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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
real lad scores' LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 | | 1:54 am |
| | Monday, February 8th, 2010 | | 9:11 pm |
1600-to-1800-Expert Game of the Day
I bring you: the 1600-to-1800-Expert Game of the Day. There is no shortage of elite players putting their games on LJ, but there are no wannabes making a habit out of it, so let's start one! Here you can see good plays coupled with short-sightedness and plain missing of words that keeps me from becoming an 1800-to-1900 Grand Expert or even the fabled 1900-to-2000 Demigod. Hopefully posting my silly mistakes and strategy out there for everyone to see will make me play better. Game 3 of the NAST vs Derek Martinez: (1 and 2 already posted earlier under a different, more pessimistic title) http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=5465#0 | | 5:47 pm |
| | 11:15 am |
| | Sunday, February 7th, 2010 | | 8:21 pm |
2nd again
2nd again at the berkeley one-day. miraculously, i was A6 because NAST and Stanton haven't been rated yet, and I ended up going 4-2. i started off 3-0 + ~190, then rob r beat me by 193 and lisa o beat me by like 100, so my spread was too low to play the king of the hill game with winter, so i couldn't play for first >.< i beat lisa by 7 in a tense final game and got 2nd! she plays freaking FAST. my new fake rating is 1799, but i predict i'll actually be around back where i started after they rate the other two tourneys. but i had a lot of fun! xp is a fantastic cook, sf is an awesome city, and ed is a great host. i should come back around here sometime. | | 12:48 am |
| | Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | | 1:34 am |
HOLY CRAP
why haven't i ever seen the word CONNATE before??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH | | 1:30 am |
booya
4-0 in club. a friend told me something about needing to be confident in my own game to stop getting nervous and unfocused. hence i was a lot less nervous at club today. i also drew better than at the last tournament, but i took my time and relaxed/concentrated before every play. it almost seemed like the way i get during a tournament (at least for the first few games). too much at club i'm tempted to mess around, and while it's fun and you get some experience from trying new things, if i treat it like a tournament, it is good practice for focusing. but yeah, i kind of luckbagged people. 1) vs bruce, mONTANE INdWELL DEADENS / PRIVIES AERATING / W 488-443. i should have made the blank a K in IN?WELL but was too scared it might be phony? 2) vs maddy, PONTINE EPITOMEs DICEnTRA UNDREST / none / W 565-305. maddy told me "when you draw, you draw!" 3) vs roy, BONNIER UNAKITES / TONELESS SeDATInG / W 518-356. this game was pretty amazing. roy missed an awesome bingo through a U in sixth position, with the 7th letter hooking OX, with a rack of AGITZ??. I would have easily missed it too. if he'd gotten this 214-pt play i would have easily lost by 100. then at the end i made REFLET/JINGAL(L) for 50-something, without being 100% sure on either word. REFELT is the past tense of REFEEL and it doesn't take an S. TELFERS REFLETS. 4) vs ira, BAIRNiSH SOAPIER / CHORDITEs* ARISTAE / W 430-382. i was convinced ira's disconnected 9 through I and E was a valid word and was too surprised by its coolness, but i didn't think of challenging. now that i remember, i DID hold it for a few seconds, but it just looked familiar. then, i probably misplayed the endgame:
cesar: Turn 12
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O -> cesar AEOPRSX 303
------------------------------ ira ------- 306
1|= ' C ' A| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - V U " C B Y| IGDIERAAEESTV 13
3| - B A I R N i S H - I |
4|' - O N D O N '|
5| T Q U A R T E T|
6| " G T " D U I " D R E|
7| E L O ' F R I Z L|
8|= N O H J I A O T L|
9| ' W A G O N ' P E E K S |
10| " L I " s I |
11| F E - N |
12|' - ' - M E M|
13| - ' ' A W E|
14| - " " Y O|
15|= ' = ' U|
------------------------------
Ira just played a single O making DOJO.
It is scary that he just fished, but I don't know what type of inferences from his rack other than it's probably really good. Unfortunately, I was low on time from having to come back all game and didn't see EXOGEN, which seems clear here. I decided to just try my chances with XI at J2 and he bingoes with ARISTAE/AG/EEL, and draws DEEGV out of the bag, which means I dodged all the tiles that would cost me the game, and bingoed out with SOAPIER/SEEL. Told you I got lucky. | | Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 | | 5:03 pm |
unhappiness in scrabble
being disappointed with my most recent results doesn't mean i'm unhappy with the game. i love Scrabble and i'm happy playing it. this is just in response to a couple of posts i've seen about everyone being unhappy... a lot of my posts about tournaments or clubs that i do bad in are exaggerated for comedic purpose, in case the sarcasm isn't evident -- "doomed to languish in the mid 1700s forever". i learn something new every time i play and slowly improve. that's definitely worth something. can't wait for the nast! | | Monday, February 1st, 2010 | | 11:39 pm |
quick tourney report
now that i'm not mad anymore, i realized the "i can't even stay above 1750 comment" may have been insulting, which i didn't intend it to be. i was mostly referring to myself wanting to stay above 1800 and not being able to, not that 1750 is some sort of bad rating. anyway: 1) vs joel elkins, sPIRANT GEMINAL / NAUSEAtE DEHORNS / W 527-346 a good start against an opponent i seldom beat at club. he opened with a bingo, but i came back. this game actually made me $10, as it held up as the high game somehow. 2) vs maddy, ROUTINES / AbALONES AEROBAT / L 378-446. the end of this game was maddening, but i did deserve to lose it. i need to do stuff like find POUF and not get nervous in the middle of games anymore. i'm a ball of nerves when i play scrabble. http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=5414#03) vs bruce, none / AVENGERS / L 329-352. this is one of the least fun games i've ever played. nothing was happening for me. my last three racks were CDHIILO, BCDIILO, and CDIILOV despite playing Ls, Os and Is off. 4) vs rachel k, STATION / OUTGONE tUGLESs / L 339-404. again i predicted she would open with a bingo, and it came true, then i made a couple of very poor plays, as shown earlier in the blog. 5) vs david pearl, EISwEIN / sQUATTY / L 388-419. he opens with sQUATTY and it's unbelievable, because i also predicted an opening bingo for him. could fate truly be true? 6) vs bye. I got a bye since Joel had to leave the tournament, and I was doing poorly and couldn't affect the standings. I went for a walk around the area but the Stanton Public Library was closed, so I just came back and watched people play games while silently cursing my lack of skill at Scrabble. At least the tournament was free for me. The director told me he wasn't going to give me another bye in round 7, but it meant someone else would get a bye. I said I could just leave since I wasn't going to cash and I didn't want anyone else getting a bye, and he said it was up to me. I decided to stay, because I didn't want to be a poor sport, and I wanted another chance to save my plummeting rating. 7) vs roy kamen. Roy had come to pick Maddy up and he had gotten there a bit early; Bruce was due to get a bye, but Roy had the chance to fill in for him and play me. We both wanted a rated game, so the director let it happen. Amazingly, Roy opened with a bingo against me for the 4th one in 6 games! I predicted that one too, but jokingly, like "I bet he's gonna open with a blank bingo... nah, no way". Boom! REDDESt. David Pearl laughed at me and told me I should have gone home. However, much like David Gibson did in 2008, I started an inexorable comeback and ended up winning. My fury built up until I couldn't take anymore. Unfortunately, this was the last game of the tournament; I'm confident that I could have won another 14 games in a row had they decided to add a few more days of games, but it was not to be. I almost would have lost had I not challenged EViTABLY* though, but in another amazing moment of kismet, this had been the very word that Roy had once played against me in club for over 100 points over a year ago that I hadn't challenged. He didn't remember that. DEPOSAL CIGARETS / REDDESt / W 459-365. The tournament was free, I made 10 bucks and I won a sweet set of red tiles for 4th place, plus a calculator and some scented candles for my moms. So it was no big loss, other than a blow to my ego as I am doomed to languish in the mid 1700s forever. | | 1:20 am |
| | 12:46 am |
it's ok, cesar
to say I'm kind of frustrated at Scrabble is an understatement. I can't even stay above 1750. True, I may have uttered a slight profanity after David Pearl opened with sQUATTY at today's Stanton tournament after I had just lost 3 in a row (sorry for breaking the NASPA conduct rules!!), but I played my ass off in every single game. There's just not much I can do with two blanks in 6 games, and 4 opening bingos played against me. 3-4 (including a bye) +160ish isn't that bad for the circumstances. I'm still making frustrated mistakes, when it's very important to not make mistakes in a game where I'm getting outdrawn. For the most part, though, I kept my cool. I actually made a PROFIT at this tournament, because I helped out with the cross-tables website so I got in for free (waiving the $50 entry fee!) and I got $10 for high game! One of the most important things is having control of the board early. For example against Bruce, I opened with DUET with U on the star (keeping EST) and he does HEP on top it. Then I have EGKLSTV. I know Pakorn spends like five hours on his first couple of racks to ensure he can get control of the board. Quackle thinks KELTS is better than KELT by about 4 points, I guess I wasn't quite sure. (Can anyone explain it? apparently KELTS results in a higher score for me the next turn than KELT) Then, I have this dogshit*:
cesar: Turn 3
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O -> cesar GSSUUVW 34
------------------------------ bruce ------- 52
1|= ' = ' =| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - " " - | ??AAAAAAABBEEEEEEFFGIIIIIIIIJLLMNNNNOOOOPRRR
3| - ' ' - | SSTTWXZCLODDNOUVIOTEHORRTANQRACDEEGY 80
4|' - ' - '|
5| - - |
6| " K E L T " " |
7| ' ' H E P ' |
8|= ' D U E T ' =|
9| ' ' M Y ' |
10| " " " " |
11| - - |
12|' - ' - '|
13| - ' ' - |
14| - " " - |
15|= ' = ' =|
------------------------------
Bruce just did MY.
Of course, I made the best play here, VUGS/SKELT*, since there's a bunch of funny 5s that look like that and it may not be worth challenging. This is the situation next turn:
cesar: Turn 4
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O -> cesar CEISTUW 59
------------------------------ bruce ------- 116
1|= ' = ' =| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - " " - | ??AAAAAABBEEEEEFGIIIIIIIJMNNOOOOPRSTWXZODDNO
3| - A V E N G E R S - | UIOTEORTNQRCDYHNRVAAFLLLR 69
4|' - U ' - '|
5| G - |
6| " S K E L T " " |
7| ' ' H E P ' |
8|= ' D U E T ' =|
9| ' ' M Y ' |
10| " " " " |
11| - - |
12|' - ' - '|
13| - ' ' - |
14| - " " - |
15|= ' = ' =|
------------------------------
Notice how I'm screwed. The board is very closed and I'm down and have no control. WIG and CUP sim similarly, I chose WIG and the game got even worse for me from there. I never bingoed, but kept getting teased by racks that looked like ACEEIST. Anyway, this was one game where my opp didn't open right off the bat with a bingo. In another one, here I wasn't sure what to do:
cesar: Turn 1
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O rachel ------- 68
------------------------------ -> cesar EFINNPR 0
1|= ' = ' =| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - " " - | ??AAAAAAAABBCCDDDEEEEEEEFGGHHIIIIIJKLLLMNNNO
3| - ' ' - | OOOPQRRRRSSTTTTTUUUVVWXYYZIILRDEEOSAEIMOSW 86
4|' - ' - '|
5| - - |
6| " " " " |
7| ' ' ' ' |
8|= O U T G O N E ' =|
9| ' ' ' ' |
10| " " " " |
11| - - |
12|' - ' - '|
13| - ' ' - |
14| - " " - |
15|= ' = ' =|
------------------------------
At the very least, this tournament was a good exercise in having to come back from behind. I guess I made an uncharacteristic play here, I was a little frustrated and wanted to keep it as open as possible, so I did D7 F(O)N. F(E)N might be better (slightly higher average score for me?), but if I'd really have sat down and thought for a while, ala Pakorn, I would have been able to find N(E)IF. It's not a huge mistake, but FON is too much gambling.
cesar: Turn 2
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O rachel ------- 110
------------------------------ -> cesar EILLNPR 6
1|= ' = ' =| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - " " - | ??AAAAABCCDDEEEEEEEFGGHHIIIIIJKLMNNNOOOPRRRR
3| - ' ' - | SSTTTTUUUVVWXYYIILRDEOSEMOSOTAAABEWZ 80
4|' - ' - '|
5| - - |
6| " " " " |
7| ' F ' ' ' |
8|= O U T G O N E ' =|
9| ' N ' ' ' |
10| Q A D I " " " |
11| - - |
12|' - ' - '|
13| - ' ' - |
14| - " " - |
15|= ' = ' =|
------------------------------
Now I'm in a significantly worse situation. I either do FONDLE or ILL. Notice that in my frustration FONDLER just didn't occur to me. I think that is clearly better than ILL, but when choosing between the two above, I just very reluctantly put down ILL. I've committed to a decent leave, yes, but not a spectacular one, and now I'm in big trouble. A mistake like that is very costly. FONDLER is fine because I can then play through both Es and the leave is ok.
cesar: Turn 3
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O rachel ------- 133
------------------------------ -> cesar PERMIAN 12
1|= ' = ' =| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - " " - | ??AAAABCDEEEEEEEGGHIIIIIJLNNOPRRSSTTTTUUUVVW
3| - ' ' - | XYYILRDEOSEMOSOTAABEWZCDAIKNORR 75
4|' - ' - '|
5| - - |
6| " " " " |
7| ' F ' ' ' |
8|= O U T G O N E ' =|
9| ' N ' F O H ' |
10| Q A D I " " " |
11| L - |
12|' - L ' - '|
13| - ' ' - |
14| - " " - |
15|= ' = ' =|
------------------------------
You think I'm going to get PERMIAN down? I was hoping for a miracle, but no chance. Of course, Quackle mocks me with android efficiency by telling me I missed PRENOMINA. Ok Quackle, I want to stay in the 1800s, not be 2000 yet. Give me a break. Still, I had a lot of fun! | | Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | | 1:07 am |
i wanna be the very best like no one ever was to learn them is my real test to aerolith them is my cause i will study across the land learning far and wide each stupid word to understand the power that's inside Scrabble on! gotta learn them all it's you and me i know it's my destiny Scrabble on oh, you're my best friend in a world we must defend Scrabble on gotta learn 'em all our hearts so true our courage will pull us through you teach me, and i'll teach you (james) Scrabble on! | | Friday, January 29th, 2010 | | 9:05 am |
also
i went 1-3 at club! 5-7 for the year!! aaaah! it's too late to come back, i think. people may laugh and say there's 11 months left, but you don't understand my psychology. i never come back from bad starts at club, tournaments, or even within a single game. | | 9:04 am |
| | Friday, January 22nd, 2010 | | 1:14 pm |
 I'm the orange guy. | | Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | | 11:26 pm |
that's annoying
2-2 at club both times this year, kind of an inauspicious start. didn't draw very well in the games i lost, but i'm still making mistakes. i can't make mistakes like this anymore:
cesar: Turn 6
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O -> cesar TILTDAN 129
------------------------------ bruce ------- 176
1|= ' = ' =| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - " " - | CEEEGIILOPQRRTUUVVWFGBHOIIOMORAEERTENPSS?ACS
3| - ' ' - | YEYAANOTWZ 54
4|' - ' - '|
5| O - |
6| " B " E " |
7| J E T D A D A ' |
8|= H A L I D U ' =|
9| ' I F O X ' |
10| " N " U N " |
11| E - |
12|' G R E E K - '|
13| - R A I L I N g S |
14| - " M " - |
15|= ' O ' =|
------------------------------
TILT K3 is cute because i have an A, but i should have thought of UNLAID. i can't score 10 and then get a bad draw. i need to keep scoring in this situation. TILT also makes it easy for him to score and run away farther. the only thing it has going for it is the leave, but it scores too little. or this:
cesar: Turn 10
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O -> cesar PELDING 228
------------------------------ bruce ------- 253
1|= ' = ' B U| --Tracking-----------------------------------
2| - G " S W A M P| EIOORYCEIYFTOTAEN?ERAEHRSSV 27
3| - V U ' ' T Z |
4|' E A ' I - A '|
5| T O N L R |
6| " B O E T " |
7| J E T D A D A ' |
8|= H A L I D U ' =|
9| ' I F O X ' |
10| " N " U N C |
11| E - O |
12|' G R E E K Q I W '|
13| - R A I L I N g S |
14| - " M " - |
15|= ' O ' =|
------------------------------
G3 PIG is ok, but UNPILE is better. i wasn't blind to that spot, but i wasn't really thinking too much about it. it's hard for me to maintain focus when i'm in a bad situation like this one. a bingo at row 15 could end the game, but i can't block it either. unpile gives me a fighting chance. according to crackle i lost 30 and 27 equity in the two games i lost, which btw, i lost by 47 and 180, but i feel it is completely misleading to say "i lost less equity than i lost by, so there's nothing i could have done", as it's always specific to the game. maybe if i play UNPILE i draw a blank, or bingo next, or something like that. it almost seems impossible to get at these few equity errors and try to eliminate them, but it seems so easy while examining the game later. must figure out a way to focus and win unwinnable games!! | | Monday, January 11th, 2010 | | 8:05 pm |
| | 12:51 pm |
tourney report
this cold has turned into a full on.. something worse, i don't know what. i'll be ok, it's just crappy, so i'm taking a day off work. but i can't sleep anymore, so here's a tournament report! ( Read more... ) | | 1:08 am |
cool
i was cogenter at today's one day, awesomely directed by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) xpmorgan and as a result went 4-2 for 2nd place again.. i'm mr. second place. i'll post bingos, reports, etc later when i'm not so tired. but i had a blast this weekend, although my throat really hurts from this dumb cold. victory tacos (burrito for me) were the best, that taqueria is absolutely amazing. it's kind of funny that i went 9-10 against a field of an average rating of 1581 in san francisco just a couple months ago, and then i go 9-3 against an average rating of 1655 just now. i just need to learn to be more consistent and not dwell so much on bad draws. |
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