Sunday, April 25, 2010

Łódź Tournament - day 2

The tournament resumed with round 8 at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning.

Game 8
against Andrzej (122.24). I started the game with an English word UPDATE :) I got two blanks in this game and bingoed twice with cYGANKI (the gipsies) and SZ(Y)NKOWA (of her - ham-like).
W: 394-340

Game 9
against Marek (126.13). Poor racks and a blank I got as the last letter from the bag made this game weak. Two bingos for my oponent. Zero bingos for me.
L: 325-374

Game 10
against Rafal (120.30). Zero blanks, zero bingos, nothing to write home about.
L: 326-486

Game 11
against 3rd of my Lodz Scrabble Club colleagues - Anna (115.79). I played Anna on Friday and lost to her. But the revenge was prefect. One blank, one bingo and a narrow win by 8 points.
W: 335-327

Game 12
against Beata (112.38). Beata was lucky in this game bingoing three times. My bingo came way too late on the last move - SZePT(A)NI (of males - whispered).
L: 347-394

Game 13
against Andrzej (115.31) - 4th of my Lodz Scrabble Club colleagues. No blanks, no bingos - my weakest game of the tournament.
L: 238-414

I finished the tournament in 42nd place with 5-8 record.

Blanks: 14/26 (53%)
Bingos: 16 (1,23 per game)

All in all a disappointing finish only sweetened by the fact that the two top places were taken by guys from Lodz - Jakub and Jarek. Well done, guys!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Łódź Tournament - day 1

It started oh so well and ended in pure frustration...

Game 1
against Michal (rated 123.01) from Lodz Scrabble Club whom I played and beat in yesterday's first tournament game. It was the same old story today. I got two blanks again and won comfortably bingoing three times with IdIOTKO (you female idiot!), TAWERNY (taverns) and PODPISu (of the signature).
W: 452-332

Game 2
against Dorota (124.58). One bingo for me AKAN(T)AMI (with acanthi). The rest of the game was a struggle for me to bingo again. As one of the observers told me I had a bingo on my rack which I hadn't spotted SOLNYmI (with salty things).
L: 282-369

Game 3
against Julita (103.28). Each of us had one bingo. I got two blanks which turned out crucial in the last move when I went out with CZEśĆ (bye) for 30 points to win the game. My only bingo was WYRAzIE (about the word).
W: 367-341

Game 4
against 2003 Polish Scrabble champion and current no. 3 on the rating list (rated 146.73) - Kazik. I hadn't expected to win this game and I didn't. Yet I bingoed twice with A(M)BONAMI (with the pulpits) and PRASO(W)eJ (of the press thing) and am quite happy with that. Kazik got almost all high scoring letters and managed to score well with them.
L: 310-404

Game 5
against current no. 6 on the rating list (rated 145.01) - Michal. A one-sided encounter. I bingoed once with RoDZINK(A) (a small family) which my opponent countered immediately with GRODŹ for even more points.
L: 288-467

Game 6
against Piotr (111.07). Two bingos for me - ZMYKANI(A) (of the running away) and ZMYLeNI (the confused ones). In the end the tile-tracking I did helped me win by 6 points.
W: 384-378

Game 7
against another of my Lodz Scrabble club colleagues - Grzegorz (122.80). Our club record was 2-1 for me before this one. And it was going again my way after I bingoed with (N)AGONIło (it has chased enough) and ZAW(I)SACH (of the hangings?). And then my opponent bingoed with PILICIE (no idea what that means...) opening much space. I tried to close it but forgot about the major hook to MAŻ - SMAŻ. On came my oponent's four letter word taking 57 points and equaling the score. In the end I was faced with vowelless racks and the defeat was complete. I was kicking myself after that game, in fact I still am. How can you lose a game like that... D@#$% !
L: 359-388

In the end of day one I'm on 3-4.
The good news is I was lucky with the blanks. In each game I had at least one.In two games I even had both, which means 9/14 (64%). Not bad!

Playing Scrabble in Lodz today

please keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Live scoring at: http://live.pfs.org.pl/

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The King is dead, long live Scrabble

Polish President inearthed, mourning is finished.
Now let's get back to the usual stuff.

Next weekend there's the official Scrabble tournament in Lodz. I'll be taking part in it. Additionally on Friday there is the regular club tournament. This means 18 games of Polish Scrabble during 3 days. Should be fun :)