Division C @ Mountain View, Mar 19

We were kicked out of our old Santa Clara Round Table Pizza location (that location seemed to be pretty popular for kids & bday parties) and ended up at the Mountain View location (237 & El Camino Real). It was a smaller place, but more silent and less crowded. There was slightly lesser turnout at the new place, for whatever reason. Good for me, because I sneaked through to the higher division. For anyone who wants to rise on the ratings, this is a great opportunity -- you benefit from beating opponents ranked higher than you. So, it was a good opportunity.

I thought I faired reasonably well but I need to set my bar a little higher. I believe I can beat these guys. All my games were close ones - that is what I liked best about my round. I was always leading or close and always looked like winning. It is a different matter the result did not turn out in my favor. The thing I was most impressed with myself was the time management and tile tracking -- I think I have a formula that works! And it felt great towards the end-game.

It was my first time playing most of these people. So, it was a nice experience.

Game 1 - KC Top seed in the group. I gave her a good scare and we were pretty close until she drew a bingo late in the game, and I gave her a place to put the bingo down. I could have had a bingo as well, and played to give myself the chance but she got there before me. Her rating was 1488.

Game 2 - Henry After getting close in the first game, I felt I belonged in this division and was more confident. It was close game, and I managed to go out with a bingo RESINiNG. I probably drew nice tiles, I am not sure, but I thought did play well.

Game 3 - Alan I am not sure if I played Alan before, but he looked familiar. I don't know.. all the games were like a bingo away. This game wass probably a little further. I missed some bingos, at the same time I also got a 9-letter bingo down. :) It seemed like I was one move behind and couldn't catch up. Alan got the better of me.

Game 4 - Pat I played Pat before and then I got close to winning. This time, I won. I got ahead and she couldn't catch up. I got ahead with a nice bingo ASPIRIn, and later found another SCRIBeS in an obscure spot on the board. I missed a new word SWANNING towards the end. The only way Pat could come back (and I learnt from experience never to rile that out ever) was to get a bingo, and I was just trying to minimize that opportunity for her. I happened to win the game and hand her her first defeat for the day.

Game 5 - Paula It was again another close game. I thought Paula had it going for her towards the end but she was kind of short on time and missed out important opportunities to use her Q and ended up not being able to put the Q down. She had the Q & the U and just missed the scoring opportunities. I started the game off with a phony GLOWIER* which was luckily not challenged. It was her game to win, but she lost this one.

Game 6 - Pat I got this close to winning the game. Trailing in the end game, I got REFOREST down where I could have played FORESTER and won a challenge and played out. I didn't and I was too far behind. I let UNEAsED* stay on the board and that gave her the advantage early on in the game. I was happy to have found ORCINES# and it went unchallenged (correct spelling is ORCEINS). Could have won - if I had played better. :)

Funny thing is.. I am pretty excited about my performance at this tournament, even though I know I am a better player than my rating indicates. Lots more hard work to be put in. The thing that was most pleasing was the spreads: -72, +61, -48, +29, +31, -31. The cumulative spread put me in fourth place overall in my division.

Phonies on the board: PINER*, ORCINES#, GLOWIER*, UNEASED*.

# of moves - 13, 16, 15, 17, 16, 13
score - 392, 402, 379, 378, 395, 402
avg score - 391/26 (total score / score per move)