From: Joan Mocine <jkm@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 20:46:24 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Encore du Reno
Message-id: <Pine.3.89.9707162035.A27441-0100000@netcom16>
I should be on Lithium. Win a couple of games, "I'm number one! I'm number one!" Lose the next 2, "How the hell am I supposed to know OVERSAUTE isn't good? What am I, a swami?" Losing by 170 in the final game, the thought of giving up Scrabble altogether and taking up quilting comes to mind. Of course, a few days after the tournament it's "When's the next one?" and "I promise to study at least half an hour a day." "Oooh, look Mommy, that lady's nose is growing!"
I certainly should have been well-rested before the big tournament, as the Weisskopfs put us up in their glorious Tahoe digs the weekend before. Tahoe seemed to help Martin. He won the expert division in the first Early Bird tourney.
31 games. Before it starts I always wish there were 50 games. Half way through....sheeesh is this EVER going to end?
Looking back over my game against Larry Gradus, I notice I was leading by more than 100 points until I played "FADING". After that, my average score was 14.
I'm totally dead in one game, even after my opponent opens a spot for my Q. All he has to do is make a couple of small plays and he wins. Instead, he plays QAU and hits his clock.
I had a moderately good tournament, but two of the last three games - 29 and 31 - were gruesome. I lost the first by 240 points to a woman who had a 160 point lead before I ever laid a tile on the board. I won the next one from a guy who challenged "ALIENORS" and played EQUiNEs for 100 points.
During the 30th game, one of the players at the next board was having a challenge fest. Her opponent tried "SETABLE" - challenged off; then "BESTEAL" - challenged off. I was wondering whether he was thinking beastlike or covered with theft. Later he played "VOILANCE". His opponent started to record the score and then said "OH NO! Wait, you haven't picked any tiles have you? I have 30 seconds don't I? Can I challenge??!!" I was fascinated by all this. I had just made a 3 tile play and was picking. I just kept taking tiles out of the bag the whole time I was listening to the goings-on. When the craziness was over and VOILENCE had been removed, I looked down and saw 4 tiles on my rack and 7 lying face down on the table. And this was AFTER Joe Edley asked us all if we liked the new challenge rule. It was a miracle that I hadn't picked 30 or 40 tiles. My opponent was allowed to pick 5 tiles (x + 2) and I got the remaining 2 on my rack - an X and an S. Of the 5 tiles he turned over, 3 were Es. He picked one of them to give me. It was the only E I had. I should overdraw more often. The neighboring game was won by the person who lost at least 3 challenges and I won mine. We were not exactly the poster children for Scrabble.
In the last game, I played Mr. VOILENCE. Of course he played no phonies at all in our game, which was a wipe-out.
In the bathroom on Saturday, I was cornered by a little old lady who said in an outraged voice: "I just lost a game because I made a mistake and added 100 points to my score in the middle of the game so I thought I was winning!" She claimed her opponent was responsible for setting her straight if she miscalled her total score. I pointed out that perhaps it was her own responsibility. She wailed that she had warned him at the outset she wasn't good at math. I agreed that her opponent was a selfish lowlife for neglecting to help her out, and suggested that she should be able to bite off part of his ear. She came in ahead of me and won money.
I seemed to be spending more time watching the goings-on at the next board than playing my own games. In one, the words BRUNG, RECONE and WYNE went unchallenged. The only challenge came when one player played SI, hooking the S onto BRUNG. This happened at one of the top tables.
Mr. 770 and his lovely wife Joanne treated us to dinner at a fancy grill restaurant in the El Dorado where we made the most of our good luck by ordering larks' tongues, fugu, and jeroboams of Chateau Cochon Volant '22. Lester and I were entertaining our hosts and the other diners by juggling various items from the salad bar while singing "A Policeman's Lot Is Not A Happy One" from Ravel's "Bolero", when we were unceremoniously escorted out by security guards. We asked Mark and Joanne to be our guests the very next night at Chez Cauchemar, but unfortunately they had made other plans.
Polly DuBois and Rich Moyer tied the knot and the guests at their reception made so much noise that the Hilton security forces were called. From what I could tell, they were a lot more lenient than those at the El Dorado.
As usual, Johnny and Jeff and Rick and PK and Bonnie and Brian made the whole tournament run smoothly.
It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones, especially Christina O'Sullivan (notice that I remembered HER in my first post and didn't have to scurry about writing follow-ups to atone for my sins). She didn't note that although I beat her, she came in ahead of me overall. Whadda gal.
It wasn't so great not challenging one of the only misspellings of the Spanish/Italian/French word for mister or a church official and thereby losing a game.
Remember: MISEAT = Poor MDs choking on ziti.
PS: A lion is having an affair with a zebra. One day they're going at it in the bushes when Mrs. Lion suddenly appears around the corner. Mr. Lion turns to Ms. Zebra and whispers "Quick, pretend I'm killing you!"
Oooh, I'm scared the foregoing doesn't have enough Scrabble strategy information. Maybe I should have made it a lion and a zebu.
I love you all! You were so very kind to me after my stay at Betty Ford. And what other crowd would have welcomed me back after they tried to pin the Versace murder on me. Kisses.
JKM