From: BigJimK@aol.com
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 01:34:33 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Wisconsin Dells Premier Division
Message-id: <971013013430_1065877523@emout15.mail.aol.com>
Before I get accused of elitism, Harriet Strasberg will report on the other divisions, if she has not already done so.
This account of my victory, surprisingly, is not fictitious.
Sixteen players played in the top division at the Wisconsin Dells tourney. The top four seeds--Brian Cappelletto, myself, Lisa Odom and Steve Pellinen--were a combined 14-14 on the first day of play, making for a wide open field. In the end, no one was better than 9-4 and no one was worse than 4-9.
1. Jim Kramer 9-4 +711
Jim's imaginary exploits are legendary.
2. Brian Cappelletto 9-4 +350
Brian's real-life exploits are legendary.
3. Vince Van Dover 9-4 +301
Vince led through most of the final day, but was outdrawn by yours truly in the last game.
4. Ron Multon 9-4 +97
Ron had a terrific tournament. He has not played a tourney for two years!
5. Bob Prentiss 8-5 +193
6. Lisa Odom 8-5 +113
7. Mike Weepie 7-6 +169
8. Jim Frankki 6-7 +24
9. Marty Gabriel 6-7 -98
10. Jane Welch 6-7 -135
11. Sandy Carman 5-8 -96
12. Harriette Lakernick 5-8 -184
13. Steve Pellinen 5-8 -273
14. Nedd Kareiva 4-9 -200
15. Jim Adams 4-9 -411
16. Carol Dustin 4-9 -573
I apologize for not knowing the prize monies. I do know that I won $300.
My highlight game was against Jim Frankki in round 11. After passing, he played ORGANISE H3 through my opening play, and then extended it to REORGANISE. Hmm. I decided to see what MW 10 is made of and the play came back acceptable. I didn't ask for a second opinion. Hmm. (I'm not finding it in my copy of the dictionary.) Anyway, after Jim played, I found a bingo with ABDHIIT, hooking the D to make REORGANISED. Had it been challenged, an interesting discussion would have ensued. He then bingoed two more times to take a 60-point lead, but I came back with a bingo and a 75-point Q play. At the end, Jim emptied the bag, creating a second bingo line. I was short on time and had mistracked, knowing that he had 7 of the tiles in ARTICLES. He can either end a 8 in R or play an 8 through a D, with D near but not at the end of the word. I took out the D line and took a 497-424 lead. Fortunately, I had blocked CITADELS and he did not have a bingo, because 497 would have been too much to lose with!
In the last round against Vince I had nice tiles and found a nice 7 with BCEENU?. Of course Brian had to tell me later that I had missed a better one.
I got some good SOWPODS practice in against Brian, being fortunate enough to go 4-3 against him. I got to play a few fun words like JAGIR# (when I should have played JIRGA#) and VEHM#. I don't recall either of us playing any # bingos, but Brian talked himself out of MEIONITE#.
All in all, a fun time was had.
All the best,
Jim Kramer
ABDHIIT = ADHIBIT
BCEENU? = BUCkEEN or BEdUNCE