Finally! 1000!!!!

Sunday, March 25 2007

My first foray into competitive Scrabble after an absence of about 7 months! Have been busy in my search for a new home, purchase of the home, dressing up the home, exams, family visits from Malaysia and Singapore, etc. etc. etc.

Finally, stepped back into Tomato Thyme pizza parlour at Los Gatos for a weekend tournament. Somewhat uncertain of how I’ll do. Rusty, rusty. Ratings at 960 since the Nationals in August 2006. Seeded 5th in the Division 5 for this tournament.

Game 1: Lynn Johnson, rated 989, seeded 4th

Oh no….. first game and I get her….. Not a good start, with starting rack IILOOOR. Threw off OLIO for a measly 8 point start. But second draft was good, and bingoed next with DIViSOR. Immediately drew COLLIER for the next rack, but could not go down. Sixth move, bingoed with RE(T)AINED, and immediately drew out RETA?NS, which goes down next. Won 477-281 easily. Lucky…..

Game 2: Marina Villena, rated 1164, ranked 3rd

Started fairly equal, with Marina pulling ahead 20-30 points until I first bingoed with ERMINES to equalize it again. Had a few good plays, with DEX for 41 points immediately followed by JOLTS for 48 points. One play later, bingoed with ENDEARs and started closing off the board. Marina fought back well to catch up. Very close ending. Won 397-393. Phew…..

Game 3: Amanda Bonds, rated 856, seeded 7th

This was somewhat of a fishing game, making small plays till mid game where I bingoed with EROSIoN and she replied immediately with ETESIAN. The game remained pretty close but I gain some lead to win 347-317.

Game 4: David Carlson, rated 1187, seeded 1st

Both of us started with small plays. I first bingoed with SLINTER# (British only). David held the play for a moment, and let it go. Why? Because he played QI/QI over my bingo for triple-triple letter! So, still a close game till later when I bingoed with LICKeRS. Held the lead until the very end. At the very end, he bingoed out with TAVeRNS but was not sufficient to overtake. Won by slight lead of 407-404. A boo-boo happened next. When checking tiles after the end, there was a tile left in the bag! Was to be mine, but just a 1-pointer which would not change the results…. Man, I better check the bag at end games next time! He was a good sport about it though.

Game 5: Helen Gendler, rated 1167, seeded 2nd

She had a good start. Bingoed with OVEReAT with her first move! The spread went up with me trailing 85 points in mid-game until I bingoed with PIAStER to even out a little. Continued to catch up, with a good play of PAX for 40 points to even out the score somewhat. In the end game, I calculated and made sure she could not win. Win 372-368. Won 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeds! I think I’m gonna see a ratings increase!

Game 6: Marina Villena, rated 1164, ranked 3rd

Back to Marina, and she’s out for vengeance! I think the tile-gods finally thinks I’ve been too lucky…. Had lots of unplayable racks, changed tiles twice this game. Was trailing badly for most part until I bingoed with ReTAINE(R) to catch up somewhat. Had LADDERs as my last rack with nowhere to go…. Lost 352-395.

Sigh…. well, I turned out second in this tournament….. Should have been first as I was the only one with 5 real wins. But Marina was placed first as she had a bye in her first round to equalize with me on wins, and she had a higher spread. With my close wins, spread was not my friend.

But I’m happy! Found out that my ratings shot up to 1,049!!! I am finally above 1,000! Darn, I tried so hard last year to try for division 5 in the Nationals but missed by 1-point. Now, with a 7 month hiatus, I come back and got results like this! Man….

But I’m still happy :)