From: Joel Sherman <icenine@panix.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 04:09:03 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Reno Diary, Part 5:MAIN EVENT Day 4
Message-id: <Pine.SUN.3.94.970719003958.22256B-100000@panix3.panix.com>
From the desk of G.I. JoelGERNAUT:
Round 23 was my second meeting with Jim Kramer in this tourney, and it was a no-brainer, I moved a lot of tiles and scored a lot of points and Jim had nothing to work with, +201 for me, no great plays or interesting words. Round 24 was a little more competitive, as Bob Lipton matched my 3rd turn EARLAPS (72) with LAZARs (72), and stayed with me until my 9th turn when NAETHING (72) took the lead for good. The second half of the game was played on a tight board and it looked like one of those arcade games where you pound a pop-up gopher back in its hole with a mallet, Bob would make an opening for a small score and I would have the right tiles to close it for a big score. I was content to collect an 85-pt. win after Bob played his second blank in a three tile out play. Bob didn't play poorly, I just had better combinations and was able to stay one step ahead of him.
Round 25 was one of those games that every winner of a big tourney has to get, a gift. Bob Ellickson played a fine game for 11 moves. It was a low scoring affair from the get-go; my third turn LEZ (52) put me ahead by 19, and Bob's 6th turn AnEMIAS (75) gave him a 47-pt. edge at 166-119. Bob played the board tight out of concern for my bingo power, and maintained a one turn edge for a while, but I finally managed to collect the case blank, and maneuvered my rack to balance out the vowel/consonant ratio while hoping to keep my slim bingo chances alive with an N floating at a8. Bob made that N harder to use by playing V-E-XED thru the E next to it, but I saw 2 O's in the pool and held two more N's so I thought I might be able to come up with a NON- word, but it soon became evident that this would be too difficult so I finally gambled on a low-scoring board opener that could have given him an easy 32-pt. block and left me with nothing, but as my luck would have it, Bob didn't have the key tile, H, and with a very bad rack, he blundered. The position follows:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
-----------------------------
1|T E M P I U = ' =|
2| - A " N " - |
3| W C ' K A |
4|' N A F O W L I D '|
5| n I - N U | Ellickson 275 EEEJOOU on move
6| " E B L A H " N " | J Sherman 236 AGINRR?
7| V ' M ' A T T I C |
8|N E V I F O G ' =| In bag: SHY
9| X ' A L O ' A R ' |
10| E S E G O B Y E " | Bob's last play: SORT m11 (16)
11| D Z I T R E D S | Joel's last play: UNCOIL g1 (8)
12|' - P I U O D O '|
13| - E R I R |
14| - " E L T - |
15|= ' Q A T S ' =|
-----------------------------
Well, from Bob's point of view, I could be threatening HAYING a10 (59)
as well as UNSAYInG or USHeRING. Understandably, he is a bit leery of
parting with his only consonant and potentially high scoring tile, but
I scared him with that opening, and altho I didn't have anything from
the U, he felt a need to try to block. He just did it the worst way
possible, EEL i2 (4). I bingoed with RANGIeR 1i (81), drew the H and
played out next, and walked away with an unexpected 57-pt. win. Bob
would probably have won with JO k2 (16), or even JOE n1 (27) setting
himself up for OE o1 (35), altho with the S? unseen, I could see not
risking the KAES hook on row o.
Round 26 is a rematch with Mr. Schonbrun, the man who eats at Louis' Basque Restaurant. ;-) I exchange 4 tiles, he opens BAP 8g (14), I reply RATTING 9h (67), he plays JANITOR m7 (44), and I look at the rack ADEFOSS and remember FATSOES=FOSSATE, but don't remember that FOSSATE is a run-on adj. at FOSSA, so I try FOSSATED k4 for a 98-pt. double-double, Lester holds briefly and challenges it off, then exchanges 7 tiles. I play FOSSAE/JANITORS for 49 and he comes right back with OYEZ o12 for 51. I dump off KID for 21 holding the other F, Les bingos SWOLLeN for 68, leaving me my carefully set up WAFT for 43, and after he has a 12-pt. vowel movement with ELUATE, my OX (41) puts me 32 ahead. Les bingos again with INCITERS for 74, but I get E-N-TrENCH thru it for 80, and after his GAMP for 38, the game begins anew at 301-all. My GAVE and his OYER keep us tied at 325, and with the rack BDEEHIV, I decide to take a big risk, because I see large threats looming in the unseen tiles.
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
-----------------------------
1|= ' = ' =|
2| - " " - |
3| I ' ' - |
4| E N T r E N C H - '|
5| C - E | J Sherman 325 BDEEHIV on move
6| " I " " L " | Schonbrun 325 ???????
7| T ' ' U J |
8|O Y E R B A P A ' A =| Unseen: A EEE III OO UUU Q
9| R ' R A T T I N G | DD G L M NN RR S =23
10| " S W O L L e N E I " |
11| O X - T |
12|G A M P ' - O O|
13|A - ' K I D R Y|
14|V - " F O S S A E|
15|E ' W A F T ' Z|
-----------------------------
I could play BEECH h1 (36), but with the Q coming, I decided I'd rather
ditch the V so I have less difficult tiles to try to play later, and with
three unseen U's, I figured to increase my chances of getting the Q and
being able to play it quickly by drawing more tiles. I inferred from
Lester's last play of OYER that he probably didn't have the Q yet, since
it was likely he had a U with 3 unseen, else QUEY for 60 in same place.
I unloaded HIVED l1 (35), and drew neither the Q or any U's! Now I'm
thinking, "oh crud, I just fed him a 68 pt. play thru my I" but he didn't
have it yet! Lester plays HURL 1l (21), which still leaves a chance he
could play EQUINE 2i (76), so I dive into the bag again, from the rack
ABDEIOS, I play ABOVE 3i (28), keeping the scoring pressure on Lester,
and hoping to draw QUID for 2f or RISQUE n1. Now I get a real surprise,
I draw no Q, and both remaining U's, and suddenly realize that Lester is
stuck with the Q, which he proves by emptying the bag with VEINED 14a.
We play out one at a time and I pocket a 51-pt. victory. This is the
kind of luck I need to win a big tourney, and now I'm closing in on first
place. First place presents himself to me in the next game in the person
of Trey Wright. Trey puts up a good fight, drawing first blood with
DISPART (78), but after I bingo with each blank, OSTEOmA (82) and DEsIGNEE
(61), he fades in the late game, and I cruise into the lead with a +69.
Now I'm in first and get my first rematch with Joe Edley. I lead 2nd place Joe by a game and 89 spread points. He starts by exchanging 4 tiles and I open with VOWEL 8d (30). He moves some of same with AVENUE thru my V. I bingo with LACuNATE h8 (80), and after his DEB g7 (18) I find the only playable one of the two possible 8lb's with my rack EIMNPY? [1], pick up 72 points, and altho Joe bingos right back with TuRBINES 11g (68) thru my u, I put him deeper in the hole with MUGGY c3 (41) and ZOEAE m9 (48) on my next two turns. Late in the game Joe tries a desperation opening to cut down the spread with DE d2 to set up his O, but I beat him to it with the other O after fishing off a D, slapping down LOITERS 1c (79), and I come out with a 502-278 win. After Joe's earlier demolition of me, I am now 1-1 with a +2 cum against Joe in this tourney so far. :-)
The victory ends day 4 by giving me a lead of 2 games and 537 points with 3 games left to play, on the rest of the field which is still headed by Joe Edley, so I am in the enviable position of needing to win just one of those three games to lock up first, and looking forward to meeting Joe Edley in at least the first of those three. I head off to a nice all-you-can-eat for $18 sushi dinner with Paul Avrin, Lisa Odom, Lynn Cushman, Barbara Singerman, bro Larry, and Bob Felt, and stuff myself silly with some rather good sushi. The system at this restaurant is the waitress asks how many in the party are having the all-you-can-eat, and then each person chooses some items and everything gets brought to the table on one huge platter, and since we can't always tell what each piece is, we wind up eating whatever's on the plate, and then ordering some more. The chef knows this so he sends whatever is handy without regard for what each diner ordered, but it was okay, because everything was fresh and tasty. But we wound up eating what probably would have cost in the neighborhood of $40-50 each ala carte for only $18 each, so who's gonna complain. :-)
Tomorrow, the clinch, stay tuned...
G.I. JoelGERNAUT