My First Scrabble Tournament

Scrabble Tournament you say? What is that? I didn't know they existed a year ago either. Now I have experienced one for myself.

The tournament was held in a meeting room at the Hyatt Place near the Atlanta airport on December 4-5, 2010. A complete listing of the results can be found here. My name is listed as 13th place in Division 4. If you click on the plus beside my name you can see a game by game summary of my results.

I was excited about my first tournament. I had gotten some pointers from some of the people in the club I regularly attend. The tournament director told me that she thought I would do well, although I took that with a grain of salt as she was trying to get me to sign up. I really just wanted the experience, but I did hope to at least break even with wins and losses.

DAY ONE

Saturday morning my first game was against an elderly woman who had difficulty hearing and moved very slowly with a walker. On her 7th play she made the bingo SAILING. Meanwhile I was struggling with a consonant heavy rack. I finally elected to exchange. Then she plays TOONIES for another bingo. I elect to challenge, but the word was acceptable and I lose my turn. At this point she has two bingos and I have taken two zeros, so I whimper home to a humiliating loss. She is a good player though and I have gotten the nerves out of my way.

My second game is against a young man who graduated from Georgia Tech in 2008 and who is playing in his first tournament as well. We had chatted a bit waiting for the tournament to start. I figure I should be evenly matched against him. He goes first and opens with the bingo SEAGULL for 66. Two plays later he bingos with GROUPIES and I am down by 109 points. I never find the big play for myself and wind up losing by that same margin.

My third game is against the number one seed, a fourteen year old red haired girl. I play the bingo DOILIES on my second play and am able to maintain that lead until she bingos with RACKING for 84 points on her ninth play. From there she scores 40, 23, 38, 34, 22, 11, while I struggle with 5, 14, 14, 23, 6, 18, 6. I feel like I should have scored much better in the end, but played poorly.

My fourth game is against an opponent that attends my regular scrabble club. I am confident against her because I have played her in the past. I open with QUEASY for 56 and make the bingo WOOLIEST later for the win.

Lunch is then served at the hotel, but it is rather forgettable.

I next play a young lady from Huntsville, Alabama. I play horribly in this game and get really frustrated. She finally bingos with DIRTIES on her twelfth play and follows it up with QAID for 48. This game has me questioning what I am doing here. My best play is only 30 points.

Next I take on the eventual champion. She is a local young lady in just her second tournament and her appearance makes one think she would be more at home in a beauty pageant than at a scrabble tournament. I succumb on the strength of her two bingos, RECLINE and AREOLAS, to my none. This game was played on a board with orange tiles with blue letters. The letters almost seem to jump up off the tiles like 3D. After this game I am mentally exhausted, but the day is not over yet.

My seventh game of the day is against another regular from my club. I have never beaten her at club though, so I know it will be tough. She goes first and opens her word vertically, the only vertical opening I have seen at the tournament. My play opens up the DL-TW for her. She says, "Preston, you know better than to leave a vowel there like that." as she scores 48 points. She bingos with MUSKETS a few plays later and as she normally does, she shuts down the board. I take another loss.

My final game of the day is against an older gentleman. He moves out to an early lead, but I get the bingo STILLEST on my ninth move. He slowly crawls back into it and I eventually lose by ten points after I struggle with a vowel heavy rack playing EAU, OE, and EAU on consecutive turns. After only winning one game on the first day I am not so sure I want to do this any longer.

DAY TWO

My first game of the day (9th overall) is against the number two seed. On her second play she bingos with STABLES, but I bingo right back with GRINDERS. From there she slowly extends to a bingo sized lead. Finally the bag is emptied and I have my last chance to bingo. I glance at the clock. 2:52 left. I decide that I have to bingo so I look and look and look. There is one bingo lane that would required my word to start with a vowel. I try and try to find something for that spot, but finally give up. There is another spot where she had left the word CROUTE. I could add an S and make a bingo through the TWS, but surely she would have closed that lane off. I decide it is my only shot. I lay down STORIES, creating CROUTES, for 79 points. She challenges the word. She is certain CROUTES is not valid. But it is! I am out. I catch her with the Q and a lot of letters and get 38 points added to my score. I have a 10 point win. She congratulates me, dumbfounded because she was certain she would win. We fill out the slip to turn in. Then she looks at the clock. She says, "you went over." I look at it and see a -0:53. 10 point overtime penalty. The game has ended in a tie. Now I am in shock. I thought I had won. But it is a tie.

My next game is against the 10 year old sister of the 14 year old number one seed. She is playing in her first tournament and hasn't won a game yet. It is almost like taking candy from a baby, but I try not to run up the score or play questionable words against her as I coast to a win.

My next game is against another first time player. Neither of us bingo, but she passes on a turn, swaps twice, and I successfully challenge off one of her words. She also takes an overtime penalty and I win the game. So far so good.

My next game is against someone I had played and beaten at the Decatur Scrabble club. I have a tight game going. I play a two blank bingo TAMALES. On his 14th play with a 40 point lead he lays down LWEI for 23. I challenge and lose. Then I desperately play a word that he challenges off and I wind up losing big.

My next game is against another older lady. I get one bingo SPARING. She plays ZEDS for 53. She has a lead of that amount when I play SIX for 43 on my 16th turn. She manages to hold me off for a 20 point lead, but she kept repeating, "I don't like this game" on her last several turns.

My next game is against a guy from South Carolina. We play a tight game. Then I make a huge mistake and leave a triple letter square exposed next to a vowel. Finally he plays the X on it both ways and scores 61 points on his 15th turn and I lose by 56 points. Huge mistake on my part on a game I should have won.

My final game of the tournament my opponent bingos on his third turn with BAILERS. I am behind. He plays ROUTE leaving the hook exposed into the TWS for CROUTE which was such a pivotal word in my first game of the day. I get 41 points for the word I did not record. He challenges CROUTE and loses his turn and I am back into the game. He struggles through some vowel heavy racks and we go back and forth in a very tight game. That is until I leave a vowel exposed next to a premium square and he uses the X to get 36 points late in the game and I limp home from there.

The tournament ends and I have gone 3 wins, 11 losses, and 1 tie. I am not happy about my results because I believe I could have done better. I made some critical mistakes. I also realize that I really need to learn the three letter words, especially the twos into threes. We'll see when I make my next venture into a Scrabble tournament.