Scrabble Adventures

Another tough night at the club.  Honestly though, I think two of my losses were caused by my poor play.  Nevertheless, last night was a great learning opportunity, highlighting areas for improvement.  Sure losing sucks, but it’s not so bad if I can learn something from the loss and improve because of it (see end of post for notes).

Game #1 vs. Mark E
I don’t know why Mark was so hesitant to play me.  Sure, I may have won the past two games at the club against him, but I chalk that up to luck as I had great tiles.  This game, the tiles were a little more in Mark’s favour and the results was predictable.  I was able to keep up for most of the game even though I wasn’t getting many vowels for the first half of the game.  When I had some decent tiles, I made a bingo.  Then I pick up vowel after vowel (here’s an example AAEEENU and EEEOOT?) which forced me to work hard to balance my rack or decide to take the trade.  I opted to balance for most of the plays as I was able to pull out about 20 points per play, but I couldn’t escape the trade.  While this was happening, Mark played his second bingo which pretty much ended the game since he jumped ahead to a 120 point lead.  With such a deficit, I tried my best to open up bingo lanes, but Mark pounced with plays like VROW (30), AX (29), and CHANT (32) which allowed him to score while closing off bingo lanes.  I made one last attempt at a comeback, but (V)ICTOMEd* was challenged off.  Apparently I missed VICOMTEs.  Just further proof that still have a ways to improve.
FINAL SCORE:  478 – 335 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – STONIe(S)T; Mark – RESIDES, (B)ENDIEST

Game #2 vs. Jean B (view full game)
I definitely could have won this game.  Even though I had some tough letters, I was able to pull out to a big lead.  Knowing that I wasn’t getting very good tiles, I took a calculated risk of trying to close off a very juicy bingo lane.  The only problem was that by doing that, I opened up an opportunity for someone (most likely Jean) to score about 60 points with a J*C* play (JOCK, JACK, JUCO).  Even though the risk was there, I took it the chance because I had a 70 point lead and the play gave me another 20.  Yup – she had the J play.  On the penultimate play, I had a 63 point lead with the following tiles:  AAEEGNQ with the following left unseen:  EEIILRTU?.  On the previous turn, Jean played I(N) to open up a bingo lane.  I got so focused on trying to ditch the Q that I completely forgot to think about blocking her possible bingo – or at the very least, making it very difficult for her to find one.  So, I make the Q dump and that was the end of the game as she makes her bingo to win.

I reviewed the game on Quackle and technically, I could not have won as Jean could have bingo-ed even if I had blocked the spot that she had created.  She had several bingos she could have played.  But, I’m not sure that she would have found any of the following plays:  (P)ERLITEs, (P)EaRLITE, or TIERcEL.  The worst part is that I started to panic a bit.  I seemed to have "lost my mind".  After the game, I looked at the clock; I had almost 10 minutes left while Jean had less than two.  I obviously wasn’t thinking because I could have thought things out. Bad, bad bad.  I definitely left far too many points on the board with crappy word selection.
FINAL SCORE:  359 – 345 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – none; Jean – COASTED, REpTILE

Game #3 vs. Geoffrey N (view full game)
Not much to say except that my mindless play continued through to my final game.  Going over the game on Quackle makes me realize how much more I need to improve.  The end game was very interesting in this one, but with the way this game went, there was no chance at a win.  Geoffrey made the winning play of ZARI(BA) to seal the deal.  I was 90% sure the play was good, but in order for me to have a chance at winning, I challenged it.
FINAL SCORE:  400 – 343 (LOSS)
BINGOS:  ME – MINdLE(S)S; Geoffrey – ST(U)RDIER, ELEGIST

**********

A few days ago, I had a conversation with Craig Rowland that I plan to write up later.  One part of the conversation was whether players change how they play based on the skill level/rating of the opponent.  Craig suggested to play the same way regardless.  In my game against Geoffrey, I noticed that he made several one or two tile plays that scored very few points – he was fishing (for a bingo).  I wonder if he did that because I’m a lower rated player compared to him, or if he does that consistently, even against higher rated players.

So, the lesson from the three losses is that I need to think through until the end (e.g., Game #2 vs. Jean).  Losing points because of sub-optimal plays sure sucks, but it is understandable given that I don’t have perfect word knowledge like Quackle.  My one positive from the night is that even though I had to work with tough letters for most of the night, I was able to give myself chances to win.  Mark mentioned that he wasn’t going to give me any chances to win; he said he remembered a past game we played when he had a huge lead but lost because he allowed me to make a very high scoring bingo (EQUINES for 128 points) that eventually led to his loss.  I also liked how even though I didn’t play any bingos against Jean, I was able to make some very high scoring plays to keep me in the game.  In the past, I’m not sure that I could have done so.

Here’s hoping that the learning continues and that this will all pay off down the road at tournaments and at the club.

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