return to scrabble
Jan. 5th, 2006 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kismet09So, I'd been absent from Scrabble club for long enough to get a /A next to my name in the ratings, which was distressing. I aim to make it at least twice in January -- I wrote it in my paper journal, and so it must be. I also wrote that I must walk on the ellipse machine at least twice a week, which means at least once more, for at least 15 minutes, before Sunday. Hm.
Anyway, went to Scrabble. It honestly made me a lot happier than I thought the silly game could make me, to be able to play there again. I still don't really feel like I belong (I've only gone 6 or so times now), but I recognize people, and I get to play, and everyone is fairly friendly in that weird, I'm-a-Scrabble-geek-with-questionable-social-skills, sort of way (hey, I'm one of them, so I can poke fun).
I ended up playing, by means of random draw, three of the top 5 players in the club ratings. Thankfully, I didn't know that two of them were rated that high, or it might've intimidated me. First game, draw was reasonably even, but my tiles played on the board better, and I won (hoorah!) with two bingos (I'll leave them all as anagrams, so y'all can play the unscrambly game): DEIINSR and AAINRST (which is the STRAIN stem + A, for those of you who play with stems). I was somewhere in the 420s that game. Second game, I drew less well, but I found three natural bingos -- EIOPRST (which is probably a stem but I haven't studied it -- oh wait, I have -- TORIES+P -- I just didn't remember it), AEIGNNR (EARING+N) , AEGINRS (EARING+S) through a T on the board. Sadly, he bingoed three times, too, had good tiles, is better than me, and didn't have to exchange twice. My score was in the 390s, and I think he won by around 50. Third game, I drew well, I found stuff, and my opponent's letters were poo, so he had to trade three times. My bingos were ?ABDISY (for which I actually played a phony. oops. but unchallenged), and ?AEIRTW through an S. I was above 400 and won by 50ish, largely because I was stuck with a Q and V in the end and started playing stupid about four turns from the end. I get tired by the end of game three.
So, no more /A next to my name, and my fake club rating will probably go up! Woo! I like being top ten, even though I don't feel like I belong there. No one in the top ten of any competitive Scrabble should be as shaky on three letter words and 3-5 JQXZ words as I am, but I won't tell them that.
DEIINSR: INSIDER
AAINRST: ARTISAN (also ANTIARS, TSARINA)
EIOPRST: REPOSIT (also RIPOSTE, ROPIEST)
AEIGNNR: ENGRAIN (also aginner, earning, grannie, nearing)
AEGINRS+T: ANGRIES(T) (RANGIEST would've also played)
?ABDISY: BAYSIDe* (no real words)
?AEIRTW=S: (S)WeATIER (STRAWIER would've also played to the TWS)
Anyway, went to Scrabble. It honestly made me a lot happier than I thought the silly game could make me, to be able to play there again. I still don't really feel like I belong (I've only gone 6 or so times now), but I recognize people, and I get to play, and everyone is fairly friendly in that weird, I'm-a-Scrabble-geek-with-questionable-social-skills, sort of way (hey, I'm one of them, so I can poke fun).
I ended up playing, by means of random draw, three of the top 5 players in the club ratings. Thankfully, I didn't know that two of them were rated that high, or it might've intimidated me. First game, draw was reasonably even, but my tiles played on the board better, and I won (hoorah!) with two bingos (I'll leave them all as anagrams, so y'all can play the unscrambly game): DEIINSR and AAINRST (which is the STRAIN stem + A, for those of you who play with stems). I was somewhere in the 420s that game. Second game, I drew less well, but I found three natural bingos -- EIOPRST (which is probably a stem but I haven't studied it -- oh wait, I have -- TORIES+P -- I just didn't remember it), AEIGNNR (EARING+N) , AEGINRS (EARING+S) through a T on the board. Sadly, he bingoed three times, too, had good tiles, is better than me, and didn't have to exchange twice. My score was in the 390s, and I think he won by around 50. Third game, I drew well, I found stuff, and my opponent's letters were poo, so he had to trade three times. My bingos were ?ABDISY (for which I actually played a phony. oops. but unchallenged), and ?AEIRTW through an S. I was above 400 and won by 50ish, largely because I was stuck with a Q and V in the end and started playing stupid about four turns from the end. I get tired by the end of game three.
So, no more /A next to my name, and my fake club rating will probably go up! Woo! I like being top ten, even though I don't feel like I belong there. No one in the top ten of any competitive Scrabble should be as shaky on three letter words and 3-5 JQXZ words as I am, but I won't tell them that.
DEIINSR: INSIDER
AAINRST: ARTISAN (also ANTIARS, TSARINA)
EIOPRST: REPOSIT (also RIPOSTE, ROPIEST)
AEIGNNR: ENGRAIN (also aginner, earning, grannie, nearing)
AEGINRS+T: ANGRIES(T) (RANGIEST would've also played)
?ABDISY: BAYSIDe* (no real words)
?AEIRTW=S: (S)WeATIER (STRAWIER would've also played to the TWS)
