The Last TWL1 Tournament

Sunday, March 26, 2006

I am rated 8th of 8 players in division C, the third division. This is the last TWL1 tournament, and TWL2 officially goes into tournament use in March 2006.

Game 1
Opponent: Henry Yeung, rated 1249, seeded 1st

No luck, no luck!!! My 1st rack was GILORTT, and I played LOG, leaving IRTT. Guess what I drew? I+I+I!!! In a full bag? Man, the tile gods sure were against me this game. Henry bingoed twice in a row, first with ASTERIA, next with REMINdS.

I actually challenged REMINdS, because he announced the blank as an ‘M’ first. I challenged immediately and then he said, no ‘N’, then ‘D’. I called the tournament director, JC Green. Henry insisted he said ‘D’ first despite me not hearing it at all. How can a ‘D’ sounds like an ‘M’. Plus his second confirmation, he said ‘N’. John said I can withdraw my challenge, because the blank was not written down. I lost my respect for Henry immediately. He is a good player, and will climb the ranks. But he gets zero from me for honesty.

Well, lost this first game 270-442. Negative spread of 172 points. Not a good start. And lost faith in both Henry and John.

Game 2
Opponent: David Carlson, rated 1169, seeded 3rd

It was close at the beginning. I first challenged off his early non-word bingo, BEEPINGS* and built up a small lead. But he bingoed later with ROTATES.

SOWPODS undid me in this game. Later, I played QUAIRS#, an OSW word only for 48 points onto the top middle triple word space. It got challenged off. Played QUIRES next, again for 48 points, but my opponent hooked RE to make REQUIRES into the top left triple word space for 54 points. He then played BLANkEST, which I challenged and lost a turn. 2 mistakes. I bingoed RELEARNs towards the end, but lost this game 397-413. If I did not play QUAIRS# and not challenged BLANkest, I might have won.


Game 3
Opponent: Martin Mondragon, rated 1095, seeded 5th

I played Martin several times before, but never got to win him before. I had some luck to balance out my rack. Got one bingo, OUTLIE(R)S and he bingoed with GLAnCErS. Had both blanks in a rack!! Man…..and I started accumulating vowels in my rack. But that was a blessing in disguise, as in the end game, he had no vowels to play with, and I won 410-359. Finally get 1 win against him!

Game 4
Opponent: Marilyn Gage, rated 1185, seeded 2nd

Ahh…. I played a OSW word again…. Played OARIEST#, and got it challenged off. (OTARIES is not good too) Threw the O for 5 points and drew B and played BARITES next. Then, the curse of the vowels hit me again. At one point, I had 5 ‘E’ on my rack and I could not change due to the board openings. My opponent bingoed with DIASTEr. She led the end game and I lost 308-377.

Game 5
Opponent: Helen Gendler, rated 1150, seeded 4th.

Played ZINGA(R)E!! My first time too. For 54 points. I almost played ZINGA(R)ES coz I had the S. But luckily, I did not coz ZINGARES* is no good. My opponent bingoed REMOTesT. 2 blanks!! Second time today that my opponents had that. Played SINNERS in the late game and won 418-329. Funny, 2 games with opponent bingoed with 2 blanks and I won?!?

Game 6
Opponent: David Carlson, rated 1169, seeded 3rd

Playing David again. No luck again. I think the tile gods want me to quit or something. Had one rack with EEEIINR and towards the end, a rack with ANNNNOU. So annoying! Plus, David took all 4 ‘S’ and 2 blanks! I only caught up slightly playing Q, Z and X nicely. Lost 341-423.

Got 2 games. As I am seeded last in this division, I might get some increase in ratings with 2 games. Well, this is the last of TWL1 for me. TWL2 starts in March 2006. Woe to me!! First, already have 2 list to remember (second one being OSW-only words), and now I’ve got to learn new TWL2 words!!