Yazoo City 2008

I guess its about time I get around to posting about my excursion out to Yazoo City for the yearly MLK weekend tournament there.

Because I'm a cheapskate, I decided not to stay the Friday night in Yazoo CIty, but to drive in early the morning of the tournament. I saw on the Google maps that it was about 3.5 hours. With games starting at 10am, I figured I needed to leave my house by 5:30 am to make sure to make it with time to spare, since I had never been there. Of course, when I left that morning closer to 6am, it was raining upside down. Driving alone through the dark in the storm, I started to feel like I was in the first scene of car insurance commercial. But once I hit Hammond, I started to feel better with the approach of light.

A little ways north into Mississippi, I noticed the rain acting funny. It wasn't pounding my windshield like before. I looked on the thermometer on my dashboard. 32 degrees. Hmmm. Kind of floaty rain, big floppy rain. Then suddenly I was in a snowstorm. Dangit! Traffic in front of me slowed to 45mph. Southerners, me included, avoided getting in the left lane to pass, which by now was covered with an inch of snow. My ETA started slipping forward into the future. Normally snow is a welcome treat. But I had bingoes to play and many miles to cross.

Luckily, the weather cleared after an hour. And despite driving straight through Yazoo City the first time (that was a town?), I was able to turn myself around, get directions at a gas station, and navigate the potholed dirt road next to the railroad tracks to find the venue with 30 minutes to spare.

This was my first tournament in Division 1. I was going in with a 1270 rating and was expected to win about 4 of 11 games. I had no delusions about winning the division, but I did want to come out with a winning record. I took pictures of most of the game boards.

Game 1 vs Noreen: Things were looking good early when I was able to clear out my terrible rack with VROUWS. I bingoed first with SLeNDER (which later became SleNDERER) and later with SCrUPLE (yes it can be singular). I drew pretty well and it was a smack-down, 457-278.

Game 2 vs Rod: Rod wiped out my nice spread with a 312-481 smackdown on me. I tried to play SATURNES* to get a 3x3 (I was getting confused, thinking of SAUTERNE). Rod challenged it off, of course. And I played SAUNTERS next turn. He played FOREGUT, which I thought was pretty nice.

Game 3 vs. Kaye: I thought I opened nicely with LIVERY for 32, but she played SILENCER to shut me up. I bingoed with HARIcOt and got a 63 point OXEN to pull my wagon into victory, 399-354.

Game 4 vs Lila: Lila answered my IDEATES with LUsTInG. I came close to playing SKEETER for not many points when I stumbled upon RESTRIKE. I squeaked out a win with a 33 point DELI, 357-343.

Game 5 vs Jacqueline: I played DEEJAY for 54 early on, but the request lines were all closed after that. I didn't even break 300. 284-431.

Game 6 vs Richard: You would think that if I bingo twice, (RENTIER and GAOLERs), and Richard doesn't bingo at all, I would come out on top. I lost 371-397.

Game 7 vs Helen: Helen plays like the town will blow up if her clock hits 20:00. She let me get by with AUXITEs*, which I could have sworn was good after analyzing a similarly bad play (AUXINES* in my first game in Baton Rouge just a few months previous). She's was thinking about a juicy front hook for BAUXITES on the TWS lane. But I was totally clueless and played the B off somewhere else. I later got EMOTIONs and got my first win against her, 386-315.

I was 4-3 after the first day of play.

Game 8 vs Brenda: We exchanged bingoes, SALTIEST and OUTPRICE. But then I lost 3 challenges playing some big fat phoneys, while she rubbed salt in my wounds with some valid bingoes of her own: INFUSES and DILUTER. AIRFIELD is one I should have got, but missed. I lose 314-474.

Game 9 vs Danny: He opened with OX and I put down RESURGE for 72. Later he responded with HONORERS, through the R and hooking the OX for OXO. Nice. But then he tried the phoney, WEALING*, which I challenged off, mostly because it stole my spot for CRANIATE, which I played for 64. But I was a little nervous about hanging the E in the 3x3 lane. Then the room started to slow down when I pulled a ?RS. I pulled an HVLI after that. Shallow breaths. I thought "There's no way he'll leave it open for me". But I knew what he had from having challenged it off before, and I kind of saw that there was not much to do with it down there. He played of his W with LAW up top. I took a moment to collect myself and laid down SHRIVELs on both TWS. It took a while for me to figure out (14x9)+50, but I arrived at 176 points. My first triple-triple in a tournament!

I was so struck by my own good luck, that I forgot to hit my clock for about 2 minutes. Danny bingoed later with DINNERS for 84, while I eyed the high game on the wall. Well, I did beat the high game, but then someone else put up a new high game score that beat mine handily. I couldn't complain with a 538-411 win and a clear cut favorite for the tournament high word. We both totaled 949 for an average of 31.63 points per turn. 5 bingoes between us. Not bad.

Game 10 vs James: The karmic pendulum then swung the other way. I get RUNTIER, but then he got STRAINED, REGAINS, and VINTAGE. Nothing fancy but enough to beat me by 110. 347-457.

Game 11 vs Jimmy: I was 6-6 and out of the running for the money. But I so badly wanted a winning record. I let Jimmy get away with PANICK*. He played BURSTER and then I got RETINOL and LIMPEST. I was concentrating so hard on hooking what I suspected was a bad PANICKS* with TREASON, that I totally missed that fact that he played IH. Luckily he didn't challenge my PANICKS*. That would have made me steam, if he did that and then I realized I let him get away with IH. I later passed on playing RETTING, which is good, and walked away with a winning record with just 3 points.

I proudly accepted the prize for high word, which elicited some oohs and aahs from the crowd when it was announced. The prize was $10. I thought about framing it, but hopefully there will be more like that to come. My rating jumped up to 1301, a new peak rating.

My trip back was all sunshine, although a funny thing happened at a gas station in Mississippi. I walked into the store and there was a young policeman talking to the clerks.

"You know what happens when you put those in a bottle of Pepsi?" He gestured to the Mentos on the counter. "It'll blow up!"

"Gaw! For real?" the clerks said.

"Yep! I saw it on that Mythbusters show!"

I walked up to the counter with my water, but the clerk ignored me as he pulled out his cellphone.

"So you want to see what happens when you tie 50 sparklers together and light them? It's here on my phone."

"Really?" said the cop.

The clerk finally started to ring me up. "Just wait for about 30 seconds, then you'll see."

I was halfway out the door with my drink when I heard the cop go "Woe!"