Pretty odd night... we almost ran out of room because 7 new players showed up, thanks to a bit of advertising in a local paper.
1st game... vs a newbie, a youngish middle aged lady.
Well. I allowed her free challenges of anything I played. With AAEIRT? I took ARIStAE, leaving the E in the triple lane (invited a possible 3x3 if E in 3rd position). She starts playing CREASe for 24. I stop her there... ask what her other two tiles are... she's holding ABCIRS?. Easy enough to see ASCRIBE in there, it won't hook the triple tho, but I point out an earlier S she'd played elsewhere... she takes ASCRIBES for 69, and is back in the game. I took a while to try to see a triple triple for her, but it didn't hit me till a couple turns later... BRECcIAS, which would have been 176 (LeXpert confirms that's the only 3x3 playable... sometimes I surprise myself!)
Towards the end, Cara was obviously holding a Q and no U. She had never heard of QAT. I pointed it out to her (the minimum 12 points)... she just missed a double letter with it. She notices that she had QAID for 24. She knows QAID but didn't know QAT???? Well, I didn't know she held an I, so I make her play the 24 point QAID she probably would have played without my interfering with QAT. Ended 389-309. Tho had I seen BRECcIAS in time, and shown her the horrible thing, I'd have lost by maybe 80.
2nd game... our other expert, Dave Huebert.
He begins by exchanging 7. "There's not one worth keeping", he says.
From ADHIAMQ or something similar I dump QAID. He plays out ZONES for 31. I hold AEHIMR?. No 7's were playable... without an O anyway... but if they were, LeXpert says the rack contained only CHIMERA, MISHEAR, HAMMIER, and HARMINE.
I see cHAIRMAN to his N... but that leaves the Z available, opens a triple, and is only
64. I didn't see cHIMAERA... but my opening QAID was placed so that using the A wouldn't hit the triple, so wasn't even looking at that lane. An 8 from or to the "I" would hit the triple, but Lexpert says there are none. 2x2 thru the O...? I didn't see any, neither does Lexpert. No bingos through Z, and the only one thru the N besides CHAIRMEN is HARMINES. I passed up CHAIRMEN for HAZIER, 44, leaving M?. I learned later that at this point he held FEASTED; so I blocked his 44 point FAZED... and had I played something like ZIRAM (32) to save the E at the expense of offering a huge S hook to the TWS, FEASTED would have been 100 for him.
As it was, he tripled through my H with FASHED, 39. With a rack like VIIMDG? now, I just dumped VIA, 14.
His rack now? MUTATES. No hooks. The only 8's are MATUREST and NUTMEATS, which aren't playable. True to his tile turnover mantra, he plays MUTATED for 18, leaving S. His draw to that is something like IIOGBU. I parallel MIRE/MA/IT/RE for 24.
After 4 turns each, he's "turned over" 23 tiles (counting his exchange of 7) and played 2 S's and a Z; I've turned over 16, with a U-less Q as my only premium played, and I'm up 110-88 with a stronger rack.
He opens an S hook to the triple lane with BOG for 20, I dump something or other for 12, and take DEY/BOGY a turn later. He plays something cheap somewhere to the right off of QAID to open up that side of the board. I leave (whatever it was) alone, play elsewhere. He takes the TWS on the right side, ending a word with T.
His 10th turn is CLOUTIEr. I challenge that silliness off (Lexpert says... LEUkOTIC or pOULTICE were his only plays there), and finally play out the blank I originally could have played in cHAIRMAN... as DRAGoNET for 83.
An obviously placed (and appropriate, now that I think about it) VETO from me closes down his last ditch attempt to open bingo lanes.
Ends 414-262.
This guy could be scary if ONLY I could convince him to renounce his tile-turnovering ways!!
3rd game... Murray, who once played a 640 game...
I exchange to open. I don't seem to mind doing that anymore. It gets me an S.
Murray basically crawls thru garbage the whole game without exchanging (my former sin).
I'd dangled a V into the triple lane on the far left, 3 spaces above the bottom corner. He had all consonants at the time, and dropped an F beside it (IF or OF, depending on whether it was a VI- or VO- word, I don't remember).
Thru the V I played DENoTIVE/EF for 91.
My pick up was BUNDLE?. Hm. After 10, I'm up 386-119. Holding EEGINOR a couple turns later, I take ELOIGNER for a princely 61. He challenges, and I dump vowels in my extra turn. He takes ZERO for 69 (angry that he'd challenged and risked my ruining this play).
I have a simple X play for 52, and wind up 555-264.
4th game, novice level player.
5th turn, MARGINS. ARMINGS was better, but I didn't trust it (it's the only anagram of MARGINS). The most interesting of 9 possible 8's are FARMINGS, FRAMINGS, and MARLINGS. The only 2 of those 8's that don't use "ING" are ORGANISM and MIGRANTS.
A ridiculously lucky draw and hook gave me AQUiVER for 137.
After 10, 369-187 (I had to stop him from AQUIVERS*, OYO*, etc). 14th turn I throw in PALLIER, half thinking it's phony, half wondering why it seems so damn familiar (it's good). One anagram, PERILLA... and only 4 possible 8's: PERILLAS, CALLIPER, PILLAGER, PILLARED.
Ends 532-258.
One of the new ladies... holy crap. What a character. Like a mother-in-law from Queens.