First game... the erratic Richard C...
He opens with an exchange of 5. I play FIGURE, leaving O, I think. I keep CON and DIS in mind for comebacks. OUTFIGURE and PREFIGURE are ok too, says Lexpert. His third turn is ELICITOR for 89. He has a history of playing any bingo that LOOKS vaguely acceptable. It looked pretty okay to me... but I don't ever remember seeing it played before. That raised enough doubt that I challenged it, but it was good. Hindsight... it's hard to explain, sometimes gut instinct overrules logic. I dump some artillery to try to narrow the gap... Z play here, parallel there...after 6 I'm down 171-120. I pull nearly even with COENURES off the C for 72. A couple turns later, he gets 61 for BERLINES along the top, thru the second E (which came from that rotten ELICITOR). Under the BE he dumps VOX for 43. The V allows for an 8 down the left hand TWS lane, I oblige with VOLTAGEs. After 10 turns, I'm now slightly ahead 324 to 338. I'm swimming in vowels now, and balance as best I can in preparation for the endgame. He exchanges in his 12th turn. I extend the EX he made with his earlier parallel of VOX/BE/EX into EXAM for 30, while retaining a Y. The M landed beside a DWS, offering a high scoring parallel with MY next turn. He left it open, but went to the middle right TWS with sUQ hooked onto PRICKs for 46. With a rack of PISTONY, I took TYPO/AT/MY for 44. I faced a last rack of AEEFINS.
Only a C (unavailable) would produce a bingo with these last two racks (SYNOPTIC; then FIANCEES or FAIENCES). I took NEIF for 23, leaving me potential out play of SEA to the bottom center triple for 17. He knew all about that, blocked with (F)ERVID, but wasn't enough points for him.
Won 451-428.
second game, new guy, never seen before.
Bingoed with PITIERS/(RARE)R in 4th turn. E was sitting on the center star from my opening of WINCE. I had AABENO? in 7th turn, played ANAErOB(E). After 10 it was 372-168. Won 484-216.
3rd game, Eugenio N, solid player. 4th turn burned a Z and an S for 61 for ZESTY, inviting a 4 letter Z word to the triple. He's a stem fanatic, so he only reluctantly parted with ATE group for 39 point ZETA. With EEIRTV?, I could find no 8 that began or ended with A (there are none), so took EVERTInG for 74... the top E in the top TWS lane, where he dumped CARED. After 10, 223-328 for me. I got the second blank late, won 429-284.
4th game... good player, but annoying as hell!! She won our last meeting on the strength of blanks and esses, and my improper tracking... this time around, me thirsting for revenge, she got every S and blank. 8th turn, it's RETuNES. 9th turn, it's SMELLeD. Gee, tough racks you got there, lady!! I'm mired in an endless procession of racks that feature IIOULIRLGVZUI sort of nonsense. VEX goes down, I jump on VEXT/TUI for 19... draw LUI. When SMELLeD goes down, the M hovering over the TWS, I triple with MUNI. With 3 left in the bag, drawing 2, I miss the final S. GEEZ !!!!!! The only clear bingo lanes left are 8's thru the N or I of MUNI, and she was too silly to put up any block. I bingo out cheaply with QUA(I)NTER (last play, so didn't bother with challenge-provoking ANTIQUER). But she has cheap garbage (the S of course) on her rack, not enough. Lose 378-404. To put it bluntly... having a 90 point lead on the strength of such an uneven draw, then NOT blocking the remaining bingo lanes with a simple 10-15 point play is ludicrous!! She takes 26 points elsewhere. Too bad luck can be so one-sided that a player can still win despite indulging in such shortsighted playing. Sorry, but losses rarely get more annoying than THAT one!! Can't WAIT till we play again. I usually don't enjoy slaughter games, but, give me more than a single S, and I will enjoy THIS one!!
Was getting ready to leave, someone wanted a quick 5th game. What the hell, I was needing to see ONE S on my rack after that horrid experience. 505-269 on this one. Even tho I had my 114 point COdEXES* challenged off. I figured it was a shot in the dark (there are no 7's in that rack, oddly). I did bingo with PLOTTER and ENCOMiA.