Results of the Northern Colorado Scrabble Tournament

Yesterday, Saturday, Sept 17, I and fellow Cheyenne Word Birds Scrabble Club member Rich drove down to Loveland, Colorado to take part in a one day Scrabble tournament.

For the last month at least I'd been working on my anagramming and that has certainly improved. But although I worked a bit on 3-letter words (there are a little over 1,000 that it is important to know), I didn't have them fully memorized, and that was a bit costly.

I expected Rich, one of the two best Scrabble players in the club, to do better than he did. As it is, he won one game - he beat me in an early round, and I won twice, beating Rich in the last, position round so that I came in 7th and he came in 8th.

What is annoying is that none of the people we were playing, played any words that I didn't know (except twice. Someone played MIP, which I should have challenged  - and TIZ, which I shouldn't).

The only difference between us that *I* could see was that they drew well and we drew poorly. Or if they drew poorly and I drew well during the start of the game, by the end of the game the tables had turned.

For example in one game, about halfway through, I was even with my opponent. Then I started drawing unhelpful things in triplicates - spelled a word and drew three "a",  used two of them spelling "aal" or something of that nature and then drew three "i", then three "s".  S are great but not if you draw three of them at the same time.

Then there's the strategy... my opponent would play something and all of a sudden there'd by a triple-letter-word square over a vowel, meaning if I had a high-point consonant and a way to spell two words, I'd make a lot of points. But I'd be faced with a rack full of awful letters. So, should I turn in tiles and give my opponent a free shot at that double- or triple-letter score, or should I somehow block that square by placing a low pointer there, just to prevent my opponent from using a high pointer.  (Because invariably, my opponent *would* have a high pointer.)

So I never made the right decision on those types of problems - leave it open and my opponent would grab it for lots of points - block it and I'd draw one tile of no help to me, so that I couldn't make a decent play on my next turn, either.

In talking to Rich, the same seemed true of him- on at least two of his games his opponent simply outdrew hm. There's not much you can do if you keep drawing one pointers and your opponent gets the Z, X, Q and J - spaced out enough so that each one can be properly used!  (I had all those letters once - and ALL at once, so couldn't do anything with them because I didn't have the right vowels.)

So over the course of 8 games in one day, to lose 6...is that because the players were better than I was or because they drew better?  I'm still not sure! (Well, one guy was demonstrably much, much better...but the others...not sure.)

But...for the next tournament I will have those 3-letter words down pat, I can promise you that!

Sanctioned Scrabble Tourney in Loveland, Sept 17, 2016

This coming Saturday, I and a fellow Word Birds Scrabble Club member will be driving down to Loveland (an hour south of Cheyenne, in Colorado) for the North Colorado and Denver/Boulder Scrabble Club tournament.

There will be 22 participants, at least, with 3 more registered bt unconfirmed (i.e., haven't paid yet!).

The highest ranked individual has a 1776 ranking - this is the Word Game Players ranking, not the NASPA ranking.  NASPA is the North American Scrabble Player's Association.

I participated in their May tournament, came away with a 5-3 record by default, and took 3rd place in the lowest division.    (I was 3-3, and the guy I was supposed to play next left, without telling anyone. So I won that game by default. Then came Position Round, for third place, and I was supposed to play the same guy, so I won that game by default also!)  I won $30, I think, which paid for my entry fee.

My ranking is now 758.

I am going with a friend who is is a much better player than me, but has only a 500 rating.  He participated in a tournament in California, with a much higher level of players out there, and won onl one game, so he has a 500 rating.

We've both been practicing against each other, preparing for this tournament. If we draw well (as in drawing tiles) we should do well. If we draw all vowels or all consonants every single time, which sometimes happens, who knows!

North Colorado and Denver/Boulder Scrabble Club tournament is an 8-round Swiss/Round Robin with a final "king of the hill" game if needed. We start at 9 am and should end by 5 pm. Lunch is included in our $25 entry fee, and we'll be bringing snacks as well.

The tournament takes place in the First Christian Church at 2000 N. Lincoln Ave in Loveland.

Everyone is welcome, even walk-ins.

Regardless of your skill, why not come and have some fun?

The North Colorado and Denver/Boulder Scrabble Club holds these sanctioned tournaments every four months, so the next one will be in January 2017.