"BINGOS TO ALL!"
Back to Ginger White's Scrabble tournament
for a 9-game marathon

NEWSFLASH!! Sunday, May 7 -- Ginger informs me that I actually WON First Place. Ginger writes:

"While compiling the validation for the NSA I discovered that really YOU and not Bob Kerr won - the total point spread for you was 929 and for Bob 837."

So my story is a BIT outdated, but the plays and facts about the wins -- other than the cume -- remains the same.....read on.....

Saturday, May 6, 2006 -- I took the trip this beautiful day to join my Scrabble friends at Ginger’s Scrabble tournament at the Adria Conference Center in Queens, NY.

(The picture of me with Ember Nelson has nothing to do with Bayside. It's from Albany in the fall, but Ember sent it to me and I have wanted to post it forever. I love this woman. She is a great Scrabbler, too.)

By dinnertime, after playing Scrabble since 9:30 a.m., my record in Division C was 8-1. My nearest opponent, Bob Kerr, also went 8-1. We were neck-in-neck, but he beat me by 40 points in cumulative spread, landing me in Second Place. This seems to be a pattern with me. I have to play up into the higher division. That will break me out of the glass ceiling of this division and jack up my national rating a bit.

Finally: My winnings of $62 are being donated to the American Technion Society in memory of our dear, cherished friend, Jay Yoskowitz, who tragically and suddenly left this world this past Tuesday. A light-hearted conversation with Jay's son and wife at the shiva house about their love of Scrabble led me to pledge that I'd do my best at the tournament in his memory. When I got home tonight, I called them first. They said that this donation would always be special to them. I did it "for the family."


MY BINGOS:

OUREBIS (challenged)
COALIEsT (challenged)
STEARIN
sNEAKIER
ENURIES*
PUNDiTS
INGRATE
DEALERS
LOOTINGS*
dETAILS
LEANERS
DARTLING
FRAZzLED
BICUSPId
STORIED
dOWAGER


OPPONENT'S BINGOS:

TATsOIS (challenged)
HEMATINE
WEDDINGS
STYLIsT
STARLING
NAtIONS


MY KEWL POINTY WORDS:

DOJOS – 50
KUDZU – 38
FAZE – 40
OPERA – 32
BEIGEs – 33
AZO – 38
MAQUI – 36
QINDAR – 26
FIGS – 36
QUIN – 30
JIMP – 30
HM – 30
FRAZzLED – 112 (highest word in my division)


DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!!!
STUFF I COULDN'T GET DOWN
(scores are listed as me v. opponent)

RAYMOND KASNY, 408-362
Holding ALO?TIC, I missed COITALLY, LOCALIST, LOCALITE, LOCALITY and TEOCALLI through an L, and COALPITS and TROPICAL through a P before finally placing COALIeST. That play was challenged.

BERNIE McMAHON 395-336
Bernie plunked down the brash BOATY* to open and I ignored it. I wanted to see if his strategy was to play phonies. So when TATsOIS came down on the board, I immediately challenged. Guess what, tho: It’s new. "DUH!" I haven’t studied the new word list up to the T’s yet. Ouch. I laid down OUTGIVE and as I counted it up I realized I was jammed by a G on the board. (GOUTGIVE*? Don't think so!) So I played VOGUE and then VERVE in my next two turns. It was too late in the game to throw the Vs back.

FRANCES LICHTENSTEIN 422-160
With a K on the board, I had KNOTLESS, and wrote it in the margin, even though I was not totally sure about it. Instead, I blew one of my esses for 18 pts. with STOKE before bingoing with LEANERS.

LINDA WANCEL 388-325
The board was jammed and the northwest quadrant was blocked by V and C plays. Hence, I could neither get down ALUNItES nor INSULAtE.

SUE GABLE 422-295
Due to a board that was listing to the lee with no possible S/D/R/E hooks, I watched the parade of bingos on my rack, including RAVINED/INVADER, AVODIRE/AVOIDER, ROARING, TALLIES/TAILLES, OUTPACES and INOSITE.

BOB KERR 411-399
I never had a chance to get ROGUISH down, and instead played HOURIS before bingoing on the next turn with INGRATE , which ended at A14. A move that would drive us both nuts, with each of us waiting for that final S to be drawn from the bag. Bob played HEMATINE and I did a double take, anticipating HEMATITE (a hematine is a synthetic hematite). I held it in my momentary haze and let it stand (after the game, I realized I knew the word, which also works as HAEMATINE, HEMATIN and HAEMATIN/ANTHEMIA). After catching up with FAZE for 40 on the next turn, and it being so near the end with no S in sight, I finally couldn't take it anymore and shut down that threatening open A15 spot with ARB, ending at B15.

SANDY KIRSHENBAUM 430-290
If only RESTAIN* was good. I would have hit the jackpot, including a double in two directions. However, STEARIN was the best I could eke out of the nine possible anagrams in that rack. I managed to bingo out with sNEAKIER.

LEE LICHTENSTEIN 361-392
In my only losing game, I sat with DISINTER/INDITERS/NITRIDES while Lee Lichtenstein leapt around the board with JULEP for 52, AX for 52 plus other nice pointy plays including the swank STYLIsT, which was the point of no return in our game.

Final Standing (unrevised):

Kerr, Bob 8 837
Kraar, Lynda 8 797
Lichtenstein, Lee 6 390
McMahon, Bernie 6 379
Snyder, Simon 5 292
Kasny, Raymond 4 206
Wancel, Linda 4 -300
Kirshenbaum, Sandy 3 -673
Gable, Sue 1 -476
Lichtenstein, Frances 0 -1595