Michigan Madness recap
Michigan Madness was a lot of fun and was my first two day tourney outside of Chicago. I slept horribly Friday night and made a lot of mistakes on Saturday. Luckily, I was able to get by on my strategy of outdrawing my opponents. I had 100+ point leads in over half my games and need to get better at managing the board with an early lead. I tried to close things up early, but I'm not sure if this was always the best strategy. Going into the final game I needed to beat
aibretty by 132 finish with an identical record and spread. Since I would have beaten him twice, I'm assuming I'd win the tie-breaker and the tourney. Alas, after going up around 150 with a late bingo he phonies for 38 to only lose by 120 and hold on to the win. The sad thing is I knew RISED* wasn't good but for some reason didn't say hold fast enough because I was confirming how much it scored. There wasn't much to do but laugh at how appropriate it was that he'd edge me out with a phony. However, for those scoring at home, I'm 4-0 +220 against him in tournaments. This is now the second tourney in a row where I lost out on first based on spread and dropped a place by around 24 spread points. At least I didn't choke away a win this time.
I'll try to post all my games in the next few days. I'd appreciate hearing any advice people may have regarding opening/closing the board, especially when there are still lots of unplayed tiles. Here are the first four games:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1566
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1567
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1568
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1569
Mine:
sIMILAR
ATREsIA
TANRECS
S(T)RONTIa (2x2)
AUsTERE
AN(D)ESITE
ANiMALS (2x2 for 103 points)
BONIEST
G(Y)RaTING
GARgETS
S(E)ASONAL
CARBINE(S)
LIVENED
CLARIOn (2x2)
AMOSITE
SPEIrED
TANGLED
TIERcEL
s(O)NNETED
EnDOSAR(C)
SANGUIN(E)
NEURON(A)L
INDENTS
SIGNOrA
EnT(A)SIAS (2x2)
SNAGGED
BlINTZE
Theirs:
SALIV(A)TE
(I)nFIRMED
NOCTURn
ESTUARY
ETERNiZ(E)
LINGERI(E)
DESTINE
POUTINE(S)
ENTeRAL
NEUTRON
MEINiES
ATONERS
ZiNAGRE
HAiRIES(T)
REcURLS*
AUREOLA
aibretty by 132 finish with an identical record and spread. Since I would have beaten him twice, I'm assuming I'd win the tie-breaker and the tourney. Alas, after going up around 150 with a late bingo he phonies for 38 to only lose by 120 and hold on to the win. The sad thing is I knew RISED* wasn't good but for some reason didn't say hold fast enough because I was confirming how much it scored. There wasn't much to do but laugh at how appropriate it was that he'd edge me out with a phony. However, for those scoring at home, I'm 4-0 +220 against him in tournaments. This is now the second tourney in a row where I lost out on first based on spread and dropped a place by around 24 spread points. At least I didn't choke away a win this time.
I'll try to post all my games in the next few days. I'd appreciate hearing any advice people may have regarding opening/closing the board, especially when there are still lots of unplayed tiles. Here are the first four games:
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1566
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1567
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1568
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=1569
Mine:
sIMILAR
ATREsIA
TANRECS
S(T)RONTIa (2x2)
AUsTERE
AN(D)ESITE
ANiMALS (2x2 for 103 points)
BONIEST
G(Y)RaTING
GARgETS
S(E)ASONAL
CARBINE(S)
LIVENED
CLARIOn (2x2)
AMOSITE
SPEIrED
TANGLED
TIERcEL
s(O)NNETED
EnDOSAR(C)
SANGUIN(E)
NEURON(A)L
INDENTS
SIGNOrA
EnT(A)SIAS (2x2)
SNAGGED
BlINTZE
Theirs:
SALIV(A)TE
(I)nFIRMED
NOCTURn
ESTUARY
ETERNiZ(E)
LINGERI(E)
DESTINE
POUTINE(S)
ENTeRAL
NEUTRON
MEINiES
ATONERS
ZiNAGRE
HAiRIES(T)
REcURLS*
AUREOLA