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NSC 2011 Commentary: Round 2

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.


Round 2

Linda Oliva (Lisbon, MD) had a great win this round. She attends many tournaments all through the year with David Engelhardt (Baltimore, MD). Often, he is at least one division ahead of her. For this NSC, they both qualified for division 2. Well lo and behold, David defeated Goliath (or David defeated David, but that may be a bit too hard to parse!). The game turned on one of her bingos, UNCAGED. David says he knew it was good, but he had to challenge it in the extremely remote chance that it wasn't in the dictionary. It was, of course, so her victory was even sweeter. Way to go Linda!

School SCRABBLE phenom and brother to famous Andy Hoang (Cary, NC), Kenny Hoang (Cary, NC) is having a great game this round at table 2 in division 4. This time, he's playing Paul Richards. I see TENNERS, SAILErS, and BANNERs on their board. I find out later, it was a 390-363, win for Kenny. Both brothers are, as of this round, undefeated in division 4: go Hoangs!

Gene Tyszka (Mississauga ON) hissed my name out. His clock was running and he wanted to show me a no-go play. He wanted to play ENSLAVER through the S, but he needed just one more open spot on the board for it to fit. But, it was a no go outbingo and his clock was running AND he was talking to me. I was like, "GENE! I can't talk to you while your game is in play!"

Jason Randolph (San Antonio, TX) vs. Shauna Petrie (Mississauga ON): INFERNAl, REPAIRs, SALVOED, TENDRIL, and MINZE on their in-progress board.

Doug Lundquist (Chicago, IL) had a monster win this round against Bob Blyler (Clearwater, FL). Among Doug's better plays: OUTPOUr, pErONEAL, and SLOTTED. A 496-291 win for Doug.

Mad Palazzo (Richmond Hill ON) slaps down INTERNs/sTOLL as I walk by.

A most polite Terry Aitken (Stratford ON) asks for a new headshot. He is moments from starting his round 3 game with Jacob Cohen (Asheville, NC) and I kneel down and take a quick shot.

Mark Milan (Laguna Niguel, CA) and John Luebkemann (Richmond, VA) are wrapping up their game. It started with three consecutive bingos: RAIDERS for 68, CALORIZE for 110, and FOREBEAR for 76. The middle one was John's. Later, he got down ORANGiEST from the OR for a pretty 9 that scored 70 points and MOGULED for 86. Mark played GENETICS for 82 and won this matchup, 461-439.

"My biggest mistake: I found my bingo." So goes my entry into a fun Jan Cardia (Wilmington, DE) vs. Rob Robinsky (Spring Lake Park, MN) game. He opened with OXO, she played MOTOR, then he got down NEEDILY, his first bingo. At this point, she needed to NOT find the bingo, that she played, the gorgeous VAPORiSH. If she'd played HOE instead for small elsewhere, she could have prevented what happened next, which was essentially the Rob Rob machine in overdrive. He found SLUDGING down the triple lane and then SUBERIZE. Later on he got APrONED wiht the second blank, he admitted. She also played NATTIER, but it was his big win.

Leesa Berahovich (Berkeley, CA) is deep into an analysis of her round 2 game with Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME). Her small netbook open, she is quietly entering the game as they wait for their next round opponents to finish their game. I see Joey's ORaNGISH, FINISHES, and CABINET. She played NaGGIEST and the pretty AVELlANE, but it was Joey's win, 461-409.

Our youngest full-time event worker ever has to be the eldest son of Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON). At 13, he is doing fulltime data entry for this event. I asked how his younger brother, Oliver, was doing. He explained that Oliver was at camp and that camp wasn't for him. While Oliver is more sportsy, Reese defines himself as more computery. He gestured to his laptop and said, "I belong here." I could have hugged him.

Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.



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