament ratings.
Boy, did I get lucky… October 14, 2007
Posted by Hans in Tournament Results.2 comments
Yesterday was the 22nd Cambridge Scrabble® Tournament and boy did I get lucky. All I can say is that for most of the day, I was getting out-drawn (tile wise) and yet still somehow managed to give myself chances to win. I was in Division 3/C, the 5th seed. Here are the quick recaps:
Game #1 vs. Kaveri Raviraj (LOSS)
A very close game that I probably could have won if I had played a different anagram of one of my bingos. Kaveri likes to shut the board down saying it’s “much more challenging and stimulating” to play a closed board. Maybe that’s why I tried my hardest to keep the board open. I got frustrated because she played a series of 2 letter words for 106 points before she dropped a bingo. Anyway, I came back and made the game close. I played HOTLINE for 80 points, but had I played NEOLITH, I would have scored scored 96 – DOH! In all fairness, NEOLITH didn’t come to mind.
BINGOS: Me: HOTLINE, AIMLESS; Kaveri: STARtER, iNSTEAD
FINAL SCORE: 430 – 436 (LOSS)
RECORD: 0 – 1 (-6)
Game #2 vs. Joan Taylor (LOSS)
Another game where I got very unlucky with the tiles. I only had one bingo rack: PAROLEE but of course, there was no place to play it. Joan burned both blanks about halfway into the game with a bingo. I managed to keep her close until my last few turns. With a rack of EILNOUV, I managed to play LOUV(R)E to play off most of the tiles and score a decent 20 points and get a small lead (270–264). Then, I pick up some FUGLY tiles to have a rack of FIIJNQU – even though there’s EGSST left in the bag. I managed to block Joan’s only out play and get rid of the Q and J and take a small lead, but I couldn’t stop her from going out. Her last play tied up the score and she won because I had the U left. We recounted and confirmed the score.
BINGOS: Me: none; Joan: CA(U)tIOnS
FINAL SCORE: 319 – 321 (LOSS)
RECORD: 0 – 2 (-8)
Game #3 vs. Paul Wigley (WIN)
After two tough losses, I wasn’t in the greatest of moods. Playing against Paul has always been fun (even when I lose), so I felt a bit better. In tournaments, we’ve always had blow-outs and this one sure fit the pattern – fortunately for me, I was on the lucky side this time. I pretty much drew the bag and I made good use of the good tiles. Paul dried to stay close, but just couldn’t.
BINGOS: Me: OXIDIsE, CRuSHER; Paul: DESALTS
FINAL SCORE: 490 – 281 (WIN)
RECORD: 1 – 2 (+201)
***** LUNCH BREAK *****
Game #4 vs. Adele Peltier (WIN)
Having a break after a tough morning felt good. This game was close, even though Adele seemed to draw great tiles. I felt like I had a chance when she burned a blank to play EQUId for only 33 points. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but based on her plays early on, I felt like I could out play her as long as I got some decent tiles. At the end, I made a conscious effort to think through the end game and I made a great play to seal the win – I played (C)HEERY for 36 points and created two spots to play my GM. That play gave me a 10 point lead and she had AELLOT with no real openings to score, as she spent the latter part of the game shutting the board down. Another game when I got out-drawn. So far I’ve only had 2 blanks in 4 games.
BINGOS: Me: ADINOSE* – I confused this with ADIPOSE; Joan: MaTTERS
FINAL SCORE: 362 – 349 (WIN)
RECORD: 2 – 2 (+214)
Game #5 vs. Muriel De Silva (WIN)
This game was delayed in starting as Muriel and her opponent had to recount several times. I was told by the directors that Muriel has a reputation for being “mathematically challenged”, so I decided to check the scores after every turn – I also let her call out her score after each turn as well. Some people might be interested to know that Muriel played both blanks this game, although I think it was luck as I placed both blank tiles in the bag at the beginning. Anyway, I just played as best as I could and tried to leave small openings for her to play toward the TWS squares – she did and used up some good tiles. Nothing fancy about this game.
BINGOS: Me: none; Muriel: none
FINAL SCORE: 321 – 303 (WIN)
RECORD: 3 – 2 (+232)
Game #6 vs. Diane Brown (WIN)
I played Diane at the Buffalo tournament before and wasn’t sure how I’d play against her today given my poor tile drawing. I took an early lead with my play of JANE for 54 points, but couldn’t capitalize as I lost a turn to trade FOOUUY. She played COILIEr* (sounded plausible to me) and took a 40 point lead. A few turns later, I had a brain cramp and played ZEX* which was quickly challenged off (the correct word was either ZAX or ZEK). I then had to trade again as I had NNRSUUZ. By then, she had a sizable lead of over 80 points. I caught up with my play of HOrNETS (76). She then made some surprising plays – like playing an S for only 13 points. I played DENOTER* (66) which she didn’t even hold – again, this one sounded plausible and I thought it was about 60% good (ERODENT is the only word with those tiles). She played YOD for 35 to take advantage of the TWS and then I played BOOTY for 37. Here is when it gets very interesting.
She took almost 4 minutes to make her next play RU(L)Y and I was sure she had the Q because of the way she was looking around the board. RULY opened up a spot to play QAT/QUIT or some 4 letter Q word and double the DWS square. Big mistake. I had AEEINTU and played EAU for 21 and made sure not to open anything up. I then pick up QE to empty the bag. Knowing that I had only one spot to play the Q, Diane played WALE for 23 points and to give herself a nice hook play to the TWS (she had AENSSWU as her final tiles, leaving her with NSSU). Fortunately for me, I had almost 14 minutes left, so I thought through the end game.
I figured she could only score a maximum of 24 points if she went out, and maybe 28 points (combined) if she prolonged the end of the game. I had to eat the Q (20 points). The score was 361 – 326 and it was my turn. I calculated that she could get 46 points (22 for the IQ on my rack and 24 for her SUNS final play) to give her 372. I played TEEN to score 16 points. I now had 377. She managed to extend the game a bit, but then I played my I for another 7 points. I passed my final two turns and challenged all of her plays (I had nothing to lose), removing one of them (MIRIS*). I was so worried that I missed something to lose the game. Talk about stressful!
BINGOS: Me: HOrNETS, DENOTER*; Diane: COILIEr*
FINAL SCORE: 384 – 375 (WIN)
RECORD: 4 – 2 (+241)
Game #7 vs. Janet Carrington (WIN)
I was both looking forward to and dreading playing Janet. She’s beaten me the past few times we’ve played and her style of play just frustrates me. The short story of this game was that I drew well and really stuck it to her. I kept the board wide open and I really managed to make use of the scoring lanes. When I felt like Janet was trying to make a bingo lane, I shut it down just to frustrate her. I noticed that even when she was way behind, she still kept playing small 2–3 letter word plays and didn’t open things up, and even managed to close her last bingo lane – very, very strange. I probably could have scored more had I not missed an anagram – I only realized it on the drive home. I played ORDIN(A)TE for 60 when I could have played (A)ROINTED for 80 points. The important thing is that I won.
BINGOS: Me: grENAD(E)S – a double double!, SPOILED, ORDIN(A)TE; Janet: none
FINAL SCORE: 449 – 324 (WIN)
RECORD: 5 – 2 (+366)
**********
Looking back, I was very fortunate in this tournament. In the two games when I had decent tiles, I really stuck it to my opponents and rang up a very large spread/margin. I’m probably more satisfied with my other wins when I didn’t get such great tiles and still managed to win. Granted, if I was playing in a higher division, I probably would have gotten smoked yesterday. Nevertheless, a win is a win.
After a the morning session of 1-2, I didn’t think I had any chance at a prize as there were 4 players with 3–0 records. Fortunately for me, I managed to come in 2nd place because of my two high-scoring games. Talk about a surprise. I think my new rating is 1059 based on the online calculator. I still have a chance at breaking 1100 by the end of the year.
Some highlights of other players’ performances that I remember:
- Shaun Goatcher – 1st place in Division 1/A. I’m happy for him because it’s been a while since he’s won. Of the two years I’ve been playing in tournaments, he’s had some really bad luck and seen his rating drop considerably.
- Allan Brown – 1st place in Division 4/D with a 7–0 record. Nice job.
- Paul Wigley – Congrats on his secondary prize for his play of SQUIREE(N). What a find! The best part was that he drew a challenge out of it.
- Jillian Bathgate – 1st place in Division 3/C with a 6–1 record. Good for her and I think she’s back in the 1000s. She was very humble and graceful about winning even though it’s been a long time for her.
- Mark Hamilton – finished in 4th place in Division 3/C. We had identical records 5–2, but he had a much lower spread (~65) that put him in 4th.
Next up is the Brantford tournament in November and the Oshawa tournament in December. I’ve heard some interesting comments about the Brantford tournament, so I don’t know what to expect.
