not bad today at all
oh look, a tourney report!
so i am A7 today in Berkeley, and my first game with magratheazaluckbox Jesse Day gets off to an uninspired start. but then i play TAJ 1B and i get excited as i pick new tiles and see in about 0.2 seconds that i will have S(T)ENTORS for a 3x3. it was Sartre who once said that “in football, everything is complicated by the presence of an opponent,” and scrabble is much the same way. it took Jesse about 0.21 seconds to see i just gave him a place to play S(T)ITHIED 3x3 for 167. wow, that sorta sucked. OK, well, i still have STONERS and then i finesse 84 pts. out of the X in two turns, so i’m definitely back in the game, but then he makes a weakass 6-pt. fishoff of an L and i know he’s got 1 or possibly both blanks. the board is totally closed and i’m down 65, with a terrible rack to boot (AABEIIZ), so i figure my best hope is to play (O)BIA and hope i can counter whatever bingo comes next with a big Z play. he then plays CTENiDi(A) to that A and my Z doesnt go anywhere. OK, well, that didnt work. Jesse 474:355 xp (0-1) ... and my next game is sort of a la-la-la affair with esdscrabble where we’re just sort of traipsing along and i’m pulling silly, easy bingos like HOSTAgE and GAOLERS and TRINDLE out of the bag, Ed’s keeping it close and then i pause and realize that there are only 4 tiles in the bag! where did this game go? and Conrad’s law of games with Ed is definitely in play here - whenever you play Ed, the tilepool at the end is terrible. after my PRAWN empties the bag and gives me a 53-pt. lead, i draw BGJL to AEX. yuck. but Ed has ADEQRSV. even more yuck. his only hope is to try an out-in-2 with DRAVES* hooking an S to FRAIL, but i blow that up and it takes me like an out-in-4 to get rid of this mess. turns out neither of us knew FRAIL took the S. (its a type of fruit basket. go figure.) that damn S hook was sitting there open for about 6 turns and neither of us used it. pfft. xp 423:348 Ed (1-1) ... and Sartre’s quote definitely applies to my 3rd game, where i cook up 5 40+ plays over the course of a 12-turn game, and play really well, and get POSITIVELY SMACKED, because Jerry bingos with MALATES and bangos with QUEn(C)HED and bongos with (D)IAGNOsE, then adds a TRAINEE later on while my EXPIATE goes homeless, and, in his words, “never has a shortage of good tiles.” this one was just one of those games where losing by 123 was probably an accomplishment. Jerry 468:345 xp (1-2) ... i dont think i played my 4th game all of that well, but it was a weird scenario. Lester plays TOXINES in the bottom of the 2nd, but he was a little overaggressive in the 4th and gives me a space for R(E)DATInG. the board gets completely clusterfucked very quickly, to the point where the only bingo line on the board has to start with SH. well, i happen to have an HS on my rack. and it stays there for the next 7 turns. there isnt much point to playing those off, since the board is a mess, and i’m really close to hitting that spot but just cant draw the right combo. neither of us can do anything at all in this muck, my small lead evaporates as he coaxes 74 pts. worth of Z plays, finally i abandon the bingo hope and play off SH somewhere for 36. and he promptly plays SHrIVEN. gaaa-a-a-a-a-a. Lester 426:378 xp (1-3) ... and i get to finish up the day with 2 games v. John Karris, who i have now played 50 times. yes, i’ve now spent the equivalent of 2 days of my life exclusively playing scrabble v. Karris. our games are basically the Comedy Hour at the Viceroy, as we have this running dialogue throughout, and we snipe at each other and banter the whole time and goof off. we had the new players who were sitting next to us laughing hysterically by the end of it. the 1st game was shaping up like another typical loss to John, as he plays DESPITE in the top of the 2nd, then promptly complains about how bad his tiles are before realizing he has FOU(N)TAIn, at which point i said, “you are just completely ridiculous.” but i get a lamezoid (I)NTERAgE bingo [wow, this bingo list is boring today] to get back in it, and then i get annoyed with him when he makes some piddlyass play that blocks my 107-pt. (W)EDLOCKS bingo. but his tiles then go to shit (oddly enough, it happened about the time i played SHIT for 37), and the game opens wide up for me with a 47-pt. HELOS, a 50-pt. JOW, then TOADIED and a 52-pt. ZOOTIER. xp 468:360 Karris (2-3) ... and in the repechage, Karris plays RESLATE early to get the lead, i come back with NOISIER and a Z for 47, then i pick both blanks and think i’m really smart playing VUM since i have the last O, and then he plays BOT/OVUM and i realize that maybe now isnt the best time to be mistracking. but he has junk and i bingo out with INSUlAt(E) hooking the S on DUAD. xp 429:315 JK
3-3 +7
4th place, Div. 1
this tourney felt like a success. there are good 3-3 days, bad 3-3 days, and boring 3-3 days. this was a good 3-3 day. i played well. i was trying to focus on making better plays throughout, not taking turns off. the goal i wrote on my scoresheet today in the 1st game was “MAKE 75 GOOD PLAYS,” figuring that as an approx. number of plays in a 6-game tournament. i think i actually came close to doing that. i certainly didn’t make any godawful plays. there wasn’t a whole lot i could do vs. Jesse or Jerry, but i felt like i competed well.
i wasnt drawing a lot of good bingo stuff today, as i had a shittonne of HMPW type stuff, which meant playing for max points every turn and playing the tactical game. the games tended to be tight and closed. thats OK. you have to be able to play on all kinds of boards.
so this was nice, and i got $20 for 4th, and the rating goes up to 1717, and the post-tourney pizza-and-beer-as-god-intended at Bobby Gee’s was as good as ever.
Oh yeah, and Bennett has said now that he is definitely not directing any multidays in 2010, which means that the California Open will be run by Ed and me. we have to figure all of the details out, but Ed and i will make it happen. so count on a San Francisco multiday in October. your attendance will be required. seriously, dont make me hurt you.
so i am A7 today in Berkeley, and my first game with magratheazaluckbox Jesse Day gets off to an uninspired start. but then i play TAJ 1B and i get excited as i pick new tiles and see in about 0.2 seconds that i will have S(T)ENTORS for a 3x3. it was Sartre who once said that “in football, everything is complicated by the presence of an opponent,” and scrabble is much the same way. it took Jesse about 0.21 seconds to see i just gave him a place to play S(T)ITHIED 3x3 for 167. wow, that sorta sucked. OK, well, i still have STONERS and then i finesse 84 pts. out of the X in two turns, so i’m definitely back in the game, but then he makes a weakass 6-pt. fishoff of an L and i know he’s got 1 or possibly both blanks. the board is totally closed and i’m down 65, with a terrible rack to boot (AABEIIZ), so i figure my best hope is to play (O)BIA and hope i can counter whatever bingo comes next with a big Z play. he then plays CTENiDi(A) to that A and my Z doesnt go anywhere. OK, well, that didnt work. Jesse 474:355 xp (0-1) ... and my next game is sort of a la-la-la affair with esdscrabble where we’re just sort of traipsing along and i’m pulling silly, easy bingos like HOSTAgE and GAOLERS and TRINDLE out of the bag, Ed’s keeping it close and then i pause and realize that there are only 4 tiles in the bag! where did this game go? and Conrad’s law of games with Ed is definitely in play here - whenever you play Ed, the tilepool at the end is terrible. after my PRAWN empties the bag and gives me a 53-pt. lead, i draw BGJL to AEX. yuck. but Ed has ADEQRSV. even more yuck. his only hope is to try an out-in-2 with DRAVES* hooking an S to FRAIL, but i blow that up and it takes me like an out-in-4 to get rid of this mess. turns out neither of us knew FRAIL took the S. (its a type of fruit basket. go figure.) that damn S hook was sitting there open for about 6 turns and neither of us used it. pfft. xp 423:348 Ed (1-1) ... and Sartre’s quote definitely applies to my 3rd game, where i cook up 5 40+ plays over the course of a 12-turn game, and play really well, and get POSITIVELY SMACKED, because Jerry bingos with MALATES and bangos with QUEn(C)HED and bongos with (D)IAGNOsE, then adds a TRAINEE later on while my EXPIATE goes homeless, and, in his words, “never has a shortage of good tiles.” this one was just one of those games where losing by 123 was probably an accomplishment. Jerry 468:345 xp (1-2) ... i dont think i played my 4th game all of that well, but it was a weird scenario. Lester plays TOXINES in the bottom of the 2nd, but he was a little overaggressive in the 4th and gives me a space for R(E)DATInG. the board gets completely clusterfucked very quickly, to the point where the only bingo line on the board has to start with SH. well, i happen to have an HS on my rack. and it stays there for the next 7 turns. there isnt much point to playing those off, since the board is a mess, and i’m really close to hitting that spot but just cant draw the right combo. neither of us can do anything at all in this muck, my small lead evaporates as he coaxes 74 pts. worth of Z plays, finally i abandon the bingo hope and play off SH somewhere for 36. and he promptly plays SHrIVEN. gaaa-a-a-a-a-a. Lester 426:378 xp (1-3) ... and i get to finish up the day with 2 games v. John Karris, who i have now played 50 times. yes, i’ve now spent the equivalent of 2 days of my life exclusively playing scrabble v. Karris. our games are basically the Comedy Hour at the Viceroy, as we have this running dialogue throughout, and we snipe at each other and banter the whole time and goof off. we had the new players who were sitting next to us laughing hysterically by the end of it. the 1st game was shaping up like another typical loss to John, as he plays DESPITE in the top of the 2nd, then promptly complains about how bad his tiles are before realizing he has FOU(N)TAIn, at which point i said, “you are just completely ridiculous.” but i get a lamezoid (I)NTERAgE bingo [wow, this bingo list is boring today] to get back in it, and then i get annoyed with him when he makes some piddlyass play that blocks my 107-pt. (W)EDLOCKS bingo. but his tiles then go to shit (oddly enough, it happened about the time i played SHIT for 37), and the game opens wide up for me with a 47-pt. HELOS, a 50-pt. JOW, then TOADIED and a 52-pt. ZOOTIER. xp 468:360 Karris (2-3) ... and in the repechage, Karris plays RESLATE early to get the lead, i come back with NOISIER and a Z for 47, then i pick both blanks and think i’m really smart playing VUM since i have the last O, and then he plays BOT/OVUM and i realize that maybe now isnt the best time to be mistracking. but he has junk and i bingo out with INSUlAt(E) hooking the S on DUAD. xp 429:315 JK
3-3 +7
4th place, Div. 1
this tourney felt like a success. there are good 3-3 days, bad 3-3 days, and boring 3-3 days. this was a good 3-3 day. i played well. i was trying to focus on making better plays throughout, not taking turns off. the goal i wrote on my scoresheet today in the 1st game was “MAKE 75 GOOD PLAYS,” figuring that as an approx. number of plays in a 6-game tournament. i think i actually came close to doing that. i certainly didn’t make any godawful plays. there wasn’t a whole lot i could do vs. Jesse or Jerry, but i felt like i competed well.
i wasnt drawing a lot of good bingo stuff today, as i had a shittonne of HMPW type stuff, which meant playing for max points every turn and playing the tactical game. the games tended to be tight and closed. thats OK. you have to be able to play on all kinds of boards.
so this was nice, and i got $20 for 4th, and the rating goes up to 1717, and the post-tourney pizza-and-beer-as-god-intended at Bobby Gee’s was as good as ever.
Oh yeah, and Bennett has said now that he is definitely not directing any multidays in 2010, which means that the California Open will be run by Ed and me. we have to figure all of the details out, but Ed and i will make it happen. so count on a San Francisco multiday in October. your attendance will be required. seriously, dont make me hurt you.