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NSC 2011 Commentary: Round 6

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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 6

As always happens at these events, there are the way too warm folks and the way too cold folks and they are sitting in the very same room. We do say to the chilly ones, "please wear a sweater," but sometimes that just isn't enough. And so, Anna Marie Cook (Calgary AB) brought down a large pillow and blanket from her room and she's wrapped herself up like a taco, a warm taco.

Kenny Hoang (Cary, NC) tells me wistfully that he lost his game this round to an overdraw. He had the blank on his rack but mixed newly picked overdrawn tiles with his rack. As luck would have it, she picked the blank and put it back into the bag. Tough break! He now has two losses, which is still an awesome showing!

Dan Stock, division 4 director, kept telling me about a player in his division who had unplayable bingos. First she had BLOCKED that ironically enough would not go down. Then she had an unplayable DOUBLED. After he was strolling over for his third update I thought to ask who this player was. "Oh, she's Joyce Stock (Rocky River, OH)." His wife! The humor may be hard to see remotely, but the tender remove he showed was quite funny! She tells me later that she finally DID get a bingo down, in her outplay: TESTABLE, but it was too little too late and she lost by 103.

Sam Kantimathi (Sacramento, CA) comes and finds me across the room. He admits his pronunciation will be off so he asks for my pad to write it down. He writes IIU??TL. He played muLTIlINE to the NE (that should read: MULTILINE, the blank Ls can be confusing). It drew a challenge. This was a 5-bingo game for Sam and one he won against Stephen Sneed (Fort Worth, TX).

Evans Clinchy (Boston, MA) played Roland Filio (Thousand Oaks, CA) this round and played aBRIDGE, RHODAMIN, and the outbingo of RESLATE. Roland played GLYCINES, CoNTUSE, and the made two fun extensions by adding an E to create RHODAMINE and a D to create ABRIDGED. Lengthening awesomeness notwithstanding, Roland lost this game, 369-492.

Alert the presses! Kate Fukawa-Connelly (Kittery, ME) has broken 400 and she earned a win this round. A 432-356 win over Debbie Stegman (Kew Gardens, NY), who can be forgiven for being less excited about Kate's win than Kate was!

Sandy Nang (Malibu, CA) and Mark Miller (Radnor, PA) are having a quiet endgame chat. The play TRIENES was Sandy's. Mark played peAKING on the triple lane, leaving an "unfortunate S front-hook," said Mark. Finding no misfortune, Sandy slapped down SNIT which hooked to make SpeAKING on the triple. Sandy's win.

I can see the smoke rising, the tension a bit thick, even for such easy going guys. I want a photo of Sam Rosin (Bernardsville, NJ) in his WSC shirt, but he's down to 52 seconds. His opponent's clock is running, but still. I have to go away. A few minutes later I discover a recount underway. Michael Thelen (West Jordan, UT) admits to virtually praying for a one-point counting discrepency as Sam has just won by one measily point. Recount done, there was nothing left to do but shake Sam's hand and congratulate him on the win. Sam played three bingos in a row: RELEVES, TREENAIL, and cOLONES. Michael played SERIATES and the 96-point ZEbU/ZA/ET/bE/US on the triple. Wowsa. Perhaps my favorite word on the board was a triple play from the G: GNATHIC, not a bingo and not a bunch of points either, but Sam played it. At the end, Michael had 12 seconds on his clock and Sam had 28 on his! A real nailbiter!

Jason Keller (Highland Park, NJ) is shaking his head and displaying almost a twitch that I later find out is a nerve-releasing affect of complete and utter disbelief. Outbingoed 4-1, he managed to eke out a win this round. Bruce D Ambrosio (Los Angeles, CA) played LATICES, UNMITRED, ROSEATE, and BUStLED while Jason played ESTRONE. He says that Bruce tried SUBDEAL* which Jason called off. A lucky final play of ORGY for 31 got him the 433-431 win.

This round is the first win for Lawren Freebody (Hawthorne, CA). She's had quite the day so far! Her arm has been broken in a few places and is currenlty in a covered cast/splint thingy. She has to ride the fine balance between pain killers and SCRABBLE alertness!

Dallas Johnson is stat happy. Jack Overby (Rosemount, MN) in division 1 is 2-3 as I type (his last game has not been turned in yet) and he's up 43 rating points already! Go Jack!

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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