I've had a series of club visits which left me feeling pretty disgusted. Finally I snapped back with what I hope to be a "normal" night.
1st game- Dave H, 1710 or so. Lately he's been the recipient of much late game generosity from me.
The pattern has been:
- during beginning and midgame, he plays fast, I play slow and deliberately
- I get uncomfortably low on time
- Game is close
- Other games finish, everyone starts yammering... I'm trying to confirm tracking, work out the options, score the options, while the hubbub increases around me and I grow increasingly pressured by the clock
- I make idiot rush play without fully assessing the fallout.
- I lose unnecessarily.
So facing Dave once again in my first game, I told him "we could save ourselves 45 minutes if we just skip ahead to the part where I make my obligatory bonehead play and lose by 10!!"
He opted to play it out, though. Okay.
He draws an X, I beat that, I go first.
I mention my new tile-picking strategy... rather than randomly plucking one at a time from all over the bag, I'm now finding apparently better results by taking two adjacent tiles at a time (well, 3 times, then a single tile to make 7). I'm almost positive it reduces the number of extreme draws (6:1 or 7:0 con-vow or vow-con ratio).
The opening rack it produces is OUT HEAD.
That's a very nice opening rack, by my standards. I play the weird-looking THOUED for 28. He admits later to doubting it greatly, but reasoned I wouldn't phony an opening play with useful letters for under 40 points.
I don't remember much of the details from here... but I continued to pick well, other than being starved of E's. By the tenth turn, I was up 380-233 with the help of two bingos (SAURIAN and something else) and a 70+ Q play. With a blank unaccounted for, he made a tile-consuming late play that opened up all sorts of lanes for 8's... he supplied a T for COVETING, so I threw that down and drew the final blank. At 472-259, I remarked that I was finding it difficult to locate my traditional game-blowing play.
Ended 510-291.
His next game was a similarly painful result against the erratic fisherman.
Game 2... Don, a guy I think I've only played once before. His 4 week average is 349, his NSA rating 913 (16th of 29 rated players).
His second turn, using PAW as a parallel play, just added another 9 points to the bingo I'd seen already, LEDGIEST (and PAWL hook now). He challenged... originally intending just LEDGIEST, but changing his mind and challenging the play at my suggestion. The bingo and PAWL are good, of course (though to be honest, I hadn't seen PAWL in such a long time I had some paranoid doubts about it).
I picked up ERRATTA* and played ERRATTAS*, doubting it severely. Stupid thing is, I didn't doubt it because of the double T, I doubted the -S ending! ERRATA, ERRATUM, and ERRATAS are good. He was tempted, but he let this one go.
Sometimes you can play stupidly and be rewarded. There is no bingo in ERRATTA*, and only one 8... TARTRATE, which was playable thru the LEDGIEST T. I didn't know or see the legitimate bingo, played a phony bingo (whose legitimacy I doubted for the wrong reason) and profited by 68 points. That's almost as irritating to me as it would be if I'd allowed that identical play against me.
A series of 20's and 30's allow me to maintain the lead even with my exchange in the 10th turn at 195-315. I gain another S in doing so, as he opens the upper left side's triple lane. INSIGNE for 90. He's been hoarding all game, now has SEQUI?S after I ruin the last simple S hook. Ends 469-296.
3rd game... Derek, 1387.
Opened with KNAVE from AEIKNSV rack. After 8 bingoless turns, I'm up 210-170, and we exchange bingos.
328-268 after 10. With NXRAEIS as his final rack, he phonies twice... ORIXA* (he claims he didn't mean IXORA, that ORIXA* is a Brazilian term for something) and NOXIES*.
I challenge both, and go out with 18 points of his rack.
425-277. Should have been WAY closer, but his penchant for living on the edge and trying desperation words burnt him. This guy could so easily be over 1500.
Last game... the erratic fisherman's dad. Never seen such an enthusiastic 492-rated player.
Second turn, I held ??IIAPN. Correctly decided PAISANI* wasn't good. Eventually took AsPIRIn for 78, after failing to see any 8's ending in -E (the two are PATINIZE and PISCINAE). Realized after the fact that PAtINIzE to the trip would only be 74, anyway... that I did better with ASPIRIN, except defensively.
Two turns later, MINDERS. An odd thing I just now discovered... as useful as MINDERS/REMINDS looks, it offers you absolutely NO 8's. At the time I felt stupid for not being able to think of any.
After 10, I'm up 372-173 after playing DATURA, slotting the end A in the TWS lane.
I draw FATTIES as my next rack, there's no S hook around, but FATTIEST onto the DATURA T will do nicely. And, predictable as clockwork, he leaves the T alone and takes the TWS with LEAKER.
My final 3 tiles are IYZ. The Z is completely unplayable, but tracking shows him with FLLPUAS. I pass twice, as he plays out a letter at a time. When his S is gone (eliminating the chance of SIZY) I dump the Y.
With the F and P played where they're useless to me, I finally dump the I, eat the Z.
Ends 479-324.
I'm really convinced about that tile-picking strategy now!