(Ranked 7 on Scrabble 2 (Zone) Ladder) on July 03, 2002 at 07:24:13:Cyberwolf, thanks for the message. I had no idea I was in the running. Had I known I had a chance to be in the money, I might not have played "gefilte". But that would have ruined all my fun. I lost the game because of it, but had such a good time doing it.
For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, Tom just e-mailed me to tell me I finished 3rd in the tourney.
I was plagued by "fishy" words the whole time. In game 3, my opponent played "fishfood" for 82 points. I thought about it and thought about it and then let it go. What an idiot! And that would be me.
Then, to make a short story long, several games later, next to last play of the game(5 tiles were left in bag), I had a COMFORTABLE lead. I got bored, cocky, both, and opened up a totally closed bingoproof board with the ridiculous word"GEFILTE" because it struck me so funny.(the g was on the board. it wasn't a bingo) My opponent thought about it forever, not being jewish, he didn't know what the hell to make of the word. As it turned out, he let it go and used the T in gefilte to bingo out with disrates. I was stuck with the 5 tiles in the bag, one of which was the Q (which prior to his turn, I was positive he had). What a disaster I made out of my "sure thing".
Another strange occurence happened in game 16 when I challenged my opponents opening play, CAREX. Don't know what I was thinking. Then she proceeded to spend 18 minutes on her next move. She fiddled with her tiles, placed "NONSCALY" on the board. Definitely a fishy word. But without hitting the clock, she took it back and forth several times. She finally found the bingo, NONPLAYS, which I also unsucessfully challenged. Now I was 110 down and I hadn't made a move yet. Even tho she went overtime, I never recovered.
In another game, I was able to use a fishy word to my advantage by playing FISHEYE.
Game 5 was a highlight for me playing 3 bingos in a row. Is there a name for that? Like a bingo, bango, boffo? It was one of those games when everything goes right. The right tiles at the right time. My first bingo was INDULGES, pretty mundane. Next one, my rack was AIOTTRV and played rotative to an open E on the board. But the impressive one was next. Rack was EEHIOR? I played HEREINTO to an open T. That find was my favorite play of the tourney. Of course it was challenged which made it even sweeter. Cyberwolf was looking over my shoulder at the time. He saw HEROINE. I missed that one, but it wouldnt have played anyway. It had to be an 8 not a 7.
I'm off to play in Albany over the 4th. I hope I have as much fun there as I had in A.C. I'll report any unusual occurrences on Monday.