Apex 8/27/11 One-Day
Starting Rating: 1531
Ending Rating: 1527
Record: 4-4/+30
Average Score: 405
Bingos/game: 2.0
In this one-day tournament, I scored well, bingoed well, but drew only 28 of 80 power tiles (35%) and only 5 of 16 blanks. The first 3 of the 8 games were outright baggings (defined as getting 0-2 power tiles). Instead of just complaining about tiles, I Quackled these three games to see what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I could learn from them. I did simming to about 1000 2-ply iterations because life is too short.
1. Suhas Rao: I won this one 410-370, in spite of (a) him drawing ?SSSJQXZ and (b) me making only 5 Quackle-approved plays out of 13. I did score decently and consistently with my 4 point tiles. And every time he’d bingo and spring ahead, I would bingo right back - he played ELUANTS, the next turn I played CANNINg; he played SAUNTER, the next turn I played RETAILER. (CANNINg was a nice 4-tile overlap.) He front hooked AHI with T and lost a turn. My mistakes mostly boiled down to missing 4-5 letter words I already know but failed to find on my rack, or in one case, missed a hook for on the board. I think I sometimes put too much emphasis on looking for bingos. Quackle finds 62 more points that I could have gained. Over 13 turns, this doesn’t seem that bad.
2. Erickson Smith: I lost 461-342 in a game where he drew ??SSSJQZ. His bingos were ViSUALS and PALmIEST and I challenged off CLAWIEST*. Other than the phony, I was impressed with the quality of his play. He majorly scored with the Z and Q as well as with the K. My only bingo was ORIGINS, although I tried RESHEAF* (challenged), for which there is no valid anagram. I missed scoring a ton of points, in large part because I didn’t realize CHAFE took a back R. I only made 2 Quackle-approved plays out of 14 (plus a few more that were top 2 or 3) and could have gained 105 more points. Turn after turn passed where I missed beautiful high point plays forming CHAFER on the triple lane. Can a loss be attributed to lack of knowledge of one word? He missed it, too. Okay, so now I know CHAFER.
3. Rahn McKeown: I lost 492-271, in the worst bagging yet: he drew ??SSSJQXZ. Would it ever end? (No, but it wasn’t quite as bad thereafter.) His bingos were ARBALEST, HADROnS and WENNIEr. Very nice. My only bingo was DILATIVE but I missed a 90 pointer, WITNEYS, a word I didn’t know, and SHEETER, a word I do know, because I played SEETHER* instead for 10 more points (greedy), it was challenged, and then I failed to play SHEETER on ARBALEST like I should have. This is because while we were at the challenge computer for SEETHERS*/ARBALESTS, he said something that led me to infer that ARBALEST was not good. (He said he didn’t mean to imply that, but I took it that way.) I knew there were multiple spellings of ARBALEST; the other two are ARBALIST and ARBELEST. But I got confused and didn’t S-hook my valid bingo. To all who read this: don’t think I don’t know the different forms of ARBALEST because now I do! And all coffeehousing will henceforth be ignored.
4. Robb Griffith: I won 530-325. Admittedly, my tiles were better and the plays fell easily; my bingos were VaPORED, OUTEATS, DESCANT and SEAMLEsS; he had none, not typical for Robb.
5. Ryan Fischer: He won 437-392. My bingo were AfREETS, TERRINE and I played PARIETE* instead of PEATIER like I should have. His bingos were STINKING and AUTuMNAL (nice!). When I have a chance I am going to Quackle this one because I don’t think I played the endgame optimally. Or else I’m going to be lazy and wait for Ryan to Quackle it. This one was potentially winnable, I think.
6. Matt Bernardina: He won 492-390. I chickened out on SOLVATED and but nevertheless played UNSOLVED with most of these tiles from a U on H8 down to the triple on H15 for 51. My only bingo was INCISOR (94). He had APOgEES, OVERTIME, oXIDANT and QINDARKA (show-off).
7. Katya Lezin: I won 442-335. She plays so fast it is always your turn, and trying to write down racks, track and find good plays is tough. She was ahead by 185-113 when I caught up with AERATED (78). Then I started scoring with HOOEY (32), PHONEY (39), JAIL (29), and finally, VEIlINGS (86), while she was fishing, and she finally hit SEQuINS but it wasn’t enough. Apologies to Katya for my phony KURTAN*, which I thought was a Buddhist word, and apparently there is a form of Buddhist chanting called kirtan but it’s not good in Scrabble either.
8. Robb Griffith: I won 466-301. Right at the start, I challenged LARGESS, his only bingo, which I thought was only good with an E at the end, but I was wrong. However, he lost 2 challenges himself allowing me to gain ground. My bingos were BEIGNET, STAINER and POLENTA.
Ending Rating: 1527
Record: 4-4/+30
Average Score: 405
Bingos/game: 2.0
In this one-day tournament, I scored well, bingoed well, but drew only 28 of 80 power tiles (35%) and only 5 of 16 blanks. The first 3 of the 8 games were outright baggings (defined as getting 0-2 power tiles). Instead of just complaining about tiles, I Quackled these three games to see what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I could learn from them. I did simming to about 1000 2-ply iterations because life is too short.
1. Suhas Rao: I won this one 410-370, in spite of (a) him drawing ?SSSJQXZ and (b) me making only 5 Quackle-approved plays out of 13. I did score decently and consistently with my 4 point tiles. And every time he’d bingo and spring ahead, I would bingo right back - he played ELUANTS, the next turn I played CANNINg; he played SAUNTER, the next turn I played RETAILER. (CANNINg was a nice 4-tile overlap.) He front hooked AHI with T and lost a turn. My mistakes mostly boiled down to missing 4-5 letter words I already know but failed to find on my rack, or in one case, missed a hook for on the board. I think I sometimes put too much emphasis on looking for bingos. Quackle finds 62 more points that I could have gained. Over 13 turns, this doesn’t seem that bad.
2. Erickson Smith: I lost 461-342 in a game where he drew ??SSSJQZ. His bingos were ViSUALS and PALmIEST and I challenged off CLAWIEST*. Other than the phony, I was impressed with the quality of his play. He majorly scored with the Z and Q as well as with the K. My only bingo was ORIGINS, although I tried RESHEAF* (challenged), for which there is no valid anagram. I missed scoring a ton of points, in large part because I didn’t realize CHAFE took a back R. I only made 2 Quackle-approved plays out of 14 (plus a few more that were top 2 or 3) and could have gained 105 more points. Turn after turn passed where I missed beautiful high point plays forming CHAFER on the triple lane. Can a loss be attributed to lack of knowledge of one word? He missed it, too. Okay, so now I know CHAFER.
3. Rahn McKeown: I lost 492-271, in the worst bagging yet: he drew ??SSSJQXZ. Would it ever end? (No, but it wasn’t quite as bad thereafter.) His bingos were ARBALEST, HADROnS and WENNIEr. Very nice. My only bingo was DILATIVE but I missed a 90 pointer, WITNEYS, a word I didn’t know, and SHEETER, a word I do know, because I played SEETHER* instead for 10 more points (greedy), it was challenged, and then I failed to play SHEETER on ARBALEST like I should have. This is because while we were at the challenge computer for SEETHERS*/ARBALESTS, he said something that led me to infer that ARBALEST was not good. (He said he didn’t mean to imply that, but I took it that way.) I knew there were multiple spellings of ARBALEST; the other two are ARBALIST and ARBELEST. But I got confused and didn’t S-hook my valid bingo. To all who read this: don’t think I don’t know the different forms of ARBALEST because now I do! And all coffeehousing will henceforth be ignored.
4. Robb Griffith: I won 530-325. Admittedly, my tiles were better and the plays fell easily; my bingos were VaPORED, OUTEATS, DESCANT and SEAMLEsS; he had none, not typical for Robb.
5. Ryan Fischer: He won 437-392. My bingo were AfREETS, TERRINE and I played PARIETE* instead of PEATIER like I should have. His bingos were STINKING and AUTuMNAL (nice!). When I have a chance I am going to Quackle this one because I don’t think I played the endgame optimally. Or else I’m going to be lazy and wait for Ryan to Quackle it. This one was potentially winnable, I think.
6. Matt Bernardina: He won 492-390. I chickened out on SOLVATED and but nevertheless played UNSOLVED with most of these tiles from a U on H8 down to the triple on H15 for 51. My only bingo was INCISOR (94). He had APOgEES, OVERTIME, oXIDANT and QINDARKA (show-off).
7. Katya Lezin: I won 442-335. She plays so fast it is always your turn, and trying to write down racks, track and find good plays is tough. She was ahead by 185-113 when I caught up with AERATED (78). Then I started scoring with HOOEY (32), PHONEY (39), JAIL (29), and finally, VEIlINGS (86), while she was fishing, and she finally hit SEQuINS but it wasn’t enough. Apologies to Katya for my phony KURTAN*, which I thought was a Buddhist word, and apparently there is a form of Buddhist chanting called kirtan but it’s not good in Scrabble either.
8. Robb Griffith: I won 466-301. Right at the start, I challenged LARGESS, his only bingo, which I thought was only good with an E at the end, but I was wrong. However, he lost 2 challenges himself allowing me to gain ground. My bingos were BEIGNET, STAINER and POLENTA.