tourneys this year: six ( Read more... )

Well, this is pretty embarrassing, but I want my archive for 2011 to be complete, and maybe posting this will help inspire me to study ( Read more... )

So, I've decided to study in 2011. It's honestly been a couple of years since I've studied anything, but at this point I think I'm going to lose interest in the game if I don't start studying. Sucking and playing phoney 3s gets old. I have my cardbox ready to go, and I'm starting over at the very beginning: 3s and all of their hooks and top 1000 7s ( Read more... )

Hurt myself early in this game when I failed to challenge MEWLINGS* and then missed two bingo options of my own (ROULETTE/OUTSTEER) on the very next turn. Anyhow, I think the one interesting play in this game is move 22. I still like my play of PAN over Quackle's choice of PEN to give me a better shot of winning, but perhaps I'm missing something ( Read more... )

I've finally started tracking all of my racks in tourney games, so this will be the first one I've ever posted. This is probably the highest rated player I've ever beaten in tournament play, so I was interested to see if I played well or just got lucky. It appears that I started out horribly (bad challenge), played a bunch of second best plays in ( Read more... )

So, I was playing a game against ( Read more... )

So, I've finally decided to add some much needed structure to my word study. Up until now, I've studied intermittently, using several different techniques (printouts, flashcards, SuperMemo, Aerolith, reading dictionary, etc.), and the lists I've studied were usually based on whims or inspired by missed words/challenges in a tournament.

Now, after a ( Read more... )

I'm pretty sure I've never seen this word before, but Quackle just played it against me on two consecutive turns! First, it bingoed* out with GHER(A)OED. Then, it opened our very next game with GHERAO. What's up with that? Anyhow, the word is really stuck in my head now, even though I'm not really sure how to pronounce it. Hopefully this entry will ( Read more... )

I might be able to make my way down to Charlotte in February, but I'm not sure what division I would play in. Should I play in Division 1, where currently I would be the bottom seed by 10 rating points, to have the opportunity to play a number of much better players? I would probably learn more and possibly start to get a feel for some players I ( Read more... )

So, I lost one of my Danbury games because I didn't challenge NESTINGS*. I would guesstimate that I've probably lost at least 5 rated games as a direct result of not knowing if an -ING word takes an S. So, this week I've decided to try and learn those words. The list isn't really as bad as I expected. There are 4,017 6- to 8-letter -ING words, and ( Read more... )