Maybe no one reads here anymore... but I still find writing this stuff out a good learning exercise. And this particular club night was a pretty good one =)
1st game... Richard C... notoriously erratic player. At the beginning of the game, I told him he tended to fish and exchange a little too often. This game, he exchanged 4 times out of 17 turns. And still I ended up with every S and every blank! Final score 508-323 for me. Bingoed first turn with IMAGOES... which is the only 7 in there. The only 8, says Lexpert, is OoGAMIES. Later, held AEELT?? with the only worthwhile bingo hook being an 8 ending on the board's H. Only one bingo would go there, and I didn't see it (TELEPATH). I played the rather unimaginative STEALER instead for 68.
2nd game... Eugenio N... Almost had OSTIARY in my opening rack, but I think my rack was AEIORYS or AEIOTYS.. contrary to my usual tendencies, I played YO for 10, going for a stem bingo. Next turn, HASTIER for 71. However, after 5 turns, I was behind 156-171 thanks to his OVERAGES. He was playing incredibly quickly, and my clock time was 5-6 minutes more depleted than his. My next 4 turns were pretty solid... 45, 86 (TINKLERS), 32, and 32. TINKLERS was played from a T on a tws; he replied immediately with his own triple word score bingo onto my S. After 10 turns I was up 365-322. He'd just played UNBEARS, but tried to use AWS as a hook. I challenged that away, but a 40ish point lead isn't very comfortable when the other guy has the last blank. I went for heavy points to insulate against a bingo... 41 for FACT hooked as C(OVERAGES). He dumps BUT for 5... he's now 79 points behind, and needs a better than average bingo now. Hence the BUT play... he's set up an A hook (ABUT) so he can bingo down the left hand side (he had the game's last 2 A's). I have IIIPNGS. An open I elsewhere gives me PIING for 22, but obviously I can't leave that aBUT hook unattended. I stick IBIS for 8, using the B of BUT... even with the blank, he should have trouble paralleling a pair of I's. The S was no longer of much use, no nice S hooks by this point. And I had the letters left for that PIING spot. With 2 left in the bag, he sticks a single A onto BUT for 7. That gives me P(A)LING/PI/LI for 35. Tracking shows him with ADENNR?. NARDiNE will hook as AWE for 64 or so, but he doesn't see it (nor would it win him the game). He spends about 8 minutes on this turn. An 8 beginning with P on the board would let him bingo out on a triple, but Lexpert says there are none. Eventually he settles for DEAF, 24. I win 464-368.
3rd game... Will H. Was in trouble here. After 10 turns, leading 223-216. He'd traded on his first turn, and I lost a turn challenging CUBER. CUBE as an R hook just seemed silly at the time. (He'd played CUBE/BOIL a couple turns ago, blocking my HEAUmES/mOIL bingo). I wasn't too bothered about losing that challenge... I was waiting for an E to show up someplace, so I could play SqUEEGE(E). He didn't cooperate. Finally, 11th turn, I play NOrITES/VIEWS (73), then play either a Z or Q for 33, then something for 23. Now I hold BANKER?. He exchanges. I'm up by 81 now. I can play BANKER to the trip for 45, drawing to a blank, or BAKERs for 54. I figure the retained blank, even at this stage of the game and Will having just dumped who knows what garbage into the bag, has GOT to be worth more than 9 points. So BANKER for 45 it is. Now I hold AINORY?. Bingo lanes are now down to one lane... an 8 through an N. He plays something for 16 points, leaving the N open. I play (N)ONdAIRY for 68. He challenges, to his regret. I draw the single remaining tile, and play out. 488-281. Aside for CUBER, he also NEARLY got me to challenge TITER.
4th game... Elvira T. My only exchanging turn of the 4 games... with opening rack QDGGGBV. I retained the D, figuring the bag was slightly vowel heavy and she'd opened with an 18 point D-containing word. I give DHOOLIS*/SAE a try, and she reluctantly buys it. DHOOLIES and DHOOTIS are acceptable. (There was no E to play to). She does OUTBORES* for 61... I don't think it's good, but there ARE some weird OUT- words... and in any case, it does burn a perfectly good RES combo for relatively little damage. So I let that one go. Speaking of RES, I had that combo a couple turns later and played PREEDITS. She challenged, unsuccessfully. (PRIESTED and RESPITED are ok too... though I wasn't sure about ANY of the 3!). She throws in a legit bingo for 69... but after 10 turns (and another bingo for me, CURVIEST), I'm up 432-225. I challenged KRANG* off in turn 8. She should know I'm not going to be fooled on weird K words!! This one ended 523 to 333.
The club record for average score in a 4 game night was 481... which I set a couple months ago =). Tonight, I averaged 496.