November 4th, 2007
The Badqoph People Directory has been tweaked again, and I thought I'd finally comment on my Baltimore games before they get too out of date. Though just wait, I could put my even older stuff up here, too, but it's not nearly as interesting and even more out of date. Anyway, my favorite part about reading other people's blogs is seeing what everyone else has to say in response to interesting Scrabble positions posted. Can't very well do that here now, but as a former programmer, I don't want to get a blog. Rather "roll my own." Don't know why, but I like reinventing the wheel, making it better. Anyway, Baltimore:
My first game against Galebach was uneventful. It started out closed, I made a dangerous gambit with EBON when there were probably some better plays to be had. I made a nice four-tile underlap with RHINO that Brian complimented me on. EBON paid off on the ILSTVY? rack. I saw SYLVITE almost immediately, but questioned it. Sounded like the SYLVIAN learning center or something. I played TIVY instead for 40-something, and bingoed the next turn, cashing in on my own stupidity, setting up the hook for a letter I don't have. Don't try that at home. The rest of the game was just me trying to score and close the board down while Brian bingoed twice and made a good effort to come back, which I congratulated him on. I was happy to find TIRADE, a 5-tile overlap, in response to APERIES to seal the deal. I had an interesting dilemma where I could have played ZERK for like 50, using the blank, or just ZORI for 33. I made the right choice (barring any other options I missed). Maybe for 60 it was a go, especially since the K can be awkward with the wrong tiles, and I drew a GVT on the next rack to... well... NOT complement it very well at all.
Me: SLiMMER. You: APERIES, TALCOSE.
Game two was a big letdown. I challenged two words I should have known, pretty much blowing the game. I opened with two bingos, one of them phony -- who knew WHEATIER* isn't good? -- I guess I would if I had started to study 6s yet -- though a ton of others played. FLORIST brought SPAROID, which I challenged. I watched as Stan set up a TARE->STARE hook I couldn't use. He bingoed the next turn. I hate when I know my opponent's gonna bingo and I can do nothing to stop it. He beats me to the bag the rest of the game, and blocks my out bingo. So despite my ANNEX for 81 (missing ANNEXE for 6 more), I can't win. He gets the second blank for REBATERS which I also challenge. Almost as embarrassing as playing LISTIER (which SHOULD be good) instead of SILTIER, which I do later on. I hate English. :)
Me: WHEATIER*, FLORIST, ANNEX (81). You: SPAROID, ENLACES, REBATERS.
Game three, I sat and watched as Elana drew the bag on me. It's hard to argue that when you get the Z, X, and J, I know, but not when you're staring down three bingos in a row (including a nice double-blanker through my J, INJECTOR). It was close in the middle when I extended her OPAQUE to OPAQUELY (though I missed NIXY leaving AELY which was MUCH better) and got down ZANY and SEXTO (held onto the X too long, missing WAXY, though at one point I had BEOOTXY on my rack, praying for her to put an S out for TOYBOXES). I want to say I had no chance in this one because of those bingos, but I misplayed a few early racks, so you never know.
Me: None. You: STEARIN, PREVIOUS, INJECTOR.
Day 2 started a little better, as I clawed my way back into things. I really earned my game versus Spanfelner, as I found two well-scoring plays on a tight board. I made a calculated exchange to pull out the J for 40 points, and then found WEPT for 26 which was very pretty given the circumstances. I should have blown this one out of the water, but was too concerned with defense, really, as was she. I tried to score instead of concentrating on bingos, and that might have actually hurt me here. TELIA for 23 was questionable with a rack with bingo potential. It all worked out, but I wonder if fishing, setting up a hook somewhere, might have been better.
Me: ANIMATED. You: RESEALED.
I was especially proud of my game versus Stephen Gawtry. I don't know if COOED was right. I think I might have missed a bingo somewhere in there. But I challenged off MONKITE* when it mattered (sounded so silly), kept scoring well, and even when he drew both blanks and bingoed with them, I kept the board manageable enough to eke out an out bingo which he should have blocked. I'd never studied ETHANOL or its anagram, ANETHOL, but I'm so glad I saw it. I even kept a notice of what's in the bag, fishing off IS, a really unconventional fish, in hopes of playing in that spot with the leave I kept.
Me: DINNERS, TZARS (72), ETHANOL. You: SINTERED, UNIVERSE.
The game versus T.J. Jeng was a bit of a disaster, though. The road of best intentions that led to ruin. He seemed to beat me to every punch and I couldn't quite catch up. PEND as an opener was totally wrong, but I wasn't fond of JET. I shoulda just taken those points, though, and bingoed faster. It didn't bode well for me that I had to change QVVMU, but I didn't think playing QUIT for 41, leaving MVV and an easy QI play was the right thing to do. I'd love to hear what experts say about that one. I was happy to see TINCTURE, though I missed a couple IIRR bingos, I'm sure, the turn before. Annoying, that. The exchange is what set me back, I think, because for the rest of the game, I was stuck trying to build a bingo, balance leave, and work through VV or BB racks. Once I finally found something like RATANIES staring in my face, he beat me with TORNADOS, taking the spot, and I couldn't quite bingo fast enough to catch him. An ugly game.
Me: TINCTURE, RUINATES. You: REUNITE, TORNADOS.
The game against Edward Stewart was a blowout. I played the phony DEEPISH* when SHIPPED woulda done. (Why is DEEPISH* bad when ROUNDISH is good?) Then hUSKIES and R(O)TARIES, and he never had a chance. I didn't quite annotate the game correctly, either, so some of the plays at the end are fogged up, resulting in an incomplete game. Not too interesting though.
Me: DEEPISH*, hUSKIES, R(O)TARIES. You: None.
I think I was a bit intimidated by Whitmarsh once I got to him, because of all I read about how well he had been doing. That was part of the problem. I really shouldn't have been intimidated though in hindsight. The field wasn't as tough as I had thought, and I was playing okay, though not great. After this halfway point, the rest of the tourney was fairly smooth sailing. As mentioned before, I blew this one by playing LISTIER instead of SILTIER, all because of board position and a few more points. So, he beat me to the other blank, and bingoed again, when I couldn't string together any natural bingos of my own. I did, however, miss ENGRAFT (hooking a second G onto HOG), which would have made it a different game. Any bingo you miss like that is one you're sure to never miss again. I was happy about my plays of ESCROW and OBVERT, both best plays, hard to see. Most other plays I made were solid, but you can't underestimate the value of missing a turn by playing a phony bingo. Lesson learned.
Me: SILTIER. You: WEARIES, FURNACES.
The game against Verna Berg was probably the weirdest I had played to that point in a tournament. I had played her once before in Atlantic City and eked out a hard-earned victory, finding an out play of an obscure 4, LUNT. This time, she was playing incredibly fast, like she had somewhere else to be and couldn't WAIT. She played RUANA twice, averaging 10 pts each, left S hooks in bad places, and was playing off good tiles for under 20 points. It didn't help her that I drew both blanks and played PUSHING for 101, and drew all the power tiles and all the Ses. I think I missed a bingo at the end. I was going for it, but still am not as strong on the high prob 8s as I'd like to be.
Me: PUSHING. You: None.
The Joe Petree game was a blowout. I felt sorry for the guy, but he was gracious about it. He wondered why he played a game with so much luck involved. My four bingos weren't TOO lucky. You had to know them, I guess. I played TANTRAL* instead of TARLATAN. Didn't see TARLATAN until later. TANTRAL gave him JINS for 57, but he reasoned that he should have challenged to have a chance. He also challenged POOD, though, and I was happy to see my learning the 4s paid off. I let the phony TYEING* go by, but at that point in the game it didn't matter. I should have challenged just to save spread, but I still wasn't sure if I'd be in the running at that point. It didn't hurt me, but it could have. The Q stick was probably enough salt in the wound.
Me: ATELIER, TANTRAL*, ANERGIES, COTERIES. You: JINS (57).
As mentioned before, the Carole Denton game was crazy. I lucked into good plays through previous bad ones. I should have played VICAR instead of BRAVI. I should have played BRICK instead of changing tiles. Don't know WHAT I was thinking there. I should have played TWANGLE parallel to VIOLA instead of to the R, but maybe then I wouldn't have drawn a challenge and pulled TERA(T)OID outta the bag for 140. I should've played SE(A)FRONT instead of FRONTES, DEFINITELY (but it was a hard underlap to see). That move cost me about 100 points of equity there, because of her 194-point double-blank comeback. Lucky for me I was up by 264 before that point. The endgame was interesting. I played the X for less points than I could have to balance my rack, and was close to another bingo on a couple of occasions. I held onto the Z at the end, incredibly aware that the bag was dangerous and she might pull out a win if I wasn't careful. I think I chose the right sequence of plays except for the last one, where ZEAL was so much better than RAZE. Fun game. Here's the board.
Me: TWANGLER, TERATOID, FRONTES. You: DEFROCKS.
The game versus Carole was the first of the final day, taking place at table 23 where strange things happen. It was about then that it dawned on me that I was in this thing if I win all 4. It crossed my mind the night before, but never sank in. I just came for the fun and the ratings points, and after the 1-3 start, I didn't think I'd have a chance. It's not good enough to find ONE bingo. Not even the best scoring one is always the best, and it's always a fun surprise when there's an even better play you didn't expect. I missed two words in this penultimate game, locking me out of the money.
That would come later, though. First, versus Richard Popper, I seemed to have all the momentum, but a bit of board vision did help. I played FLEW, planning to hook an S onto it, but found I wouldn't need to so soon, as MODELING came out fast (which also takes an S, incidentally). DAWK was a calculated dump that paid off two turns later. I was very happy to find CAJ(ON), and though I missed the only bingo in ALLENR? that played, I was VERY happy to find the only bingo in ELMNRY? THROUGH an N, hooking onto two words, to make MANNERLY. Made my morning almost as much as TERA(T)OID. I didn't understand why Richard played SLEDGE. Exhausting 6 tiles for 29 points, all good tiles, down that much, can't be good unless you REALLY want that blank. And if you're down over 100, it might be prudent to get it, but not at the expense of balance. So after MANNERLY, with a blank out, and that play, the deed was almost done. I held onto the X for a bit too long again, making piddling, jabbing plays, until I winded up with the blank AND THREE Ses. Unfair, that. I even misplaced SISTERS, which was quite silly, but at that point it didn't matter.
Me: MODELING, MANNERLY, SISTERS. You: PERTAIN.
So yeah, back to the word knowledge thing, and the penultimate game that knocked me out of it. EYEWATER is a pretty word, but not as pretty as YAWMETER. Had I seen that, or TROCKING, I might have had a chance. But as it was, I underestimated my opponent, which was a mistake. I paid for it. I also missed SANGAREE, but that's neither here nor there. There's nothing much else to say but I put EYEWATER in the wrong place and paid for it. I was trying to manage the board more, as it was getting ugly, but I should have been more concerned with maintaining a lead after the bingo. Other than the bingos I missed, I can't fault too many other plays. There was an interesting scenario at the end of the game where Kay forgot to pull the C out of the bag, which gave me a few extra points, but it was painful staring at a couple possible bingos with nowhere to go, or pulling the J at the end when you need balance, or having your best play be something that sets up an S hook for even more points. But that's the game, and I tell myself that the game was lost before then. Suboptimal plays lead to suboptimal situations such as that. It's interesting to note that HAD I seen TROCKING, it would have set her up for OPPILATE for 158. Not that she'd definitely see it, but still. POPSICLE and POPELIKE also might have played for much less.
Me: EYEWATER. You: ANEARING, PEOPLING.
The final game was easier than I expected. Not to detract from my final opponent, David Englehardt. I think I just drew a bit better. Granted, the plays I was making were pretty nice (especially happy with ENZYME through his Z), but good tiles help). This was a walk, with three bingos to his 1. My rack balances paid off, and when I wasn't bingoing, I was averaging 20 points, as I should. A solid game.
Me: OSTLERS, VALETING, SPIRALS. You: uNSTA(B)LE.
So I eked out a 4th place finish, just out of the money, good enough for a new, better SamBoard, which I really needed. Not bad for starting out 1-3, but it only makes you wonder "what if." But for each "what if," your opponents have "what ifs" as well, so that's where I've gotta settle for now.
I also played a friendly one-day tournament at Eliza Gallagher's house a couple weeks after Baltimore. I'll post about that and the Raleigh tournament I won and tanked 50 ratings points at soon. Gearing up for Asheville and a 1/3 Tourney at Katya Lezin's house, and contemplating Albany. I don't have a mechanism for commenting right now, but if you want to e-mail me, please contact me through the form. Thanks for reading.
October 20th, 2007
Baltimore games are up. Comments to come soon:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 7 was incomplete because somehow I forgot which play went where. Round 11 features 2 3x3s, one each. The one versus me was with both blanks for 194. I still won. Pretty fun game. I've found that other people's games are boring and mean nothing if they have no context or commentary. So that's what I'll try to provide for anyone who's actually reading this stuff.
October 3rd, 2007
Due to security worries on the part of my hosting site, I can't have the People list update automatically as I originally planned. Some new ratings are up as of today, but I'll be figuring out a new way to manage that part of the script soon. More important though is Baltimore. I finished 4th, and was quite happy with that, considering how things started. Unlike Dayton where I got unlucky and beat a lot of people who finished ahead of me, here I lost to the two people I played who finished ahead of me, and it was because of avoidable mistakes. More soon.
September 25th, 2007
Added personal stats no one cares about, changed the color scheme a bit, and am preparing to incorporate more contributions of blog URLs into the database and add auto-update functionality. I have a whole bunch of games I've Quackled that I'm sure will be of interest if only because they illustrate that the number of games in which you are outdrawn and CAN'T win are less than one thinks, even for the intermediate player.
