1st game... Derek, whose one tournament resulted in a 1300+ rating.
With CDEOUTY rack to open, I take COYED.
He's drawn STRANGE. Fortunately he doesn't see DRAGNETS. Even more fortunately, he plays ORANGEST*, a group I recently learned (ESTRAGON and NEGATORS), and I challenge it off. I'd drawn EELYU to my UT leave... EELYUTU... and heard him mumble "estrange" as he searched for legitimate alternatives. So he saw THAT one (Lexpert says STRANGE thru E is ESTRANGE, GREATENS, GRANTEES, NEGATERS, REAGENTS, and SERGEANT). I figured my best play was CUTELY, leaving UE, but the E would allow ESTRANGE for a 2x2 for 86, instead of the cheap 62 point placement from the already present E in COYED. I exchanged LEUYU instead, keeping ET, and hoped he'd play ESTRANGE with its generous TWS setup. He did so, missing the still available DRAGNETS, and the more defensive ESTRANGE anagrams, and the ORANGEST* anagrams.
My exchange didn't do me much good, so contented myself with dumping a V word on the TWS for 27. His response? On his second draw of 7 letters... after the (let's face it) incredibly lucky opening pick of STRANGE, he picks SHOEING. Ooookay. I bingo in the 7th turn with TRENDIER, and he's about to play EXALTeR for 58... decides perhaps that he wants more than that for the X and his second blank... and just dumps EXALT for 12!
2 turns later, he uses the blank for TOURIsTS. After 10, I'm down 233-358.
That's the last U. There are no more premiums unaccounted for... he's gone thru basically all of them... except for the Q.
He exchanges the following turn, with exactly 7 in the bag. That has to be the Q. (Why couldn't there have been SIX tiles????)
Now my only hope is to score well and not pick the Q. I take 28 for 2 letters, and draw the Q, of course, from the 7 tiles available. There are Q-dumping tiles unaccounted for, though; I fish with a 33 point play, and fail to draw them. He takes 6. I take 22. He takes 10. I take 15, getting me to 366. He plays out with 3...giving him 398... 420 with my stuck Q.
Game 2... She opens with THEW. Two turns later I bingo with DATIVES. She responds with a 70 point MuTILATE. I'm about to set up a TWS with INSURES, then realize SUNRISE is there and play the safer anagram. After 10 it's 240-334. Ends 411-345 for me.
Game 3... After 7 turns of low scoring cat and mouse, it's 139-148 for me. She's played a single S to this point, and I haven't seen an S or blank. So I'm not too surprised when she puts down RECOOpS. She's surprised when I challenge it off.
I can do nothing to block the multitude of choices she has, I take a 6 point dump play rather than exchange. She takes COOlERS. I take 30, draw the remaining blank, and bingo with ReFEREE (my first blank of the night...opponents picked the first 5 straight!) After ten I'm up 226-259.
Ends 365-404 for me.
4th game...
After 5, I'm limping behind 122-81, and I draw a blank... to go with the S I already have. DERSTT?, with absolutely no S hooks on this board, and no vowels to play through. I'm waiting for a vowel from her... and she provides an O. I play TETRODES for 68, and pick up the other blank immediately... AEEHNN?. Oddly, I don't see ENHANcE but I do see the other two available ones... HENNAEd and the one I played, HENbANE. This leaves the E in the TWS lane, in the 6th position of a possible 3x3. She spent probably 6 minutes on this turn, finally gave up, played something for 24. Her rack had been RELICTS. I'd just learned RELICTS+E... so I could tell her after the game there was TRISCELE, SCLERITE, and the 3x3 TIERCELS for 167. I remembered RETICLES later. She dumped a Q word up top, inviting a YA, WE, YE, HA, HE etc play for 32... my endgame options turned out to be amazingly nice. From the AEGHPSW rack, I took HE for 32, let her take a bottom corner triple for 25, which left me an out play of GAWPS/PREX/ 2 other hooks for 44 points. Ended 424-257 for me.
Actually played a 5th game... squeaked it out 339-329.