Causeway Challenge - the enlightenment (day 4)

What a day it has been. After an unlucky streak yesterday today everything has changed. And I have changed some things, too.
For a starter I decided to give my lucky charm (a nameless beagle mascott) a chance to show his magical qualities and pulled him out of my rucksack for the first time during the tournament. It seemed to work as I won the first two games comfortably. 

Another change: I used the free Thai scoresheets to record my scores as I had just run out of space in my Tilefish score book. And I used a pencil which made recording racks and scores so much easier than with my pen. Another change: in the first two games I gave up on tile-tracking just for the fun of it. And it also worked - I was more relaxed and I concentrated on my racks more. It also made some very quick and painless games possible.

Another change: I decided not to go to lunch today, as I remebered that yesterday I hadn't won any game after this meal. Instead I went to the shopping centre and bought some colourful scarves for my girl friends back in Poland.

Today something amazing has happened. After countless Scrabble games I had played before I finally managed to apply the rule which I had known long before. It says that this game is all about making each move the best possible. Full stop.

Thinking about needing to win, worrying about losing games, about opponent's rating, about his/her great luck - it all got me nowhere before.

Today I went into each game with a fresh mind and a thought: "I can play just as good as this guy. So why should I lose this game? If he's/she's luckier, so what, that's his/her good right, isn't it? I have also been lucky before. Would I rather never get lucky so that nobody gets lucky, too? Why care if he/she knows more words than I do. This just means he/she had spent more time learning them and deserves to win a bit more"

It's all that simple. But during my earlier games I seem to have always concentrated on the emotional aspect of this game. Emotions are good for spectators. When you're playing your game you need to concentrate on the game. That's it. You can enjoy the result afterwards, and this is what I'm doing right now. I'm just very very happy that I managed to achieve something.
Tomorrow is the last tournament day. It all went so quickly. I feel like I've just arrived and I already have to leave. I will miss the Zon Hotel and I will miss this amazing tournament.

Thanks Michael Tang for your great idea of organizing the Causeway Scrabble Challenge.
To be a part of this wonderful event has been an honour to me.

 [...]

The STATS for CC day 4:

Games won: 8

Games lost: 2

Spread: +428

Average for: 429.0

Average against: 386.2

Blanks: 11/20 = 55%

S's: 16/40 = 40%

Games won:

2 blanks: 4/4 (100%)

1 blank: 3/3 (100%)

0 blanks: 1/3 (33%)

Bingos for: 21 (2.1 per game)

Bingos against: 14 (1.4 per game)

7 letter bingos: 8 (38%)

8 letter bingos: 13 (62%)

Bingos with blanks: 8 (38%)

Bingos without blanks: 13 (62%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 526

Low game: 298

Highest combined score: 906