The Pivotal Game

The pairings for the second day of the New Orleans Tournament were set up as a round robin, so that in my case, I had to face the three best players in my division.

I won my first game and had a 8-0 record going into my game with Vijay Ragothaman, a first timer in tournament Scrabble, but someone who was too good to be allowed to play in the bottom division. He said he learned the game by watching the high rated games on the ISC. I had barely survived him in my first game with him on Saturday, and only because I was able to challenge three of his phoney bingos off the board. But Vijay had my number this time, and with three good bingos (OUTDONE, OUTFLEW, and DRILLING) vs. two of my phony bingos (RELUBING*, which he challenged off, and DUBLINER* which remained on the board) he handed me my first defeat, making me 8-1.

I won my next game to put me at 9-1. The next two games were set up as a king of the hill, so that 1st place played 2nd place, 3rd place played 4th place, etc.

Vijay was in second place with a 8-2 record (I think) so that I would have to win one of the two games to win the tournament. He would have to win both games to win. Also remember that Vijay narrowly lost one of his games because his opponent had played a 203 point GHERKINS triple-triple.

So we played our game and this is what it looked like:

So I went first. I pulled a bunch of vowels. I could play off some of them for a few points or I could exchange. I decided to play TOON for a measly 8 points. I probably should have exchanged.

Vijay exchanged 3 tiles, which made me a little nervous. But I went ahead and played LOUT for a pathetic 10 points, making the score 18 to 0. I probably should have exchanged during that turn too, because Vijay put down OUTLINED through my LOUT's T for 78 points. Apparently Vijay likes his OUT- words because in a previous game he beat me by playing OUTFLEW and OUTDONE.

I played off a JU to make JUT for 26. We danced around the board for a bit: Vijay: LIB, DIRT, and CLOTH while I played GOR and NERDY. Finally I drew a blank and was able to play bingo with AERATED for 72. My celebration was short lived because Vijay was able to counter with DUSK on the triple word score, the K landing on a double letter, forming KA at the same time: 53 points.

I put HAM down on another triple word for 37 points. Vijay exchanged, and I got nervous again. But I decided to risk opening up a bingo lane on the A file in order to score some points. I played GAZE makeing KAE at the same time for 35, which put me up 223 to 174. YINS gave him 25. I played off my evil V with AVO, while setting up an open A for my Q. Vijay pluralized KAE with SWIPE, a 38 point play that about evened the score: 240 to 237.

I had the Q with no U, but luckily I drew the T so down came the always useful QAT for 24 points. With the Q out, there remained only two more power tiles: the X and and S. And I didn't have neither of them.

Vijay played CAW to make the score 264 to 257. I had a whole bunch of vowels. But there was a triple letter right next to an I. Although now I see that there weren't any threats of making a parallel play on it I was so fearful of the X that I still decided to block it by playing AAH for 14 points.

Vijay played off an EN to make LIEN for 5 points. I took that as a sign of a bingo on the way, so I made what now appears to have been a dumb move. I played GOOD for 7 points to block the A file. Vijay responded by extending it with -IES for GOODIES, 27 points. My blocking play only enabled him to score there anyway. But it did use up his very useful IES. With the S out, the X was the final power tile. And I still didn't have it.

But I did have a B, which I was not happy about. I thought about BINGE for a while, BEING was not good because the E would be right next to the triple letter (to make EX). I went with BIG, forming YOB at the same time for 16 points.

Then I drew the X. Oh thank you Scrabble gods! I had been convinced that Vijay had it and was just waiting for a big play. I saw a couple spots for it. I could play FIX on B8 for 36 points, forming EF and SI. But then I saw the coup de grace. PREFIX, forming GORE from GOR, would be 53 points, with the P landing on a triple letter and the word on a double word score. But then the X would be hanging out right next to the triple word. So an I or U under it would be 27 points. So PREFIX might be worth 53-27 points, a gain of 26 points. I noticed that all the Us were out, but that still left one I out there. And there was only like three tiles left so Vijay probably had it. I decided FIX would be the safest play.

But Vijay must have sensed the presence of my X, because he blocked FIX by playing FET. He was up 301 to 309.

So PREFIX it would have to be. 53 points.

And then I drew the final I. I saw the wind go out of Vijay's sails as he realized that he wouldn't be able to bingo. He later told me that PREFIX had blocked his only bingo lane. (So now I'm thinking he played FET not so much to block my X, but so as to leave his bingo lane open.)

Vijay played AMEER, which formed the phony GORER*, but I was so sure that XI for 27 would ice the game that I didn't even give it a second thought.

The final score was 387 to 353. I pulled it out thanks to some lucky tiles at the end.

G.I. Joel says he'd rather be lucky than good. In this case, I would have to agree with him.

The win locked up 1st place for me.