I should be packing for the Calgary tournament, but... here goes...
1st game... novice level player. She burns a blank in the 3rd turn for 18 in order to hit the TWS. Her next one is SARAN, for 20, to another triple. That's completely unfamiliar to me as a legitimate word, I challenge. She says, "Like in Saran Wrap". Be damned if it isn't good... "a thermoplastic resin". Oh well... a lost turn in return for opponent wasting an S for only 20 points might be an acceptable trade!
I'm holding DELMNT?. A little frustrated by the SARAN thing, I play uNMELTED through the second E... tho better plays were certainly available. She challenges and loses.
A couple turns later I have AILONNS. I have SOLANINE available... but if SOLANIN is good I can hook RIVE N and hit the TWS instead of hitting the DWS and setting up the same TWS. Not entirely sure of it, I give SOLANIN a go, she challenges, it's acceptable. After 10, 307-125. Ends up 468-257.
2nd game, intermediate player.
Opening rack is AAEILLS. I settle for ALA, and draw a blank. I hold AEILRS?. An E is open, I take SIdEREAL (to my surprise, she challenges). I pick up ADEISST, play DISSEAT/SNIP. But a couple turns later she has natural NATTERED, and solid enough turns along the way... after 10, I'm holding a rather narrow 294-255 lead. But on the other hand, I've been balancing pretty well during those turns... 11th turn, I have the other blank. AEIMOR?. An L is open, and mostly to exercise a word I've never played before, I trot out ROLAMItE.
She plays IF where RIF or KIF would hook to TWS; as luck would have it, I had K and R. KORE for 45. Ends 476-339. But a pretty good score for her without any blanks.
3rd game... another novice level player (hey, most of my better clubmates are already IN Calgary)
Opening rack is ADERRZS. I take RAZED 34, what the hell. She plays DAZE 18 thru the Z... looks like another open game.
I've got one vowel, and a useless Q; I dump a pair of cons for 19, and don't pick anything to help my Q. She exchanges, and so do I. This gives me GOOPIER rack, and the G RAZED hook stays available, so down it goes. Turn 8 she tries FARINEs*, which I get rid of. Even I know THAT stem combo!
That leaves the area free for JILLS 56. I shut down the board after that, forcing her to use one blank to dump the Q and another to hook to a triple for 21. 479-280.
LAst game... Murray, an intermediate player at the moment. He's a teacher who knows a LOT of words, just needs to learn a few of the subtleties of good playing.
Such as? Second turn, he plays BIO, where my J feasts off the JO hook for 52 too-easy points. I exchange in the 6th turn (I don't mind doing that anymore, it seems) and land the 2x2 GLANCERS for 94. No blanks have shown up yet, and I'm feeling a little paranoid. He plays VEG thru the E, just short of a DWS. Hm.
I know VEGS* is no good, but does he?
I'm carrying IIEEA as vowels... VEGIE would be nice 18 point IE dump, but sets up VEGIES hook to TWS. I want to leave the VEGS* hook as bait, not to mention avoid the knee-jerk VEGIES hook. I play IE off the V for 12, leaving him free to jump on MATtERS/VEGS* for something like 90. I challenge that away.
Geez, what a rack to have! I have a nice parallel play of HEAT available, but MATTERS would parallel that. I dump the H for 20 where it offers nothing.
The only bingo lanes for him are an 8 thru a G (G in 4th or 5th position), or a 7 ending in -E, -ET, or -ETS, etc.
He can't find anything (He tried MAGISTER, but ran out of room). He dumps TARGE, low on time now.
I hold AEINORT. Good ol' AERATION thru the A.
That allows him DoMAINS. He goes 4 minutes overtime. 488-271.
After the game, I found the only 8 he had thru the G... MARGENTS. The 7's... there's several, MARKETS being perhaps the easiest.
The guy who is responsible for such desperation phoneys as LOVERMAN* and BIGBRAIN* had a 620 point game. His opponent, 1725 rated Dave H, accepted INCHERS*. The game included a 3x3 OUTVoTED (he gave up 18? points by using the blank as the 2nd O, on the DLS). And he tried playing out with KOIS* (Dave rightfully caught that). Maybe it's just me, but games that include unnecessarily boneheaded moves like that deserve 500 points at best =)