Tournament Report: Metairie 2008

By coincidence, my in-laws were going to New Orleans to attend the Louisiana Farm Bureau Convention. They offered to put me up in the Canal Street Marriott for the weekend. I accepted, but I let them know that instead of attending the wonderful seminars on sweet potatoes and beekeeping, that I would be playing in the Metairie Scrabble Tournament.

Despite the wonderful amenities, I slept poorly the night before, having drank a large Coca-cola right before bed. And then I wanted to get some use out of the Marriot's uber-chic gym and weight room. My arms were so tired that I could barely lift the tile bag for the first few games. And with my yawns punctuating my bungled attempts at conversation, I could sense I was on the edge of delirium. I had a long seven hours of Scrabble ahead of me.

Game 1 vs Richard: I thought I had him on the ropes early. He tried to hook a -Y on my PUTZ, which I challenged off. Then I got down STARING for 70. But he came back with NAIADES and NEOLITH to beat me easily 316-439.

Game 2 vs Bryan: I talked myself out of a 3x3. I could have played ENDITING through the T, but I thought I was confusing it with INDITING. (Both are good). I did get INSTEAD instead. But Bryan got the J, Q, X, and Z and bingoed with LADRONE and SPOILING to spoil my second game. 388-452.

Game 3 vs Rhonda: Nothing exciting here except I won a challenge when I hooked ESPY to make sweet beautiful MUSICS. I played poorly and lost 317-353.

Game 4 vs Noreen: Losing the first three games had my mood fouled. But I bingoed thrice: OVEREAT, STEALER, and ENAbLES. I took about five minutes to find ENAbLES, using the blank for the B. I got my first win 416-342.

Game 5 vs Brenda: I played terribly and lost the game when I unsuccessfully challenged ENGAGER. My only bingo, ANGRIER, described my mood. 318-462.

Game 6 vs James: I got away with JETTERS* for 74. We both had blanks on our final racks. There was an I hanging for me to bingo out with ACEOPT?. My melted nacho cheese brain couldn't find the three outs (OPErATIC, ECTOPIAs, POETICAl) and James went out with the simple but effective ISATInE. 310-452.

Game 7 vs Wesley: I challenged 2 acceptable bingos by Wesley: GENTIANS and CASERNS. My SALIVATE for 68 helped me get over 350 for only the third time that day. I also found BUNDT with a voweless rack. But I lost again 368-455.

Luckily, day one was over, but my 1-6 start was worse than I thought possible. Worst of all, I had four games where I scored under 320. One can study and prepare as much as one can, but lack of sleep will undermine the best laid plans. It was like trying to watch the news on a scrambled cable channel.

I was much better the second day. I still lost 3 of my five games, but at least I did it with style.

Game 8 vs Juanita: I thought my opening DITTIES for 70 would have me singing all the way to the winner's circle. But Juanita played a triple-triple, STOMPERS for 176, which I challenged unsuccessfully. STUMPERS, okay. STAMPERS, even better. But STOMPERS? I guess wine makers are stompers. She went on to stomp me 500-394.

Game 9 vs Broderick: About time I get to 450! SHORTER for 93 helped as well as a phoney, AURATES*, (AUREATE without the S is good). 453-374. I told Broderick after we had emptied the bag that according to my tracking, he should have over a dozen letters on his rack. That got a little laugh.

Game 10 vs Conrad: My in-laws know Conrad, so I told him that I could face them again if I could tell them that I had beat him. But he drew some pretty good tiles and got down EXAMINES for 85 and NETTLERS for 60. I played some fun funky rack balancing words like YAGI, PIXY, VIRGA, VROUW. I was holding RETAIN+A which is nothing but looks like it could be something. Mike, can you say "THE RED PUPIL PREFERS MUCH WINKING" Is there an A in there? No! So why are you spending 5 minutes looking at it?. Eventually I played off the A. Of course then I would get the blank! I played ANTISERA off an A. I later put the game though Quackle to learn that EXAMINES has a front hook. HEXAMINES. I drew the H later and would have had monster points since the space in front of EXAMINES was a TLS (triple letter score).

Game 11 vs Gigi: Although I lost, my best game was against Gigi. I opened with LAUGH, which has a bunch of dangerous extensions LAUGHING, LAUGHTER, SLAUGHTER, etc. None of which materialized. She played CLAYIEST which again I challenged and was found in the wrong. She followed that up with LOWERING to put me behind 26-139. But JOLTS for 56 and AVENUES for 90 gave me the lead. She played SPOONED for the 4th bingo of the game, but I was able to set myself up and I played HAIRNET for 100. The endgame was close and would have made a chessmaster sweat. I was trying to bingo out, but my win would have been to extend ZOA to make ENTOZOA. I lost 449 to 451. I didn't think to do a recount. When I got home I replayed the game and found that we had indeed miscounted. Except it was 4 more points in her favor. I also found that I had missed a juicy front hook: URIC to AURIC.

Game 12 vs Juanita: Nothing fancy, I got DOGEARS and SITUATED and won 407-318.

Only 3 wins total out of 12 games. But at least I lost better on day 2. Lesson learned. Sleep is paramount!

My rating dropped to 1240. Which means that at my next tournament I could be set up for some earnings. Watch out!