Waugh Victorious

I placed first in my division at the New Orleans Scrabble Tournament with a record of 10-2. I won $165 dollars.

Originally I was set to play in the 4th division, which is the lowest division. But they needed to switch some players around to get the pairings right, so I was bumped up to the 3rd division (as long as I paid an extra $10). I figured I was probably going to be fodder for some higher rated players, but it ended up that I was seeded 3rd out of 8, even with my measly 917 rating. The first day I went 7-0, but a lot of those games were close.

My original plan was to drive between New Orleans and Baton Rouge both days, but after playing 7 games of tooth and nail Scrabble, I didn't have the energy to drive the whole way back to Baton Rouge (in the dark) in order to leave at 7 the next morning to catch Sunday's 9:30 start time. Add into that the lost hour due to Daylight Saving Time and I figured staying in New Orleans was best.

Luckily a kind Scrabbler named Danny Kidd let me sleep in the pull-out in his room at the hotel. He's quite a character and has been in the national Scrabble scene for a while. He sure has some stories to tell. He was a most gracious host.

The next morning I was well rested and came out with guns ablazing. I won three out of the five games. Both losses were against the same opponent and an eventual second place finisher. (We split our games 2-2.)

I have a lot of stories to tell, but I'll separate them into different posts rather than do one long one.

Posted by Mike Waugh at April 3, 2005 07:15 PM | TrackBack