Monday, July 22, 2013

Dispatch from nationals, Day 2

I topped yesterday's craziness, right off the bat.

In Game 1, I went first and drew DOLEFUL for 80. My opponent challenged, and I drew GILMPSR. Wasn't sure about GLIMPSER, but what the hey. Opponent challenged, and it was good! Now I'm up 156-0. So I draw AINRR?? on a wide-open board. I play DRAINeRs down to the triple-word score for 74. Now it's 230-0. My opponent answered with UNSIGNED through the I in GLIMPSER, but nothing was going to go against me this game. Later I played TRACTION for 72, followed by DETACH for 41. My opponent later played RELEARNT, and the final score was 522-381.
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In game 2, again I could do no wrong. I exchanged junk on my first turn, and played AH for 6 on my second turn. Then the fireworks began. I played VEALING for 68, followed by PRONATED for 76, followed by ANCHORET for 66. Three turns later, I played OVERBITE for 66. My opponent played EXcITES for 99, hooking the C to MAGI to make magic. She kept it close, and I won, 460-418.

Game 3, I lost when my opponent bingoed out with ENGRAILS, but I had three bingoes (not in a row): YEARLING for 74, EXTRUDES for 81 and NERVIEST for 76.

Game 4, I again had three bingoes in a 417-341 win: SMELTED for 70, DEFLATES for 74 and SECONAL for 69.

After lunch, it was back to reality. I beat my friend and nemesis Bruce Shuman, 395-369, but the magic ran out in game 6: I played INHALER for 61 on my fourth turn, but I drew drek for the rest of the game and had no answer for my opponent's high plays. She won, 414-316.

In game 7, I had an intense and close contest with a Thai-born player from Florida. I managed to play BRINGER for 69 and SONSIER for 71, but my opponent stayed close with high-scoring plays and had a late bingo, AIGRETS for 71, with both blanks, and I couldn't catch her, losing 411-397. We spent 15 minutes looking at our last four sets of turns, but we couldn't find any way for me to scratch out a win. I really thought I played my best. It'll be interesting what a computer analysis finds.

This has been my most memorable tournament by far. How could I top the last two days? Maybe I'll win all 7 tomorrow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow Will I looked at the standings online! You played well!

Will Scott said...

Thanks! I'll take some credit, but I had a lot of good luck, too.