almost there...

Today I won 7 out of 8 games :)

The only game I lost was again to Rafal. It was a tentative game from me and Rafal had luck playing ZEROs for 72 just after I was facing the rack of EIIIRTT, and had to dump two I's somewhere else on the board leaving the space open for him.

Today's highlight was game no 20 against Wojtek. I played 3 back to back bingos: MANTEEL (79), AGRIzED (78) and MURI(A)TED (74). Later I came up with LONGERS (80). XU (50) and JA(S)S (57) completed the job. I won 580-280.

I finish the day on a 7-1 record and a spread of +870.
Average score per game: 442.
Average spread: +109.
Total number of bingos: 17 (2.1 per game)

Luck was on my side again.
12 out of 16 blanks (75 %) and 18 out of 32 S's (56 %).

So I'm virtually there. I'm 4 points in the lead with four games to go. My current spread is +870, which means I'd have to lose each game by more than 200 points to lose the title.

And here are the games of the first day of the second phase:

Game 13 (no photo)
against Mariusz. No great game really, knowing that Mariusz can play well with good letters I played safe and concentrated on keeping the board tight. No highlights in this game - one bingo MORTARs (74) and a high scoring ZONDAS (45). Mariusz went over his time by 5 minutes and lost 50 points in the end.
W: 410-226

Game 14 (no photo)
A decent game. Wojtek started pretty well with (D)ELICATE (63) and (U)NPAiRED (66) on moves 1 and 3. I played QuETH(E) for 72 on move 2, ANTLIAE (67) on move 4 and then facing ABILNRT spotted a U on the board to play T(U)RBINAL (82) challenged by Wojtek. In the end I concentrated on closing the board.
W: 471-416


Game 15
3 bingos in that game for me: ASTROID (75) on move 1, ANNuLAR (72) was a nice move for me having played HINT before and leaving the A on the rack and then hooking the bingo to it by playing AHINT / ANNuLAR. Later I played AEROGEl (70) using the second blank I got.
W: 473-324

Game 16
Another poor game. I played POOrESt (70) on move 8 and that was enough to win.
W: 407-337

Game 17 (no photo)
A strange game. I got 3 S's and 2 blank and yet could have easily lost it. On move 3 Wojtek bingoed with ELA(T)IONS (70) which I countered with SY(N)EDRIA (63). Then Wojtek's FETCHES for 48 and my Z(A)Ny for 66. A few move laters I played MInTIER (66) and tried to close the board. Although I let Wojtek extend SYNEDRIA into *SYNEDRIAE it wasn't enough for him to beat me.
W: 391-366

Game 18
A lucky game for Rafal. Having played BORE for 13 he got a Z and a blank and played ZeROS with the Z on the DLS and the S on the DWS for 72, later he bingoed with EERIEST (68) which gave him the win.
L: 302-379

Game 19
Again a lucky game for me. I started with OUtcALL (58). Then after Mariusz's nice play of S(t)EAMIER (68) I answered with SID(E)NOTE (72). Two moves later I bingoed again with ASUNDER (75), played Q(U)OPS for 52 and AX for 50. This meant my first 500+ game on this day was perfect.
W: 507-343

Game 20
It was my highlight game of the second phase. I was playing against Wojtek. I put 3 back to back bingos: MANTEEL (79), AGRIzED (78) and MURI(A)TED (74) to go into 255:56 lead after 4 moves. Later in the game I came up with LONGERS (80). XU (50) and JA(S)S (57) completed the job. This game is my highest scoring game so far.
W: 580-280