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DO 2008 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, After the Tournament.

Round 6

Eric Harshbarger (Auburn, AL) squared off against Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) this round. They both made small opening plays and then a few bingos flew. Joel played REDLINES for 61 through the E and Eric replied with EYELETS for 74. Next exchange: Joel's INOsITOL for 64 and then Eric's REDOLENT for 72 through the I. I sensed the bingos were done flowing because Joel held AVFZONE and Eric held AUPURHA. Both played well! ZONA for 32 for Joel and PRAHU for 24. Next, Joel played FUNDI, hanging the I in the bottom triple lane. Two turns after that, he got down the gorgeous PAVIOuRS through that I for a 158-point triple-triple. What was once close quickly became not close and Joel won, 568-354. For those of you who get into the fact that some of us do things outside of SCRABBLE, check out http://www.ericharshbarger.org and see some seriously exciting Lego art by Eric!

Rich Moyer (Portland, OR), the trickster said, "Hey Sherrie, my opponent played ZILCH against me and to 102 points!" John Fultz (Savoy, IL) played it on the triple lane, it didn't win him the game, but style points galore!

Lindsay Crotty (Metairie, LA), here with her fiance, James Bahra (Metairie, LA). I saw them arrive this morning with her mom, Lila Crotty (Metairie, LA). I mention Lindsay because of her traveling mascot, Dwight Schrute, the bobblehead doll. He sits beside her quietly, bobbing along as she writes on the table or when she hits her clock.

David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC) played pretty word in his game with Doug Riblet (Austin, TX): JOlLItIES for 82. In case the lowercase is making that hard to read, it is JOLLITIES. I also spotted David's STANINE for 73.

Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (Moraga, CA) vs. Ken Kasney (Cypress, TX) I see Conrad's VENDoRS for 76 and Ken's INDENTURE for 61 and PEARLED for 76. One of them played MILIEU one short of the triple. This play was later extended to MILIEUX/XI to the triple.

Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX) vs. Robert Gillis (Owens X Roads, AL). The in-progress game has RETOTALS, STEALInG, and EBONITES.

A fun word: SIlESIAS for 64, played by Rod MacNeil (Cambridge, MA) in his game vs. Denise Mahnken (Long Beach, NY).

Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) vs. John Luebkemann (Bear, DE): ERGATES, ULTIMO, TONETICS, and DUROC to the triple.

Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) has a "daddy," and that daddy's name is Keith Smith (Austin, TX). If you need an explantion of this, check out http://cross-tables.com/daddy.php?p=435 and click on Head-to-Head and sort by rating. Keith is one of the people in Chris' competitive playing life who has "taught" him the most by beating him! In their game this round, they waged a battle. Keith played ROOTLING, GENETIC, and SUAVITY (wowsa!). At one point, down by 100, Chris played two bingos, ENVIABLE and the outbingo of SUBPOLAR played through the B. However, even this wasn't enough and he fell to Keith by 15 points, once again losing to his "daddy."

There are some players who approach this game from a perspective that almost defies description. They don't pick tiles to shuffle them around and find words. Their relationship with the letters is wholly in their head, hardly a physical thing at all. Two of the people faced off this round: Keith Hagel (Auburn, ME) vs. Peter Armstrong (Milwaukee, WI). Both of these players are lucky if their tiles reach their rack. Beyond that, it just doesn't matter. Their tiles are often upside down, sideways, scattered, with no seeming rhyme nor reason. Check out the photos this round and see what I mean. It is all I can do to not grab their racks from them and straighten them up!

Two first-game winners this round! Both Joshua Geer (Mansfield, TX) and E B Holschuh (Arlington, TX), members of the three-digit rating club, have a win this round! The sound of 1-5 is so much more pleasing than 0-6, don't you think?