Scrabble Bubble: Mannheim

Looking at my today's record one could say: "What a disaster, this guy must have had an awful day today, probably due to a hangover or some food poisoning by a vicious Bratwurst..." :)

I will let the stats speak for themselves:

Day 2:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 7

Spread: -168

Blanks: 8/20 (40%)

S'S: 16/40 (40%)

Average for: 395

Average against: 412

Bingos: 17 (1.7 per game)

Interesting facts:

In game 7 against Ray Tate (number 7) I scored 400 points with only one S and no blanks.
Then in game 9 against Dan Sandu (number 4) I even topped this achievement by scoring 405 points without any S's or blanks.
And finally in game 12 against Evan Cohen (numer 1) I scored 401 points again without any S's or blanks.

I lost all three above games despite scoring 400+ points.

Getting philosophical, I might even pose this question:

Can you win your games against stronger opponents when all you see is a single S in three games?

my excuse for today's poor performance is: "Blame it on the tiles"

I'm still in a chance for 25 EUR prize for the best German word. In my opinion my KAI(S)ERIN is the best but it's for the German judges to decide :)

My record against Romanian players is now 0-3. In the last of the games I got slaughtered by Ovidiu Tamas by 309-460

In game 9 I was leading against Dan Sandu by 405-315 when he played out with ARCHEUS for 96 points (incl. 5 PP) and took advantage of letters on my rack (EKTOV) adding another 24 points thus recording a magnificent win by 435-405.

And finally the highlights of today:

In game 7 I played out with (I)NERTIAE building 4 additional words - funnily enough this left Ray Tate sitting on a rack of ACEIRST giving me extra 18 points. Unfortunately this wasn't enough for a win: I lost 400-465.

In game 10 against Suzanne Dundas I bingoed four times with FE(A)sIBLE, UNITAG(E)S, ERRANDS and OTArINE. I finished the game with a great spread of +197.

In game 12 against Evan Cohen (current leader) i played GAZOO for 78 points. Evan replied with EASIEST (sic!), IMmUNIT(Y) and EUCAINS which soothed the pain of another lost game for me :)

Game 13 against Anand Buddhev was very unlucky for me (I wonder why..). First I let Anand off the hook by letting him play *VYTTA and then falling into the trap by trying to extend it to *VYTTAS. To add injury to insult I then didn't challenge off NUS / *ACERBS and lost the game on the last move by agonizing 4 points 373-377.

Last game of day 2 against Jim Wilkie seemed to want to make me forget about all the pains I suffered today. I got blessed with two blanks and four S's which I happily converted into two bingos: EERIEST and FUGL(I)Est. Understandably my opponent wasn't very happy to see me so greedy - especially when I played BUSTS in the penultimate move for 32 points.

So a happy ending to a long and not necessarily satisfying day. I finished the day with a tournament record of 8-8 and +172.
I hope tomorrow the blanks and S's will come back to where they belong - Bartosz Pieta's rack :)