Three Months

Friday, August 21, 2009

Three months since my last tournament, and my only concern should have been whether I could still play the game--certainly not whether the field would be too weak. Plus, with the new ratings system, a weak field actually benefits me. Still, unsure if people like Darrell Day and Chris Cree played Bryan's events, I e-mailed Orry Swift to see if he wanted to go up there and bolster the field.

Hadn't gotten a reply e-mail from Orry Swift by the time I needed to leave to beat the rush hour, so I went ahead and took off for Dallas. It was just as well that I was by myself, because I always have plenty of things to do in Dallas, from visiting my favorite restaurant to meeting friends to photographing Starbucks.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Turns out I neededn't have worried about having some high-rated players in the field, because after spending the morning rephotographing as many Starbucks as possible I arrived at the Golden Corral in The Colony to find Darrell Day, Chris Cree, and Michael Early already there. All concerns of playing in too weak a field disappeared and were replaced by the realization that if my skills had deteriorated during my three month absence, I might not win a game.

Lack of practice and study wasn't my only worry. A couple of days after returning to America my stomach went on the fritz, and I experience several days of something between normal bowel movements and diarrhea. Around the third day I started to become worried, especially when I felt the onset of a headache. The first thing that occurred to me was that I had finally caught that swiny flu thingie.

By Friday, however, my headache had disappeared, and my last movement had been the previous day around 1:00 PM. The trouble appeared to have passed, and I was relieved that I would not have to listen to my parents counseling me to skip the tournament, or play with a face mask.

Note to any fresh readers of this blog. All the personal detail might catch you by surprise, but you'll get used to it. I hesitate to leave anything out for fear of getting a flood of nasty e-mails from readers demanding to know what happens in the bathroom. Everybody secretly wants to know what happens in the bathroom.

Anyway, Friday evening saw two failed attempts in the bathroom, and I was a little concerned that I had gone from constant bowel movements to none at all. In wee hours of the morning I felt some pangs on pain in my gut, and I thought I might have to rush to the nearby IHOP or Denny's, but the pain passed.

By tournament check-in time, still nothing, and I was starting to think back to an incident with another player at tournament, in Georgia, I think in which he lost close to 10 minutes, maybe more, off his clock because he was waiting for the bathroom. Thus it was with a certain sense of urgency that rushed to the bathroom immediately after checking in, and I sat down determined not to fail!

The outcome? Well, let's just say that after more than 10 minutes on the throne, so to speak, I was wishing the torrent I had unleashed would cease, and I was worried that I would be late for the first round.

Relief came in time for me to face my first opponent, Darrell Day, but there was no relief from his habit, begun in Austin, of bingoing early. That is so rude of him. But perhaps more irritation was that he actually held my play of WAES/(D)E. I could hardly believe it, and my first thought was that my skills had declined to the point that I had played a phoney two. A few seconds later his comment indicated that it was WAES he was unsure of, and I was in even greater disbelief. I had learned the mnemonic for which -AE words take an S about 1-2 months into my tournament Scrabble career. Oh, I do so wish he had challenged and allowed me to take the lead. Instead, I continued to trail, even after my 86-point bingo, and I had to watch my win chances evaporated by his onslaught of power tiles, J, Q, Z, S.

I doubt I could have won that endgame given Darrell's power tiles, and Quackle agrees, but as I walked away I couldn't help but feel that I had hurt my chances because of time trouble. It is certainly possible, I would think, that time management is one of the skills that might degrade after a prolonged absence from the game. I shudder to think how much slower I might have played if I had gone into the tournament completely cold, without those four games of practice at the Houston club the Sunday before.

Side note--I'm still not sure that DE is good.

I was the one with the opening bingo against Chris Cree, but it wasn't a cheapie little thing like Darrell's TERNAtE, but instead INQUIET. Ordinarily that opening play would have put me in a confident mood, but less than a minute later I had reason to work. No, not Chris' play--he was still fiddling with his tiles. No, rather it was a pang of pain that shot through my stomach. I had already drawn and thus could not leave the tile, and as additional pangs hit him, all I could do was squirm in my seat and hope that I would not end up needing to rush out to the car for replacement undies. "Come on, Chris!" I thought, as he seemed to be taking forever to play. Finally he made a play, and I just threw something down and hoped it was not too sucky a play. When I eventually went and returned from the bathroom, nearly three minutes of my time had passed, and I hoped I would not have additional pangs. Fortunately I drew a blank for a second bingo and a healthy lead, and my tiles were good enough that I could have survived time trouble had it come to that.

Not too many worries against Michelle Davis after I managed to find the only bingo in EINRVY?, but my tiles were such during most of the game that I never took a commanding lead. I needed that lead because Michelle plays really fast, and if I had to rush to the bathroom, I was sure to lose several minutes off my clock. And sure enough, I was hit with that sudden need, and when I returned I found not only that my clock was down to just 9 minutes, but also that Michelle had taken a 2-point lead with BOUN(C)ERS. If I had not already had that second blank, those extra minutes could have turned out to be significant

Against Michael Early I felt a bit more confident after playing the first bingo, (T)ENTORIA, and more confident still after he lost a turn trying (TENTORIA)S*/SIXTE. But two turns later he followed OUTVIES with OUTCRIED, and all of a sudden I was on the defensive. I managed to close the gap with GErMIES(T) and then drew UNFAI(r)ER, but Michael managed to get down SAN(D)SHOE to keep a solid lead going into the endgame. Perhaps with the blank and better tiles I could have won, but it was not to be.

Afterwards I discovered a couple of critical mistakes. First, I had the L for (TENTORIA)L, and I saw the play of course, but I wasn't sure. Passing it up the first time was perfectly reasonable, but after I challenged off Michael's play I should have realized that it was a psychologically advantageous moment to try the hook.

Also, I missed MINIVEr. Of all my mistakes, that one is probably most attributable to my three months sans study. There is a good possibility that I would have encountered the word during my regular anagramming during the summer, and having it fresher in my mind could have allowed me to find the bingo. And finding the bingo one turn earlier might have made all the difference.

Chris Schneider managed to score well enough through the middle game to worry me, but after a pretty nice play of (PA)CKAGED for 48 I pulled away. Unfortunately, as I feared, I was paired against the elder Chris in the KOTH round, and after having beaten him three times in a row, I did not seriously expect to pull off another win. Heck, I did not even have a chance, after I watched Chris Cree open with REWrITE, TZ(A)REVNA, and ROOStER. I never saw a bingo. Game over. Lousy way to go out.

Funny thing, Chris lost an early challenge in that game and won, Michael Early lost an early challenge in our game and then won, and Darrell Day had (embarrassingly, in my opinion) been unsure of WAES, and won. Irritating, especially since the only challenge I lost was OUTAGED*, one I knew was phony but figured I'd try anyway since I couldn't lose.

On a positive note, I had to conclude that my skills had not really degraded during my three months absence. I hadn't lost all my anagramming ability, and I could still play the time. I wasn't worried about my time trouble--I think I'll be okay come Mid-Cities.

I do think having gone to club helped to make up for not playing or studying, and I'm glad I have access to a club here in Houston for a few weeks. I didn't miss it while in Wisconsin because I was playing tournament roughly twice a month, but I fear prolonged periods without any over the board play whatsoever.

Opponents' Bingos
TERNAtE DARKIEs BOUN(C)ERS OUTVIES OUTCR(I)ED SAN(D)SHOE HOOtIEr DARIOLE REWrITE TZ(A)REVNA ROOStER

My Bingos
INVItER INQUIET COOnTIE NERVIlY SEEMINg (T)ENTORIA RONDELS

Missed Bingo Turns
hEADIER (too low on time to go thru each letter)
MINIVEr

Analysis

#1 - L - Day
------------
4.8	FLUTTE(R)
4.1	WORT	WO,WOT,WIT (don't like these plays)
0	AX
0	KILT
11.2	D(R)ILY	LE(ER)Y/(KILT)Y,LYSED (unsure)
5.2	WAES
3.2	GOA(L)IE
7.1	GEUM
11.5	READ	hEADIER/(S)h (low on time)
0	INVItER
0	(E)BON
3	BO
0	D(E)N


#2 - W - Cree
-------------
0	INQUIET
0	FOIL
0	HAAF 7G
2.6	BE(N)NI	PI(N)NAE,PE(N)NIA
5.1	PAVES	PSOAE 4-tile overlap
0	(P)EE
1.6	COOnTIE	(H)OmEOTIC
0	DAINTY
30.2	lose turn (OUTAGED*)
0.3	OUTAGE A10
0	GO(O)DS
0	(EME)R(Y)


#3 - W - Davis
-----------------------
0.1	-IIKUU
0.3	FR(O)W
3.7	BU(L)LY	UrB(A)NELY,tUNE(A)BLY (unsure)
0	NERVIlY
0	A(G)OG
5.7	ATLATL
30	TOED	(W)OODnOTE,(W)OODTOnE
5.3	(Z)OEA	OO(Z)E
17.4	COP	hOSPICE,PICEOuS
25.1	USE	dISEUSE (thought it had an I),SEISUrE
1	SEEMINg	SIEMENs
14.6	Q(I)	can't risk getting stuck
6.7	XI
6	JUT


#4 - L - Early
--------------
1.4	UDO
0	THIR(D)
0	(T)ENTORIA
17.1	QAT	JETLAG/(TENTORIA)L (unsure)
40.4	(Z)AG (unsure of (TENTORIA)S* so block EXIST)	JELL/(TENTORIA)L (unsure)
0	J(O)LLY
7.9	(G)ENE
23.9	VIN(E)
0	GErMIES(T)	GEMmIES(T)
9.6	OA(R)
18	F(I)RM	BIO(LOGIC)


#5 - W - Schneider
------------------
6.4	NEB	BONNE
0	RONDELS
0.7	TAJ
0	MI(Z)EN
3.4	GURR(Y)	PLAGU((Y),GULP(Y)
13.4	PALM	LAMPA(D),KAL(A)M
0	(PA)CKAGED
0.6	Q(AT)S
0	SIXTY
0	FE
0	IL(EX)
0	CEDE(R)


#6 - L - Cree
-------------
10.8	FAI(r)EST
0	HOVE
0	J(O)UK
0	GY(R)I
0	QUI(Z)
11.7	BARD	B(EF)ITS
0.4	M(U)SH
0*	WO(R)E
12.9	(AL)A	given up
0	TA(K)E
0	CIN(Q)UE	don't care anymore
0	MENDS

1 - L - 3.9 (50.3)
2 - W - 3.3 (39.8)
3 - W - 8.3 (115.9)
4 - L - 10.6 (118.3)
5 - W - 2.0 (24.5)
6 - L - 2.9 (35.8)

Avg: 5.2

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