Go to: Commentary Games Players Photos Standings

Back to USSO 2006 Live Coverage

USSO 2006 Commentary: Round 23

[ ]

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, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3.

round 23

Richard Popper (Wilmington, DE) comes over to me, seeming moments after round 23 started, to ask me to see a great game he'd just played at against Ted Rosen (Rochester, NY). Not only was it a terrific game, it was a fast one, too! Ted played ImPEDING, RURALIST, CORNETS, BIgAMIES, and the non-bingos JOINER for 70 and ICKIEST for 46. Richard's best contribution was PENITENT for 64. Ted won, 588-315.

John Aitken (Vancouver BC) comes over and stands patiently in front of me, waiting for me to finish my sentence. I'm long-winded, so he had a bit of a wait! He was happy to report that in this game versus Dolores Muhich (Austin, TX) he played QWERTYS as an 80-point bingo. A rare play for sure!

I watched Jeff Cooley (Jacksonville, FL) and Leesa Berahovich (Berkeley, CA) finishing up their division 5 table 1 game this round. Hannah Lyons of the NSA was off with my camera helping take some headshots, so I decided to take in an endgame as it unfolded. They each have three tiles on their racks. She holds LST and he has IUU. On her time, I see her slowly going over the board, counting tiles, trying to determine if her tracking is right. She finally plays the T, hooking onto OD, creating TOD. He holds her for a full minute, thinking about the play and finally he challenged (they were 357-339, his lead at that point). It was good, so she got another turn. She played off her next two tiles (one an S and he had her tracked for an N) to win the game, 372-363. Her final play was VROWS. She knew his two unplayed Us had nowhere to go, so she took a shot. He challenged, it was good.

As I'm standing there, Michael Rhodes (Tucson, AZ) delivers the news. He defeated Shelley Sullivan (Windsor Locks, CT) this round, 421-301. He played GAMELAN and CORONETS in their game and Shelley played VIOLIN, so he was feeling the music. She tells me she overdrew TWICE in their game, so, the cap was right afterall. She tossed it in the garbage as soon as the game was over.

Mitch Bayersdorfer (Menlo Park, CA) finds me to demonstrate that he does wear non-SCRABBLE^® themed clothes. I've been teasing him about all SCRABBLE^® all the time in his wardrobe. So what did he wear today? A T-shirt from the RPS Society. Of course I had to ask, "Oh RPS? That's the Rock Paper Scissors Society." He is hopeless in such a fun, playful way!

A tough game just wrapped up in division 1. With a large audience around them, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) defeated Robert Ellickson (New Haven, CT), 418-411. Both players were running their fingers through their hair and exhaling deeply. I guess it was that intense! I note that Pakorn is down to 1 second left on his clock and Bob points to it and says, "yeah, had he gone over, I would have won!" As the game wound down, Bob was hoping for the overtime penalty, so he admitted to playing a bit fast himself to limit the amount of time Pakorn had to plan his plays. I see Bob's CROONEd for 64 and STAINER for 83. Pakron played RELEASER from the first R for 68, SECTION for 82, and the 9-letter wonder, SECTIONAL from his bingo for 33 points. When Pakorn mentions that it should really have been Bob's win, he nodded and agreed. He said, he'd just not played his best on several key moves and would have won had he made less of any of those mistakes.

The event is heating up in division 1. Scott Appel (Trenton, NJ) defeated Joe Edley (Coram, NY) at table 3 and Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) fell to Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN). At table 2, Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) defeated Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON), 408-342.

Toward the end of the round, Stefan Rau (Newington, CT) came over to let me know that he defeated the seemingly undefeatable Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) at table 1. Geoff made no bingos but got down AXED for 53 and GUTS for 42. Meanwhile, the ponytailed one got down BOORISh for 71, AIRIEST for 71, and OUTLINGs for 66.

Debbie Stegman (Kew Gardens, NY), division 2, top table den mother, is holding her own. She is 2-0 so far this morning!

I'm an old softie and love to see the favorites doing well, but these new bucks just excite me so much, too! As Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) said earlier, if someone wanted to run away with this, they would have, and until then, it is just one big pack of us!

Stefan Rau (Newington, CT) and Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) are playing each other at Board 1 in Division 1. Steve Pellinen and Scott Smith are posting the game live.