2009 Dallas Open Day 3
Day 1
Day 2
So, I finished day 2 at 9-5. A rough guess would be a 4-1 Sunday might win a prize.
r15 v Brian Whitt
This game kinda went my way. Even the crappy racks worked out.
531-240
10-5, +1045
r16 v Rod MacNeil
In this position, I saw DEMONISH 11d for 94, but upon further inspection came up with
PHOCINES k4 for 108. Unfortunately, I transposed my letters and laid down PHOCIENS.
I didn't even realize til we went to the challenge computer and he entered the word thus.
The kicker is that while PHOCIN and CHOPIN are both valid, only CHOPIN takes the E-hook.
(er, not exactly, see the note by Auriculae)
Oh, and "DEMONISH" isn't valid either (HEDONISM/MONISHED).
He plays AIRFOIL, I hook it, and pick OUTRATE out of the bag with the open D at g-14.
He plays MOTIF killing both the row-13 and row-15 lines. I consider TUTORAGE but
dismiss it as British. It's perfectly valid. A complete fuckup.
447-471
10-6, +1021
r17 v Chris Lipe
In this position, I was weighing HIE, d-10, and HUE, d-3. After several minutes,
I see HEURESIS in a flash of inspiration. In my mind I had conflated HEURISTIC
and all the ENURESIS words, and decided HEURESIS is that from which a HEURISTIC is
derived. Oops. He lets it go.
What is my best move in this position? I didn't play it. In fact, I didn't play
anything, losing a turn for challenging WALER.
What is my best play here?
445-356
11-6, +1110
r18 v Andrew Friedrich
Andrew is a strong young player from my part of the country whom I'd never met before.
I gotta get out more. From an opening rack of ADDIORS, I choose OD, and through the D
he plays INEDIBLY. That word seems kinda goofy and kind of opportunistic, but at the
same time, when I wrote out the letters BDEIILNY on the back of my scoresheet, it looked
like something I had studied before. I thought for a long time, and challenged.
Unsuccessfully. His next rack is EEFGNX? and he promptly lays down the double-double
FEDEXING and I'm down 188-6. After two turns, I'm down to 3% winning chances. I try
not to beat myself up during the game for my screwups, but when your winning chances
are only 3%, where's the harm I say? Just the same, I decided to make a fight of it.
Later I get within a country mile of him, and after picking the second blank, I try
to get something down on a rapidly dying board. Unfortunately, my other letters
are GLRTUW. I dump the GLU off as best I can, but pick up EKU in the lieu.
I saw the 52-point play, but that wasn't going to get it done. An argument could be
made for preserving spread in the face of insurmountable odds, but at this point in
the tournament, I'm pretty sure I have to win my last two games to get at top-ten
finish and win a small prize. So, I went for the long ball, playing a ten-letter phony,
OUTERWORKS, which is actually just barely not a word. OUTWORKERS is valid.
422-521
11-7, +1011
r19 v Chris Williams
Having played myself out of contention, there's little stress in this game. I go all out
anyhow, but for the first time in the tournament outright miss a bingo.
I still stay out front, but he gets a blank bingo down. I play an 83-point ACEEILNR, and
he plays ULU for 6 points, which screams I have the blank. What do you play here:
I can play PAM or MAP, but keeping GIIT with three I's and 2 T's unseen looks like a recipe
for losing. Quackle likes jumping into the bag with TAMPING keeping an I, but that looks
a lot less appealing if we pretend the blank is already on the opponent's rack. One thing
about the 30-point plays is that being 100 ahead gives me a cushion against a big play
followed by a bingo. As it was, I played PIU to get rid of an I and screw up row-2. He plays
TEAK at 2h for 42, and all of a sudden, I'm defenseless against an A-ending bingo. He didn't
have one, so I win. Hmm. I think this position requires more study.
425-365
12-7, +1071
Final Standings
So, flipping the bit on just one game would've gotten me a prize, but certainly I can't be
unhappy with how the tournament turned out. One missed bingo, and one massive-fuckup sequence
in nineteen games is if not acceptable, somewhat palatable. One loss of turn due to playing
a British 5-letter word. Having not played a SOWPODS tournament since 2003, I'd hope that
those errors would finally die. My biggest leak was challenging words I didn't want to
be good. I keep saying that I want to do the best I can given my vocabulary lacunae. Well,
I think I've done that. It's time to remove that qualifier.
Day 2
So, I finished day 2 at 9-5. A rough guess would be a 4-1 Sunday might win a prize.
r15 v Brian Whitt
This game kinda went my way. Even the crappy racks worked out.
531-240
10-5, +1045
r16 v Rod MacNeil
In this position, I saw DEMONISH 11d for 94, but upon further inspection came up with
PHOCINES k4 for 108. Unfortunately, I transposed my letters and laid down PHOCIENS.
I didn't even realize til we went to the challenge computer and he entered the word thus.
The kicker is that while PHOCIN and CHOPIN are both valid, only CHOPIN takes the E-hook.
(er, not exactly, see the note by Auriculae)
Oh, and "DEMONISH" isn't valid either (HEDONISM/MONISHED).
He plays AIRFOIL, I hook it, and pick OUTRATE out of the bag with the open D at g-14.
He plays MOTIF killing both the row-13 and row-15 lines. I consider TUTORAGE but
dismiss it as British. It's perfectly valid. A complete fuckup.
447-471
10-6, +1021
r17 v Chris Lipe
In this position, I was weighing HIE, d-10, and HUE, d-3. After several minutes,
I see HEURESIS in a flash of inspiration. In my mind I had conflated HEURISTIC
and all the ENURESIS words, and decided HEURESIS is that from which a HEURISTIC is
derived. Oops. He lets it go.
What is my best move in this position? I didn't play it. In fact, I didn't play
anything, losing a turn for challenging WALER.
What is my best play here?
445-356
11-6, +1110
r18 v Andrew Friedrich
Andrew is a strong young player from my part of the country whom I'd never met before.
I gotta get out more. From an opening rack of ADDIORS, I choose OD, and through the D
he plays INEDIBLY. That word seems kinda goofy and kind of opportunistic, but at the
same time, when I wrote out the letters BDEIILNY on the back of my scoresheet, it looked
like something I had studied before. I thought for a long time, and challenged.
Unsuccessfully. His next rack is EEFGNX? and he promptly lays down the double-double
FEDEXING and I'm down 188-6. After two turns, I'm down to 3% winning chances. I try
not to beat myself up during the game for my screwups, but when your winning chances
are only 3%, where's the harm I say? Just the same, I decided to make a fight of it.
Later I get within a country mile of him, and after picking the second blank, I try
to get something down on a rapidly dying board. Unfortunately, my other letters
are GLRTUW. I dump the GLU off as best I can, but pick up EKU in the lieu.
I saw the 52-point play, but that wasn't going to get it done. An argument could be
made for preserving spread in the face of insurmountable odds, but at this point in
the tournament, I'm pretty sure I have to win my last two games to get at top-ten
finish and win a small prize. So, I went for the long ball, playing a ten-letter phony,
OUTERWORKS, which is actually just barely not a word. OUTWORKERS is valid.
422-521
11-7, +1011
r19 v Chris Williams
Having played myself out of contention, there's little stress in this game. I go all out
anyhow, but for the first time in the tournament outright miss a bingo.
I still stay out front, but he gets a blank bingo down. I play an 83-point ACEEILNR, and
he plays ULU for 6 points, which screams I have the blank. What do you play here:
I can play PAM or MAP, but keeping GIIT with three I's and 2 T's unseen looks like a recipe
for losing. Quackle likes jumping into the bag with TAMPING keeping an I, but that looks
a lot less appealing if we pretend the blank is already on the opponent's rack. One thing
about the 30-point plays is that being 100 ahead gives me a cushion against a big play
followed by a bingo. As it was, I played PIU to get rid of an I and screw up row-2. He plays
TEAK at 2h for 42, and all of a sudden, I'm defenseless against an A-ending bingo. He didn't
have one, so I win. Hmm. I think this position requires more study.
425-365
12-7, +1071
Final Standings
So, flipping the bit on just one game would've gotten me a prize, but certainly I can't be
unhappy with how the tournament turned out. One missed bingo, and one massive-fuckup sequence
in nineteen games is if not acceptable, somewhat palatable. One loss of turn due to playing
a British 5-letter word. Having not played a SOWPODS tournament since 2003, I'd hope that
those errors would finally die. My biggest leak was challenging words I didn't want to
be good. I keep saying that I want to do the best I can given my vocabulary lacunae. Well,
I think I've done that. It's time to remove that qualifier.