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USSO 2006 Commentary: Round 7

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

round 7

Matt Hopkins, division 5 director, has spent the afternoon absolutely enchanted by Marilena Souza (Pembroke Pines, FL). Marilena is one of many who have found the air conditioning to be a bit on the heavy side. However, she found the most unique way to keep warm. She spent the afternoon in one of the complimentary heavy terry cloth robes that the Biltmore lends guests during their stay. She wore the robe atop all her clothes, but she still looked like she was heading to get a glass of morning orange juice every time she padded her way to the challenge machines!

Ida Ann Shapiro (Rego Park, NY) is tickled. In her game versus Julie Kading (Winnipeg MB), she played JIVIESt for 117 points! Ida has a winning smile and a playful side that got her onto "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" earlier this year!

Mark Przybyszewski (Depew, NY) finds me and brings me over to his double-double, triple-triple winning board against Roy Kamen (Covina, CA). I see Roy's oXIDANT for 83, but the plays they are most excited about are Mark's triple-triple TUTORIAL thorugh the second T (last letter in Roy's bingo) for 131 and the double-double RIVEtING through the second I for 94. 433-352.

Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) ends the day at 5-2, as does his countryman, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand). In his quiet way, Panupol tells me about a couple errors he made. One included not daring to play LIFECARE in one game. It is a newly added word to our dictionary. It would have given him a more than 100-point lead in the game that he failed to play it.

Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) sits quietly over his just completed game with Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA). I find out later that Sam was at one point down by 143, but managed to wrest victory out of the jaws of defeat, winning by 20. I see Chris' OBELIAS as an opening bingo and VICERoyS. Sam played UNFASTENS and VaRACTOR.

Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) quietly ends the day 7-0, as does Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME) in division 1. In Jim's last game against Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC), he got down BUlLION and STAGIEST.

Kenneth Rubin (New York, NY) defeated John OLaughlin (Sun Prairie, WI) this round, 391-357. I see NEcROSE and SNAPPIER on their board.

Peter Armstrong (Baltimore, MD), down 304-398, played NONARABLE from the NO for 86 hail mary points to win by two in his game against Darrell Day (Richardson, TX). I don't think that Peter's health was exactly in jeopardy, but Darrell was pretty disappointed in that game! Peter tells me that he also played another 9 earlier today: DIARCHIES through the R and the H! This man is on fire!

Ben Greenwood (Lexington, MA) tells me a story about a round 6 game with Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA). Holding AEEDST? he couldn't get a bingo down to the only open tile on the board, an E slotted in the last position. So, he played off an E, creating another hook. His next rack was AEDPST?. He found a bingo off the NE he'd hoped up for STAmPED, but then he saw that he could also play STAmPEDE along the triple lane to that still open E, which he did of course. I'm sure I'd have never made that leap to STAMPEDE from STAMPED.

Tonight is the reception and the players are rushing off to get dressed in their finery for the event. The NSA is collecting childrens' books for a literacy drive.

Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) and Robert Ellickson (New Haven, CT) are playing each other at Board 1 in Division 1. Steve Pellinen and Scott Smith are posting the game live.