Well, I finished in 27th place with a record of 17-14 (+234). Not great, but not too bad considering the lack of preparation leading up to the tournament.

Having played at my second national tournament, here are some "lessons learned":

• Stay calm: In several games, I would fall behind but managed to pull out a win because I stayed calm and played the tiles that I had. No need to panic if your opponent opens with a bingo or plays a high-scoring word.
• Study word hooks: On a few occasions, I wasn’t able to capitalize on opportunities because I didn’t know the front/back hooks to words well enough. For example, I knew DUI doesn’t take an S, but I couldn’t remember DUIT. That cost me an opportunity to lay down a bingo and take advantage of a TWS and block my opponent from scoring at the same time.
• Minimize low scoring plays: After looking at several of my games, I realized that the winner had the fewest low scoring plays. By "low scoring", I mean <10 points per play. These low value plays can come back and haunt you.
• Try and score 30+ per turn: As a follow-up to the previous point, I took Shaun Goatcher’s past advice about trying to maximize each turn and score an average of 30 points per turn. If you don’t, winning becomes that much harder.
• Check the bag for tiles: On two occasions, there were incidents involving tiles at the end of the game: one was a "missing tile" that fell on the ground and the other was a tile left in the bag. Check the bag to make sure it is empty! Also, look around to see if any tiles were inadvertently dropped on the floor.
• Have fun: Seems like a no-brainer, but I realized that it’s important to have fun. Scrabble is a game and should be enjoyed.

While the above hold true for playing in the tournament, the one major lesson I learned is that I need to study. Hanging around other players (especially Kevin Turner) made me realize just how poor my word knowledge is. Here’s to my goal of studying 30 minutes each day.

The next two national championships are in Dallas. Hope to see you there.

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Didn’t get a chance to write yesterday but I had a good day (6-1) ending the day in 13th place (Division 4). After the day’s games ended, I was able to get in a session of yoga at a local studio (Practice Yoga on Fifth).

After the first four games of today, I’m currently in 12th place. After winning my first two games of the morning and rising to 8th, I got some unlucky tiles (only one E in two games) and lost two games in a row. The last game of the morning session was bad as I forgot DUIT and had a word challenged off – everything well down hill from there.

We have six games remaining (three games this afternoon and three tomorrow) and I’m hoping to finish the tournament very strong.

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On Sunday night, a few of us made the trek to a local Cheesecake Factory – I must say that the cheesecake is excellent. I highly recommend both the classic and the "red velvet".

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Ugh…what a brutal day. Today was 2-5 and overall I’m at 7 – 7 +162 or so. This result puts me in the middle of the pack. With 17 games to go, I hope there’s still time to finish with a respectable record.

Not much to talk about today except that the tiles weren’t falling for me. I made some good plays, but they weren’t enough to make-up for some poor tiles. On one turn, I had AEEGOOU and was about to exchange. Saw a free P and made A(P)OGEE for a respectable 30 point play. In another game, I had DEEIUUV and was about to give-up, but managed to find (Q)UEUED to get another 32 points. the IV leave isn’t great, but it sure is better than exchanging tiles.

Will have a bit of a break tonight before making a move tomorrow

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Ugh. Tough morning session in which I lost my first three games. Tiles weren’t that great, but nothing too bad. I seemed to get bad combinations of tiles at the wrong times. Currently sitting at 6-5 (+213) and I’ve fallen to the middle of the pack. Hopefulyl things will turnaround after lunch.

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At the end of the first day, I’m 5-2 +293 and am keeping up with the leaders. Not having played for a year, I sure do feel rusty.

Started off slowly, but seemed to pick-up after lunch. The game immediately following lunch, I had a monster of a game – 5 bingos!

Some quick recaps of the games:

• Game 1 vs. BG: Think I should’ve won. Missed DEPLANED near the end.
• Game 2 vs EJ: Found STUN(T)MEN but let AGAZED stay on the board (yikes!)
• Game 3 vs. PM: Very close game and I realized far too late that mis-read TORTISE (phoney)
• Game 4 vs. LT: Kept it close, but I lost a turn by challenging WAKED and couldn’t make up the difference
• Game 5 vs. KC: Here are the bingos: G(R)OWLERS, UN(T)IMELY, iNQUIRE, COVERI(N)G, and UN(L)EASEd. I almost had a bingo bango bongo but got foiled when the opponent blocked my spot to play JItNEYS
• Game 6 vs. MB: A fun game that came down to the end.
• Game 7 vs. BM: A close game that I almost lost – my opponent tried REBRONZE which is not good

If you’re interested, you can follow the overall tournament results or follow my progress.

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Decided to attend this year’s National Scrabble Championship (Division 4 <1300).

Hope to see you in Dayton!

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Much to my surprise, I was able to attend the regular club night. Not having played Scrabble in ages, I wasn’t too optimistic of playing well. Nevertheless, I was just glad to be able to play. Some quick recaps of the three games:

Game 1 vs. Shauna
Not much to report on this one. I had IOU in multiple combinations throughout the game while Shauna was dropping bingos right from turn #1 and getting the power tiles. Stuff like this happens. Even still, I was able to keep the game within a bingo until the very end. Good game Shauna – I owe you one.
FINAL SCORE: 427 – 294 (LOSS)
BINGOS: Me – none; Shauna – VALIANt, WA(R)RANTS, qUIlTING (that’s QUILTING)

Game 2 vs. Lilla
This game was a bit more interesting. Never played Lilla before and the game started off a bit conservative. The board was tight, but we were both scoring and slowly opening things up. I was happy to play NUDZH/H(AFT) for 48 points as I recall studying the Zs a while back. I was a little disappointed that Lilla didn’t even flinch. The next turn I chuckled because she played NURL – I remember that one from Kevin’s studying. A few turns later, I had EEERSV? and had to play through a letter on a fairly tight board. Twelve minutes later, I played rESERVE(R) missing more obvious plays like OVERSEER (duh!). Still, I was able to draw a challenge. Question: if your opponent chews off 12 minutes and then plays RESERVER (sounds fishy), do you challenge? I asked Shelley and she said she would. The rest of the game was just grinding it out.
FINAL SCORE: 398 – 364 (WIN)
BINGOS: Me – ANISEED, rSERVE(R); Lilla – (I)MPARTED (double-double)

Game 3 vs. Shelley (aka "the princess")
I had a great game with Shelley. We joked about her recent email to the mailing list about her being a "princess" because of her car-pool requirements. In any case, it was a fun game that started off very slowly and ugly. I challenged NOTABLES and it pretty much cost me the game as it was on turn 12. I’m flattered that Shelley thinks I’m a good enough player to see bingos, but I know I’m not good.
FINAL SCORE: 349 – 318 (LOSS)
BINGOS: Me – DIrTIES(T); Shelley – NOTaBLE

All in all, I had some good games. I can tell that I’m very rusty from lack of practice or studying. Playing well is nice, but these ‘moral victories’ suck. Maybe as I slowly get back into Scrabble, the wins will follow.

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Ugh.  What a crappy finish.  After three days, I had a chance at a decent finish, but on the final day, I ran into some very tough tiles and finished 2-5 for the day.  My final result was 15-13 good for 43rd place.

I’m going to take a few days to review my games on Quakle and will post the entire set of games (probably in sets of seven).

Next year is the Player’s Championship at Dayton, Ohio and I’m thinking of attending. Guess I’ll need some time to get over all of the losses and prepare a study schedule.

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After yesterday’s very successful day, I was expecting some greater challenges as I would be facing higher rated opponents who are playing very well.

I finished the day with a 4-3 record to bring my overall total to 13-8 for 21st place (personal stats page).  We have the final seven games tomorrow and I have an outside shot at a top 10 finish.  In all honesty, I played some of my best Scrabble during the final two games that I lost:

• In one game, I was down by over 170 points but managed to claw back to about 30 with a play of REmIXED (115 points).  Then I got a bit unfortunate with the tiles and couldn’t get the win.  Nevertheless, I made some great plays to keep even a sliver of a chance.
• In my two games against Jason Keller, I played great (actually we both played verygood games in both games), but only managed to eke out one win.  Both games were very enjoyable with a high degree of skill (in my opinion).

I have a bit of a headache, so I think I’m going to relax a bit, maybe sit by the pool, and enjoy the time in Florida.

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After a challenging first day, I wasn’t sure what to expect for day two.  For some reason, today was felt very long, even during the morning session.  My challenge was trying to stay focused and awake.

Nevertheless, I had a good day and finished with a record of 6-1, bringing my overall record to 9-5 good for 18th place by the end of the day.  I found out there was a player in my division who was undefeated for most of the day, but is currently at 13-1 with a huge spread.

Tomorrow’s another day and I hope to continue my streak of good play.

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