Atlanta Sunday Scrabble

For the past few weeks I have been attending a scrabble club on Sundays. You can read about my first experience at the club on this previous blog post.

At my second time to the group, the organizer Artis had decided to host a month long competition for the regular attendees. To be eligible you had to have attended at least three previous meetings. Only games against other eligible participants would be counted for the competition, so I was a bit concerned that no one would want to play scrabble with me. After I finished my first game, Artis came to me and said since she had the power to make up any rules she wanted that she would allow me to participate in the competition. She said I was good enough to compete fairly with the others and I helped even out the numbers.

The first game that week was against Cynthia. Cynthia is actually from another club, but said she wanted to get in as many games as she could before she went to the National Scrabble Championship the next week. She played very quickly and very well. I was a bit intimidated honestly. I do not remember the outcome of the games from that week, other than I lost most of them, maybe all of them.

The next week things ran a little more smoothly as far as moving from table to table for each game. We all played four games apiece. I challenged my first word and was successful. I actually challenged a few words that day successfully and one unsuccessfully. I also had a good word that I played challenged. When you opponent takes a zero for a turn, it helps your chances of winning. I won one of four games that week.

The third week in August was a disaster for me. I lost all four games I played. I had no bingos. I lost two word challenges.

Today was week four. My best week yet. The first game I played JJ and won 387-318 with a bingo. Game #2 was against Lisa whom had barely beat me the previous weeks. This time I came out on top 356-344 with a bingo. I almost lost at the end trying to play too conservatively. Game #3 was against Bright. I successfully challenged two of his bingo attempts. However I did not challenge his third bingo attempt. I knew the word was good, but I failed to pay enough attention to the hook. After the game we checked and his hook VEGS was invalid. I did not have a bingo myself in this game, although I did have a double letter J in a triple word score in JOINS hooked by the S to make SHAGS on another triple word score for 81 points. I lost this third game 341-368 and I am still kicking myself. The final game of the day was against Pearl and she beat me handily 315-428. I did manage another bingo though. So for the day I was 2-2 with three bingos.

Today I tried some of the pizza for the first time. I had a slice of Oz Special and a slice of Veggie Deluxe. The pie was thin and slightly doughy underneath the heap of toppings. The crust at the edge was thick and chewy and well done. The veggie certainly had some interesting flavors on it with the baked eggplant and artichoke hearts. The Oz Special was very good. They served the pizza with a knife and fork and I tried to use it, but the bottom crust did not cut very well. At the same time it was not stiff enough to really pick up and eat by hand, at least not while trying to play a game of scrabble.

Next week is the end of the competition. Cash prizes will be awarded for most cumulative bingos, highest cumulative score, and highest word score. I am really not in the running for the first two prizes, but it only takes a one shot deal to win the third. Wish me luck next week.