Houston TX Scrabble Tournament
April 24-25, 1999
Quality Inn, near Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
I played in the so-called Intermediate division,
which was the 2nd of 3 divisions. This division was
for players rated 1200-1600, although players rated
above 1100 could also "play up" in the division, which
I did (I was rated 1117). There were a total of 32
people in the division.
The tournament consisted of 11 rounds. Six games were
played on Saturday, starting at noon. The final five
games were played Sunday, starting at 10:00 AM.
I won a total of 6 games (3 on each day).
The details:
Game 1. Against Beulah Cooper (went 2nd), rated 1396, who
is a member of the Austin club, so I've played her several
times before. She has a tendency to play really fast. Of
the power tiles, she had: ??SSJQ, I had: XZSS. I lost
316-446 without bingoing. Rough start, but now my mind
is starting to get adjusted to playing Scrabble after a
3 hour drive to Houston and less than a full night's sleep.
Record 0-1.
Game 2. Against Kyle Bozeman (went 1st), rated 1257.
I've played him at least twice before, splitting wins.
This time I got lucky and had: XZSSSS?J and he only had
Q?. I bingoed once with ABIOSES (69) and played defensively
down the stretch to win 356-249.
Record 1-1.
Game 3. Against Carole Miller (2), rated 1338. I had ZSSS??,
she had: XJSQ (but she had to eat the Q). I bingoed once
with LANGUID (74), and scored 78 with ZESTS. Although I
was up by 136 after 12 moves, I made a mistake at move 13.
Partial board is:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
+-----------------------------
8|J U N B R O T A T E D
9| A E R I E L
10| E F V O X E
11| D O V
12| I E
13| L N
14| E Z E S T S
15| S
+------------------------------
Trying to block a bingo in the bottom left quadrant,
I played TI at I12. I should have blocked the more
probable S-ending on the 15th row. Carole's next move was
AMATEURS scoring a big 83 points. Fortunately, it wasn't
enough and I won 395-301. Record 2-1.
Game 4. Against Glenda Short (1), rated 1513, almost 400
rating points higher than me. We played a very open
board and at one point I played back to back to back
bingoes; a first for me, I believe. I also played QUIRK
for 57. I had ??SSZQJ; she had SSX. After only 12 moves,
the game was over and I won 430-388.
Glenda Me
1. BINGE 22/22 BAZOO 32/32
2. HAZEL 27/49 MOON 8/40
3. CON 5/54 MARSHIER 68/108
4. SIENITE 76/130 DEFECTS 72/180
5. HOARY 51/181 ANTIDOTE 63/243
6. DIAL 26/207 WORN 43/286
7. WEAR 49/256 QUIRK 57/343
8. ANVIL 29/285 DOPE 35/378
9. FUD 23/308 EL 14/392
10.VIG 21/329 TUBED 7/401
11.OX 36/365 JEU 12/413
12.TYPES 23/388 AI 13/426
unplayed titles 4/430
Final board:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
+-----------------------------
1 |A N V I L E L D I A L
2 | A N T I D O T E
3 |T Y P E S E V I G
4 | F
5 |D M A E
6 |O M C O N I C J
7 |P A O T E
8 |E R B I N G E S U T
9 | S A U
10| H A Z E L B
11| I O X Q E
12|W E O U F U D
13|O R S I E N I T E
14|R R H O A R Y
15|N K W E A R
+-----------------------------
Game 5. Against Cheryl Tyler (1), rated 1478.
Although I played the bingo REGINAE for 68, and SLEAZY for 54,
I lost the game 335-459. It's hard to win when the only
power tile I had was the Z; she had: ??SSSSJQX. Record 3-2.
Game 6. Against Robin Lewis (2), rated 1446. This was a closed
board and I blew the endgame. At move 15, while down 247-268,
I mistakenly set up a bingo out PARADER by Robin and I ended
up eating the Z, X, J, and an S (58 points!). A close game
turned into a blowout 257-414 loss. Record 3-3. End of day 1.
Day 2
Game 7. Against Bryan Pepper (2), rated 1213. At Dallas in
November we split wins, and in Austin in December he beat me.
I had XJZSS; he had ??QSS. It was close, but I played a smart
endgame and won 348-329. I was well rested. Record 4-3.
Game 8. Against Sammye Bichel (1), rated 1366. I had ??SZ, she
had SSSQXJ. I bingoed with ESPOUSE (77). She had a potential
bingo out and win, but played a phony instead. I challenged,
went out, and took the win, 343-271. After the game she
saw her bingo, CITRINES. Record 5-3.
Game 9. Against Scott Lucas (1), rated 1463, from the Austin
Club, but we hardly played any games against each other before.
I had ??SJX(Z), he had QSSSS. He started the game with QAIDS (50),
but I bingoed the 2nd move with TOMATOES, bringing me within 4.
It was fairly neck and neck until the end when down in
points I needed a big Z play to come back, but I kept my
Z too long, wasted valuable clock looking for a place for it,
and then ended up eating it. I lost 295-423. Record 5-4.
Game 10. Against Glenda Short (1) again. We both played two
unchallenged phoneys (me: THAR*, CRUDITE*, she: LENTS*, MIRIS*).
I had ??Q, she had: SSSSJXZ. In addition to CRUDITE* (76),
I also bingoed with PARABLE (72). I won 406-330. CRUDITES is
good, but not CRUDITE*. Look it up. Record 6-4.
Game 11. Against Maureen Delgado (2), rated 1509. One more win
would have been great, since it would have pushed my rating
above 1250. I had the ?QS vs. ?SSSZXJ, played the bingo
ASTERIA (71) and the triple word ROQUET (77), and had control
and the lead going into the endgame. I was up 349-325 going
into the last rack, but only had about a minute left on my clock.
Here's the board at move 14:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
+-----------------------------
1 |
2 | B
3 | A G
4 | H I
5 | R H O J
6 | L A Y W I G A
7 | U E L E V O N S
8 | C L E A N I A T E
9 | Z G E W E D
10| C M O R A R E R
11| I X U O D D F I
12| V O M I T Q U S T A B
13| E N U I I O
14| L E N A
15| A S P E R I T Y T T
+------------------------------
My move with last rack: EFKOOO
Maureen's last rack: ?DENPRS
I should have blocked the upper B column with
perhaps FAG at B3 (AGO wouldn't have done it,
since SAGO and DAGO are good), but under time
pressure I instead played KEN at 14K for a measly
7 points. Maureen sure enough follows with SPURNED
at B3 for the win. I lost the final game 356-414
and ended up with a record of 6-5. I would play
this endgame over in my mind several times throughout
the next few days. :-(
I finished 16th out of 32. As a result of the
people I played, I estimate my rating will go up
about 112 points to 1229. The top five (none of
which I did play) were:
1. Cason Lane 9-2 $250
2. Leslie Millard 8-3 $150
3. Helen Joffe 8-3 $100
4. T.A. Sanders 8-3 $70
5. Paul Thornton 7.5-3.5 $40
The results from the directors, Steve Fierros and Jim Barrett
Here are the final results of the tournament held in Houston, Texas on
April 24-25. There were 67 competitors playing in 3 divisions. Division 1
was an 11-game round robin. Divisions 2 and 3 played 11 games, with the
first 9 games using modified-Swiss pairings, and the last two games being
KOTH. Special thanks go to the two Canadians (Jessica Arts and Leah Katz)
who braved the heat and humidity to come play in our tournament.
Division 1
1. Pat Barrett 10-1 +985 $250 Houston, TX
2. Iffy Onyeonwe 9-2 +1133 $150 Austin, TX
3. Dave Johnson 7-4 +597 $80 Lafayette, LA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Mark Palumbo 6-5 -86
5. Matt DeWaelsche 5-6 -363
6. Leah Katz 5-6 -378
7. Mary Rhoades 4-7 -290
8. Carl Davis 4-7 -925
9. Keith Savage 2-9 -701
10. Caesar Jaramillo 0-11 -805
------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.Dave Wiegand* 5-1 +666
12.Stephen Fierros* 4-2 +167
High Game Pat Barrett 563 $20
High Turn Dave Johnson 101 awardee $20
*Dave Wiegand played the first day of the tournament (6 games), but he was
unable to stay for the second day of the tournament. In order to even
things out, I dropped out of the tournament and we reorganized the round
robin as best we could.
Division 2
1.Cason Lane 9-2 +509 $250 Houston, TX
2.Leslie Millard 8-3 +585 $150 Houston, TX
3.Helen Joffe 8-3 +297 $100 Metarie, LA
4.T. A. Sanders 8-3 +239 $70 San Antonio, TX
5.Paul Thornton 7.5-3.5 +301 $40 Spring, TX
------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.Scott Lucas 7-4 +463
7.Cheryl Tyler Mauldin 7-4 +279
8.Maureen Delgado 7-4 +91
9.Lee Brooks 6.5-4.5 -97
10.Robin Lewis 6-5 +531
11.Susan Hoover 6-5 +111
12.Carl Hickerson 6-5 +97
13.Kyle Bozeman 6-5 +39
14.Charlotte Ferris 6-5 +22
15.Glenda Short 6-5 -176
16.Yours Truly 6-5 -187
17.Michelle (Mo) Davis 6-5 -208
18.Beulah Cooper 5-6 +77
19.Bryan Pepper 5-6 +58
20.Linda Villarreal 5-6 +31
21.Broderick Larkins 5-6 -64
22.Ruth Sawyer 5-6 -191
23.Jan Asuquo 5-6 -387
24.Travis Chaney 4-7 +234
25.Carole Miller 4-7 +43
26.Michele Yarto 4-7 -36
27.Sammye Bichel 4-7 -188
28.A J Richards 4-7 -244
29.April Engel 4-7 -704
30.Robert Evans 3-8 -1026
31.Jo Hatchell 2-9 -13
32.Bill Hunter 2-9 -483
High Game Cason Lane 512 $20
High Turn Cason Lane 107 ironized $20
Division 3
1.Waheed Thompson 9-2 +544 $200 Houston, TX
2.Lynne Murphy 8-3 +445 $130 Hewitt, TX
3.Paul Subrt 8-3 +218 $80 Katy, TX (this was Paul's first tournament)
4.Jessica Arts 7-4 +202 $50 Calgary, Alberta Canada
5.Ivy Kaminsky 7-4 +195 $30 Bacliff, TX
------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.Jean Montgomery 7-4 +123
7.Judy Newhouse 7-4 +100
8.Jane Tacker 6-5 +214
9.Dolores Muhlich 6-5 +71
10.Chuck Schwartz 6-5 -27
11.Jim Neblett 6-5 -95
12.Andrea Meeden 6-5 -188
13.Barbara Klotz 5-6 +177
14.Rhonda Roederer 5-6 +148
15.Sara McLaughlin 5-6 +22
16.Bruce Shuman 5-6 -9
17.Virgie Wright 5-6 -13
18.Margaret Bee 5-6 -90
19.Roger Dimick 5-6 -195
20.Milton Ferguson 5-6 -231
21.Karen Walker 4-7 -377
22.Dave Rubin 3-8 -308
23.Loretta Walker 2-9 -412
High Game Ivy Kaminsky 443 $20
High Turn Judy Newhouse 149 yearning $20
An extra big round of applause goes to the members of Houston Club #359 who
provided a wonderful buffet for the competitors to feast on between rounds.
.