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2007 Dallas Open Commentary: Round 17

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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, After the Tournament.

Round 17

After dinners at various Dallas restaurants and game after game of French SCRABBLE^®, anagrams, etc., a few of us finally converged at Casa Cree to talk about the day. A few hours into the conversation, Chris Cree (Dallas, TX; 1870) said, "Well, while I'm down here jabbering, my first two opponents are upstairs getting way more beauty sleep than I am. I've got to get to bed." And so, wrapped up day 2 of the Dallas Open.

The word that describes the time change we experienced earlier today at 2 am is brutal. We are all just dragging ourselves around. Fortunately, the 15 public service messages from Bryan Pepper seemed to have worked and everyone that was planning on coming has come on time for this round this morning.

Several players, as in about 15, stood in line at the front of the playing room to make announcements about upcoming tournaments. An overall observation: many of us are having them on the same weekend and this tournament has more than its share of directors here! So, get on out and play at a few of our events!

Captioning will have to wait until later, as round 17 is well under way. Two powerhouses: Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR; 1961) and Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL; 1974) who were viscious anagram opponents last night at the Mexican food restaurant, are now at table 1. Exciting stuff!

Mensch of the day award goes to John Chew, who has left his stead in seach of ice coffee for his staff (that would be me).

Captions will just have to wait, and I'm off to see what is up around the room. I barely get up from my seat before first-time tournament attendee Jess Mickelson (Murray, UT; 0), clock paused I hope, walks over to the Internet table to tell me of the three bingos in the first three plays on his board. I'm going to keep my eye on that board, for sure!

Terry Kang Rau (Newington, CT; 1419) is playing T J Jeng (Dallas, TX; 1463) at a board with a sign that says it is reserved for Karen Moss (Lawton, OK; 1336), which leads me to believe that Karen wasn't well enough to join us this morning. I'm sure hope she improves and is able to come later on. Also not feeling very well for this event is David Johnson (New Rochelle, NY; 1433), who might be stepping out, too, today. I guess it is statistically inevitable that with a group of people this large, there will be complications that force people to miss games. I'm always sorry to see it happen, but do understand. In the end, hard as it is to believe, there are things more important than this game we love, right?

It is a bit overcast today, and I see the weather interacting with my perception of the games. As I walk by a game bewteen Charlene White (Kearny, NJ; 1474) and Ken Castner (Homer, AK; 0), the only words to pop are GREYNESS and AUSTERE. I think that says more about me than the game.

It was Denise Mahnken (Long Beach, NY; 1069) who was playing Jess Mickelson (Murray, UT; 0) this round. She openedwith BEGONIA for 76, he answered with ETERNISED for 60, and then she replied back with FEATHErY for 82. Later in the game, he played ACArINE for 88 and she played STERILE for 66, ultimately winning the game, 458-439. What a game! And this guy came into the event UNRATED!

Samantha Southard (Albany, NY; 1305) played Reid Hattaway (Baker, LA; 1372) this round. After the game was over, she was chatting it up with John Chew and I asked her about some of the plays I'd written down. She played INTERIMs and STiNTERS and he got down INLIERS. "By all rights, he should have won that game. I had no business winning, " she said. I asked why and she explained that he challenged two of her phonies off and that she should have lost.

Robert Gillis (Owens X Roads, AL; 1495) excitedly points out that he bingoed out with GAMINESS to the second S for 66, winning his game, 419-321, against Nancy Scott (Schertz, TX; 1240).

On a Michael Donegan (Austin, TX; 1094) vs. Jacqueline Camper (Memphis, TN; 1415) board, I spot ALKAlIs and INCREASED.

Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ; 1850) had a nice 489-328 win over Keith Savage (Kenner, LA; 1797) this round. I see Keith's 75- point LOTTeRY, and the rest was all Nathan: OUtBAKE for 84, QIS/OUTBAKES for 45, MARGINED through the G for 84, and POSTERNS for 83.

At table 2, it appears that Darrell Day (Richardson, TX; 1773) is having his way with Jim Geary (Phoenix, AZ; 1854). I see Jim's REMAInS and Darrell's sTINTED, VAGARIeS, and PALEOSOL. Darrell admitted he was just very lucky and every time he needed a tile to play through, Jim obliged.

Jill Turney (North Vancouver BC; 1597) catches me outside the playing room and winks at me. She is shy about tooting her own horn, but wants to tell me that she player her first-ever touranment triple-triple this round, AwLWORTS through the R for 149 points. When I asked her if she remembered the score, she said, "Do I? It is etched in my mind!"

I meet a smiling and calm E B Holschuh (Arlington, TX; 947) in the foyer. How can I, on day 3 of this event, still keep finding people I swear I've never seen before? He is seeded #118 and this is his first tournament in two years. He said, "I cannot believe how smooth this tournament is going. So many nice touches, so professional. The Internet coverage has been just great." I'm still not sure if he knew that I was working with John on it, so I just agreed that it has been good coverage. And I knew he was a player that was going to stay around when he said, "Well, I've exceeded my 9/10ths of expected game wins."

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON; 1856) says to me of her game that three people called me over to check out, "If this game were run through Quackle, I bet Rod MacNeil (Somerville, MA; 1873) and I would be near to 100% on optimal plays. This game was just that good." Rod opened with POLLUTeD for 76, Robin replied with ERGATIVE for a 93-point double-double. Rod then played WARM for 43, she replied with RETINES for 71. Next came Rod's SONLIKE for 82 and with a rack full of consonants, Robin managed to get down CHATT* for 44. Rod played QADI for 59, and then it was AYAH for 43 by Robin. QUOTE for 42, Rod, ADZ for 44, Robin. Her next play, despite Rod trying valiently to block the board, was a well-nestled INTERCoM creating JOT and BAR. In the endgame, Robin had all vowels and Rod and all consonants. Not seeing GOS ended up costing Rod the game, but it still was marvelous for both players, 468-466.

When I got back to our table, John Chew said of the annotated game, "Wow, it was a barn burner! The game opend with Brian trading three tiles and the next three plays were bingos. Brian got in two more bingos a few turns later, but Dave got the last bingo and a 504-422 win. Brian stays on top at 14-3, ahead of Darrell Day (Richardson, TX; 1773), also 14-3, with Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ; 1850) and Chris Cree (Dallas, TX; 1870) not far behind at 13-4."