Okay, I took a couple weeks off. Good reason, too... I challenged such obvious words as PINTOES and DINGIES. Sometimes you take the wrong approach to evaluating words that, given another train of thought, would confirm their legitimacy.
Anyway...
1st game, Richard C... the erratic fisherman. Only one exchange for him this game, so you know he's got ammunition!
He goes first, and has nice easy UPDATES right out of the bag. I have something like VEEYARU, play DAVY. He's picked up a U-less Q, dumps QUILT for 25. I extend to QUILTER for 32, altho risking a pretty ugly leave.
Enjoying a 50ish point lead already, he plays a J into the TWS lane for 38. With AAELNOP, JAPE for 39 is fairly appealing... but I see APNOEAL, which hooks by the first A cheaply and throws the L into the far right TWS lane, for 64. I draw 6 vowels. Fortunately he chooses the "L" triple for FILMED (34), leaving me a lifesaving 33 for JIAO. A rack balancing dump, the exploitation/removal of the "J" threat, a good score... a play that does all those things is at least as devastating as a bingo, tho not as flashy.
He gets 31 for an H and an E. I take 22 for WE, altho it leaves me 1 consonant. I draw a 3rd A to my rack. Geez! After APNOEAL, DAVY, JIAO, and his UPDATES, how do I manage to find 3 A's??? He blocks my planned dump with OY (20), so I play AA into LAVA for 9.
He exchanges.
One S has been played so far (by him), and as yet no premium tiles except the X have found my rack. And I'm behind. I'm getting antsy.
The X is homeless, and the rack as a whole isn't going too well... I dump MONO, mainly to provide a possible X spot. He parallels there first. I have something like EEIAODX now. MONOXIDE for 36 is tempting, but... with 3 S's and 2 blanks missing, and currently no useful S hooks, no way am I sticking MONOXIDE out there for him!! I parallel his parallel with OXID for 32. Finally I draw a blank!!
He parallels OXID with HID or something for 34.
I hold AEENRT?... fantastic rack finally. Took 10 turns for me to get one as nice as the UPDATES he picks out of the bag!
Unfortunately, this was now a pretty unfriendly board. Best line was an 8 starting with an E on the board, to hit the bottom TWS. I briefly thought ENERVATE... but confused with INNERVATE, I thought it needed a double N... and didn't stop to think more about it. Stupid!!
Also available, cheaply, were 8's beginning with R (RETAINER etc fit, but were too juicy a setup for the bottom middle TWS). The only other line was a cheap 8 ending on D. So I settled on RETAiNED for 62. This removed ALL bingo lanes currently available, and was less of an opportunity for the TWS.
After ten turns, my first lead... 281-305.
He plays NOS in the top right for 25, still no open lanes. I play off a W or something for 22, risking a bad leave, but wanting to pressure him a little. He eventually created a hook in the bottom right, and used it to get 40 for his Z a turn later. I took the triple he'd left open for 30. Now 366-388 for me... and in the last 3 tiles I find the other blank...KU? and 4 more consonants. I play KUdU for 21... ends up 421-391 for me.
2nd game... Erratic fisherman's dad. He's not very good... but is very enthusiastic, and (as deemed by me), our unofficial club mascot.
No bingos in this one. Great racks at the end, if not for an unexchangeable Q. STIRENQ etc. Was stuck with it. 400-309 for me.
3rd game... another novice level player. Had DELAYERS for 63 in 3rd turn. Soon drew another S and a blank... DENTLS? was the rack I had when she plays MAUVE, sticking E into a triple word lane.
The E would be in position 3 of a triple triple. Man, do I look at this one.
I give up on the 3x3 finally, take LiSTENED for 77. LeXpert thankfully confirms there were no 8's with E in third spot.
AFter 10, 320-192.
By turn 13, found the other S and a blank. No hooks out. She plays AGEE. That gives me USURIEs/RAGEE for 83. Ends up 474-258, with her as the Q-eater.
4th game... Dave H, returning from Twin Cities, his first tourney in NINE years (including 8 years of not even playing in the club!!). He had 5.5 wins out of 15 games against a field with an average rating of 1866 (including Jim Kramer, G.I. Joel, Lisa Odom...).
I actually don't remember much about this game... I started out uncomfortably vowel heavy, then shifted to consonants for the rest of the game. I got the only bingo, FOrETOP. Emptying the bag, he blocks my ROBaNDS bingo, at the expense of having to use the game's last A. This A was of note because an F was perched beside the top right hand TWS. In the absence of a playable bingo, my end game was pretty solid... dumped BD as BOND/BI/DE for 24, then played out with aRSON/Fa/DOR/TANS for 36. Ended up 377-336.
On a game beside me, Richard held AADEILS. Opponent opened with DROOL, and then challenged Richard's RADIALES* away (to my admitted shock... I was pretty sure it was good). We looked later for legitimate bingos... I found the more difficult (ALIDADES) of the two bingos LeXpert says were playable, but missed the easy one (SALARIED instead of radiales). Oh well, ALIDADES was the better of the two plays anyway!!
Another player asked me about one of her tougher racks.. ABEEFS?
I saw FREEBASE and FEASIBLE as potential 8's (LeXpert adds BEEFALOS, FEEDBAGS and FIREBASE)... and only saw BEFLEAS, the only 7, after perusing the TWL.