Scrabble Adventures

Had an interesting night at the club.  Probably could have played a bit better, but that’s just how things go sometimes.

Game #1 vs. Jason Ubeika
I was a bit surprised by this result.  Jason allowed me to play a bingo to end the game and eke out the tie.  I have to give kudos to Jason, as he played (POLES)TAR – very nice.  In my final 8 turns, I only had 3 vowels which made scoring very difficult.  Nevertheless, I apparently missed an anagram that could have given me one more point (GELANT).  Unfortunately, I didn’t know that word.
FINAL SCORE:  378 – 378 (TIE)
BINGOS:  ME – SALTIER, TANGLeS; Jason – InTERAGE

Game #2 vs. Kevin Turner
Although I had several high scoring plays in the 30s and 40s, I really couldn’t keep up with Kevin.  When he had good tiles, he really scored with them and pretty much ended the game with back-to-back bingos.  He managed to get ASINE* by me.  Kevin had some great finds.
FINAL SCORE:  401 – 338 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – none; Kevin – aIGRETS, C(a)JOLERS, T(R)IAZInE

Game #3 vs. Gene Tyszka
This game stings.  I gave the game away at the end because I didn’t track tiles correctly and didn’t play the end game very well.  Gene had OS when I thought he had DS left and that pretty much screwed me.  Can’t blame anyone but myself.  I also let Gene play a phoney – CURAE*
FINAL SCORE:  375 – 373 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – SQUeAKE(D); Gene – DEWIEST

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Even though I had only one tie, I don’t believe my club rating will drop much as all my opponents were higher rated than me:  Jason (1779), Kevin (1576), and Gene (1453).  Well, I’d rather get my errors out of the way at the club than at a tournament.

I’m not sure why, but I decided to go to the club, even though I decided to take a break.

Game #1 vs. Don R
For some reason, I seem to have good luck whenever I play against Don.  This game wasn’t very different.  On my first turn, I played LUTHIER, which was challenged (to my surprise).  After that, I seemed to get great tiles for most of the game.  In this game, I was both balancing my tiles and trying to score.  Fortunately, I picked up some great tiles to play three natural bingos.  Don used up both blanks on his bingo, but scored 100 points on the play.  Looking back, Don probably should have exchanged on his first turn instead of playing TIT for 6 points.  He said he had something like DILTTV?.  Since he didn’t trade, he spent several turns playing off those awkward tiles.  Losing a challenge doesn’t help either.  Don also said that he had never heard of LUTHIER – Kevin, who was sitting next to Don, said that he would have challenged the play too.  Just goes to show that everyone has different word knowledge.
FINAL SCORE:  458 – 328 (WIN)
BINGOS:  ME – LUTHIER, INJECTS, REFINES; Don – eSQUiRE

Game #2 vs. Sophia
I always seem to have interesting games against Sophia – not necessarily enjoyable, but interesting.  Sophia tried to play SERLOIN* on me, which completely surprised me.  I almost laughed out loud when I saw her play that.  Challenge.  She kept saying that “in the new dictionary, there should be an alternative way of spelling SIRLOIN”.  She obviously didn’t see NEROLIS (SENIOR + L) and didn’t play it, even though I couldn’t block her.  Funny thing is that I ended up playing POUR two times in three turns.  I later struggled with some fugly* tiles – AAAATYY and AAAAOOT (that was after trading too).  Sophia’s bingos included ESQUIRE (strange to see that word again) and FLiNTER* (I didn’t think that word was good, but chickened out on challenging).

Later, I was able to close the gap with my two bingos.  I missed a pretty obvious bingo with my phoney.  See if you can find the correct word from my play:  ANTIMOD(E)*.  I was 40/60 on the play, thinking of my music/counterpoint days.  Oh well, we both got away with a phoney play each.  In the end, I just couldn’t score enough as Sophia had higher value tiles at the very end compared with my single point tiles.
FINAL SCORE:  397 – 386 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – SLICk(E)ST, ANTIMOD(E)*; Sophia – ESQUIRE, FLiNTER*

Game #3 vs. Shauna
For some reason, I don’t really like playing Shauna.  Part of it is probably due to her tending to get better tiles than me, but I think it has more to do with her style of play.  In this game, I just lost because I didn’t get very many bingo prone tiles/racks.  I just have to shake my head at some of the plays Shauna tried to pull off:  RINCERS* and SLO*.  I ended up trading three times in this game and that was pretty much the story.

On my final play, I ended up losing 20 points for going overtime because I was trying to find a home for a bingo.  I had EFINRU? which has some obvious bingos:  UNIFIER, FUNNIER, FUNKIER, and GUNFIRE.  I missed seeing INFUSER, REUNIFY, and UNFIRED.  Nevertheless, there was no home for my bingo as the board got closed up pretty good.  I noticed that Shauna makes scoring errors and had to correct her several times (she kept giving herself more points).  I’ll have to be wary of this in the future.  BTW – I was pretty sure UNIRAIL* was bad, but I figured that Shauna wouldn’t challenge because she lost a challenge earlier.
FINAL SCORE:  372 – 317 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – UNIRAIl* (that’s UNIRAIL if it’s hard to read); Shauna – STAINER

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Overall, I had a decent night of Scrabble.  During the week, I didn’t think about Scrabble.  Maybe that was a good thing.  Not playing certain people probably helped in allowing me to have an enjoyable evening.  Sure, I wish I could have won all three, but it happens.  I’m going to try and spend more time studying words prior to the Oshawa tournament.  Mr. ScrabblePhreak is learning new words like a mad man, and I have to start studying otherwise I’ll have no hope in playing in the upper divisions.

Man, when it rains, it sure pours. Since the Brantford Tournament, I seem to be on a brutal losing skid with horribly bad luck. I think it’s time for a short break.

On Wednesday, I decided to visit the Toronto Scrabble club to play and get out of my losing ways. That didn’t happen as my string of kludge tiles continued. In my first game, I lost by over 200 points! I also lost my last game to a very nice older gentleman – he really irked me by telling me to “keep trying” and that I’ll win soon.  I know he meant well, but it sure pissed me off, especially after a game when I traded four times because of crap tiles.

Last night at the club, I went 1 – 2, losing to a low ranked player and then to another person whom I hate losing to. In both of those games, I had no chance. While I struggled with the tiles, my opponents were playing bingos. It’s just one of those things that happen.

The reason I think I need to take a break isn’t because I’m losing (sure, it’s part of it). I need a break because I’m finding myself getting very angry. Probably angry at myself. Angry for losing to people who I think I shouldn’t be losing to. Angry at people not knowing the rules. Angry for not playing better.  Angry at people patronizing me. Angry for not having fun. Just plain angry. I don’t like it and I don’t like being angry. It’s gotten to the point where I half-joke that I want to punch certain people in the face. That surely can’t be a good sign.

So, I’m going to stop playing at the club for a few weeks. Instead, I’ll spend that time studying and preparing for the upcoming Oshawa tournament. I have to get back to having fun when I play.

Another night at the club.  There was some good and some bad play by me this evening.  I feel like I’m getting the rust off of my game in time for Saturday’s tournament at Brantford.  Hopefully I’ll be fortunate to have decent tiles in my games.

Game #1 vs. Priya (LOSS)
I was a bit surprised to be paired up with Priya.  In my only game against her in the past, I lost due to some stupid play.  I was hoping to play better this time.  We traded bingos early and then she sort of pulled away with some good plays like MOWED for 58.  I was able to keep the game within one bingo until the end.  I tried to open up the board a bit to create some bingo lanes, as I had the last blank.  Unfortunately for me, I got burned as I rushed my play a bit.  Priya jumped on my opening and played JOT(T)ER for 58.  I had EHRSTU? but nowhere to play it as Priya did a great job of blocking my bingo lane.  Just one of those games.  I think the game was much closer than the score indicates.

FINAL SCORE:  422 – 353
BINGOS:  ME – loonies; Priya – ENACT(O)Rs

Game #2 vs. Brenda (WIN)
I seem to be beating Brenda regularly as of late.  This game was a bit awkward to start as we both traded our first two turns.  I then screwed up a bingo by playinng LINCHES* which was immediately challenged, missing the fairly obvious LICHENS – doh.  At one point, I had AEGNOS?, but only had one bingo lane to play.  I would have left either an E or an S right below the TWS.  Not wanting to give up such a juicy spot, I decided to play elsewhere.  A few turns later, I was able to play (L)EISUrEs.  I was a bit worried because the game was even as Brenda was able to play words like EF for 35 and SEXY for 42.  I was struggling with my tiles, but then won a bit of a break as Brenda played (SQUAT)Y*/LINTY.  I wasn’t sure if she was goading me, but I challenged anyway.  At the computer, she tried to tell me that I spelled the word incorrectly, suggesting there was two Ts.  I told her to check the board again.  After that, I just played as best as I could and finished the game off with STAIDER for 67.  Brenda made the score close with her final play of HONG for 47.

FINAL SCORE:  359 – 345
BINGOS:  ME – (L)EISUrEs, STAIDER; Brenda – none

Game #3 vs. John D (LOSS)
There’s something about playing against John that sort of bothers me.  Maybe it’s that he seems to get some great tiles against me or that he isn’t very humble when he wins.  In this game, he definitely had the better share of the tiles (both blanks and most of the 3+ point tiles).  I struggled with four or five vowels (mostly As, Es, and Is) for most the game.  I’ll admit it – I hate losing to John.  I’ve noticed that once he takes a lead of 20 or more points, he just plays to shut the board down with two and three letter plays.  Whenever he loses, it’s always because of “poor tiles”.  Tonight, after his win, he kept harping about he made some great plays.  I guess he picked up that I was a bit pissed because he told me not to get upset.  Oh well, what can you do.

FINAL SCORE:  314 – 430
BINGOS:  ME – none; John – ORDI(N)AtE

I’ve been busy the past few weeks and haven’t studied or played Scrabble.  With a tournament this coming weekend (Brantford), I thought I’d get a few games in by visiting the Toronto Scrabble club.

Game #1 vs. Paul Wigley
Just prior to starting, Paul mentioned that this game was the “tie-breaker” game.  Apparently, we’ve played each other a total of 16 times (6 in tournaments and 10 at the Mississauga or Toronto club) and we have an exactly split record.  I started off with some early bingos.  Paul caught up two bingos toward the end of the game.  Then I made a bone-headed move at the end that cost me the game.  I thought I could go out in two, but didn’t expect to pick up M, V, Z on my last turn.

FINAL SCORE:  397 – 413 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – ENGINES, TOONIES; Paul – SAILOrS, cHAIRED

Game #2 vs. Peter H
I’ve never played Peter before.  I got a bit scared because he seemed to be getting great tiles early on and also shutting the board down.  After getting some decent tiles, I started to open up the board and score.  I broke the game open with (T)HAN for 44 and then TWIGS for 49.  We both thought our opponent had the two remaining blanks.  Lucky for me, I picked up both blanks on my last turn.  Unfortunately, I missed a pretty hi-prob bingo.  My rack was EFLOO?? and I had to play through either a U or an R which had to be in the middle of the word.  The hi-prob that I missed was OvE(R)FLOw.  Ouch.

FINAL SCORE:  349 – 289 (WIN)
BINGOS:  none

Game #3 vs. Shirley Drucker
I never get tired of playing words that get challenged, especially when the word is good.  On my first turn, I played (J)IVIER that drew a very quick challenge.  For a second, I doubted myself, but got over it as I remembered that the word is acceptable.  Not much to say about this game except that I got some practice in on how to play closed boards.  My only memorable play was ROQUES for 51.

FINAL SCORE:  337 – 264 (WIN)
BINGOS:  none

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I think the practice was good to get some of the “Scrabble rust” off.  It was good to get a few games in to get my brain back in Scrabble mode.  I’ll definitely need to play better come Saturday or else I’ll be in trouble.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get some more good games in tomorrow at the club.

I just checked Cross-tables and my rating is 1059.  I have no information regarding the Brantford tournament as the director apparently doesn’t use computers.  Oh well, I can’t control any of that, so I’m just hoping to play as well as I can.  Hopefully I can break 1100 before Oshawa.