Find the Bingo

Find the bingo in the situation below. . .and once you find it, do you see the best place for it?


Answer after the jump. . .

Washington Square Park

Had another fun Scrabble experience this weekend, I joined some people from the club playing at Washington Square Park.

It was beautiful out, 70 degrees, and we played in the northwest corner of the park. Unfortunately, due to construction on the east side of the park, where the chess players usually play, the area usually designated for Scrabble players was infested by chess players looking for games. Many of the chess players tried to draw me into games, but as a mediocre player I knew betting would be foolish proposition.

Many of the usuals from the club were there, and so I played two games against a kid a year older than me, Benjie, and Nancy from the club. I lost both of my games against Ben (he's a 1700 player), and I beat Nancy in both games. I always do surprisingly well against her because she's definitely at least a little better than I am.

Anyway, it was a really fun atmosphere in the park, I definitely plan on checking it out more over the summer when its nice out.

Find the Bingo

Studying the stems has definitely helped me, and gave me a bingo here. Can you find it?


Answer after the jump.

Thursday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Thursday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Good Morning Vietnam
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Easy: EGNNRSU

Medium: CEEETUX

Hard: ABBDMOR
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Wednesday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Wednesday. . .and this time, instead of being given seven letters in alphabetical order, you have a bingo in your hand, but no where to play it. BUT, there is an open letter on the board through which you can find an eight letter bingo.

Example:

Bingo in hand: ATHEIST --- Open tile: S
Solution: HASTIEST

Theme -- Golf
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Easy: REEFERS - E

Medium: OBEYING - G

Hard: MAULING - L
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Tuesday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Tuesday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Writing
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Easy: GIJNOTT

Medium: DDELOOS

Hard: EEIOPTZ
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Victory at Bayside

I played in my first tournament on Saturday, and it was a great success. I was placed in the lowest division because it was my first tournament so that's only logical, and I went 8-0 with a +412 spread. I was Gibsonized, meaning I had clinched victory before the championship king-of-the-hill game, so in the final game I played the first person out of contention.

For a history of the term Gibsonized, check out Scrabble Pages.

I had some big victories in which I won handily, but at the same time a few of my games, notably the ones against my father (Neal Beaton, who went 4-4), Fred Schneider, who came in 2nd, and Carol Francis were all very close and came down to the end game.

To see the entire tournament results, check out cross-tables.

To see my personal page, and my rating - 1327 - also head over to cross-tables. As you can see when you go to the tournament page, my new rating of 1327 places me well out of the bottom division, and well into the 2nd division from the top. In fairness though, that 1327 is almost definitely inflated by the easy opponents I had, when/if I do play in more tournaments, I would be surprised to see it stay up there. . . unless I put in the studying to match the rating.

Monday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Monday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Cutting It Close
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Easy: EFIRSSU (2)

Medium: CDEISST

Hard: CIORSSS
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Friday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Friday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Feeling a bit nerdy?
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Easy: EEEGIKR

Medium: DIMOSSW

Hard: DEIORSW (3)
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Thursday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Thursday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Wild Wild West
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Easy: ADDELSS

Medium: DDGIPUY

Hard: DEHNOOW (2)
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Wednesday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Wednesday. . .and this time, instead of being given seven letters in alphabetical order, you have a bingo in your hand, but no where to play it. BUT, there is an open letter on the board through which you can find an eight letter bingo.

Example:

Bingo in hand: ATHEIST --- Open tile: S
Solution: HASTIEST

Theme -- Tick Tock
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Easy: LUSTING --- H

Medium: INTERIM --- G

Hard: CLARITY --- A
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Monday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Monday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Shocking!
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Easy: HILLRST

Medium: ABERTTY

Hard: ACILOTV
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Friday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Friday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- I think, therefore I am.
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Easy: GIINNOP

Medium: AEGIIMN

Hard: CDDDEEU
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Thursday Clubbing

Thursday nights are my serious Scrabble nights, when I go at to play at the club in midtown.

Last week was indubitably my best week, beating two experts - Diane Firstman and Jeremy Hall - on my way to a 3-1 record with a big margin and enough to come in first place for the intermediates. Notably, my win over Diane include an 158 point triple-triple (a word that touches two triple word scores), FONDLERS.

This week again I started out quite well. In my first couple games my opponents were struggling with their tiles and I beat two better players, Marc Carnegie and Adam Townsend by 100 and 146 respectively. In my third game, I lost to Ellen who is at a pretty similar level to me but she drew both blanks and three of the four S's. In the last game, I was thrown to the dogs when I played Debbie Stegman. I hung with her most of the way, and was actually ahead in the endgame, until she played MUREX down to a triple word score to go out. She also drew both blanks, but had I not missed QUOIT earlier in the game I should have beaten her - tough to blame on the tiles. Still, I bingoed thrice against her. Honestly, just staying in the game the entire way against her - a 1700+ player - was a thrill.

Overall, I had seven bingoes:

• CALLERS (anagrams to RECALLS, CELLARS and SCLERAL) vs. Mark
  
• CRINGES vs. Mark
  
• SPORTING vs. Adam
  
• BERATING vs. Adam
  
• SERINES vs. Debbie
  
• GRATINE vs. Debbie
  
• ROTATED vs. Debbie

In the end, I consider the day a success because even though I was only 2-2, I still had a very positive margin +175 or so, and three of the four players I played are significantly better than I am.

Thursday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Thursday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Twist & Shout
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Easy: DEEORRR (2)

Medium: EFFHLSU

Hard: AEHKPSU
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Wednesday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Wednesday. . .and this time, instead of being given seven letters in alphabetical order, you have a bingo in your hand, but no where to play it. BUT, there is an open letter on the board through which you can find an eight letter bingo.

Example:

Bingo in hand: ATHEIST --- Open tile: S
Solution: HASTIEST

Theme -- Keeping Guard
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Easy: OUSTING --- C

Medium: RESENTS --- I

Hard: TAILING --- V
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Continuing the Stems

Today I have less time and will continue studying the stems from yesterday.

The good news though is that it's already paying off. Check out my rack and the board:


What would you have played?

See what I played, and other options in the expanded post.

Tuesday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Tuesday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Baseball
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Easy: DEEHMOR

Medium: HIOSTTU

Hard: DEFIILN (2)
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Studying Some Stems

Shorter day for me today, but I am going to study some stems.

I already know the SATINE root, but today I'll try to learn ten more:

• SATIRE
• RETAIN
• ARSINE
• SENIOR
• STERNA
• TOESIN
• ORATES
• REASON
• INSERT
• TONERS

What is a stem?

Monday Anagrams

Fun anagrams for Monday. . .seven letters are given in alphabetical order, find the anagram! (If there is more than one anagram, there it will say so in parentheses after the alphagram)

Theme -- Fuel
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Easy: EIILOST

Medium: ELOPRST (2)

Hard: BDHIRSY
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Have fun. . .answers after the jump

Learning My Threes

Today, I've been studying the three letter words. A player like me - who does decently at NSA Club #56 (albeit in the intermediate division) - should already know his threes, so I decided it would be a good thing to get out of the way first. I know a good portion of them already, so learning them all shouldn't be too hard.

Below are some threes that I think are neat words and their definitions, per the official Scrabble dictionary:

• ALB (my initials) - a long sleeved vestment.
• ASP - a venemous snake
  
• DAK - transportation by relays of men and horses
• FIL - a coin of Iraq and Jordan
  
• GAM - to visit socially
  
• IGG - to ignore
• KEA - a parrot
• LEU - a monetary unit of Romania
• MOR - a forest humus
• PAM - the jack of clubs in certain card games
• PAP - a soft food for infants
• PYX - a container in which the Eucharistic bread is kept
• RIA - a long narrow inlet
• SOM - a monetary unit of Kyrgyzstan
• TIL - the sesame plant
• URP - to vomit
• YOB - a hooligan

Stay tuned later for fun anagrams and interesting game play scenarios.

Welcome

Welcome to the Scrabble blog.

As a project for school, this blog will include daily posts about cool words, fun anagrams, interesting game situations and lots more. Enjoy.