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NSC 2012 Commentary: Round 13

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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, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 13

Kate reports: I missed most of round 13 while typing round 12. Oops.

Sherrie reports: Kate has decided it is too hard to have both of us typing, despite me typing this right now, so she's having me dictate my color so she can type it in. This way, we are catching some of my PONIEST* color. :) Kate has been wonderfully helpful these two days and she heads back home tomorrow at 5pm. Expect the color volume to halve. I'll miss her.

Carl Johnson (Beaverton, OR) had his second opponent triple-triple out, but still lose their game against him! In round four, Carl played LINNETS, and Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA) hit ALLUDING 3x3. This round, Carl had three early bingos against Eric Goldstein (Scarsdale, NY) and led for the whole game. Eric had to find a triple-triple through an S in the seventh position, and hit PROTEOSE 3x3, but it still wasn't enough to catch Carl.

Michael Gincel (Lakewood, NJ) now has more wins than he has ever had in a tournament.

James Cooney (Oviedo, FL) vs Edward Gowash (APO, AE) hit a spread of 302. Ouch!

Marty Gabriel (Charleston, IL) vs Robert Linn (Potomac, MD), I spot ORATORIo, GLADDEsT and GONGSTER#. Marty wins, 404-377.

John OLaughlin (Cambridge, MA) and Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) have a #-ful board: VOARS#, GLIT#, CRUNK# (KRUNK# is also good, just so you know), WANLE# (John's pretty overlap play that scores 50), JAFA#, YTOST# and BUNtIER# are on the board, but the best is the very creative and hard to spot EmPURPLED, good in both books, which John gets for 106. John wins, 480-331.

Sherrie adds: I like Matthew Bernardina (Durham, NC). There's something about his quiet demeanor — he's a good guy. He asks me to come and look at a play on his board. Late in the game, holding ?DEIORS and looking at a tight board, he was despairing over lack of spots to play. Miraculously, he found through an existing LO on the board, cOLORISED#, front hooking ECCE# with an R, changing his CSW word to an OWL word with RECCE, for a 95-point double-double. He ended up winning, 549-366 against Chris Lipe (Rome, NY), who is going to spend the entire evening in the bar. Or the pool. He probably shouldn't drink and swim, though.

The smart division 2 phenom, Adam Ginzberg (Swarthmore, PA), just had a monster win, 430-338, against David Whitley (Monrovia, CA). Adam got down LOOSENED for 70, and set up what David thought was a fabulous play: Adam played GYROS, and on his next play, got METH down, back hooking to create GYROSE for 49. David played INTERTIAE and EELpOUT. David went on to compliment Adam's board vision and word knowledge. I think that the future bodes well for Adam in this game. And he's a really cute kid.

A long, tall drink of a Canadian man, Jason Broersma (Caledon ON) defeated Gunther Jacobi (Portland, OR), 392-329. I was there for the final play, and I heard Jason say, "... and OOT." I see Jason's double-blank inTREAT for 81 and Gunther's LANDERS for 70. Gunther had tried EXITLINE*, which Jason challenged off. Both thought it was a reasonable try.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) defeated Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA) at table 1, with her trusty pillow at her back. Both players were leaning over the table, speaking softly to each other about the game. Both Joe Edley (Port Jefferson, NY) and I stepped inside the ropes to hear better. One of my favorite plays was Robin's PHREAK for 30, holding on to ?T. She picked out of the bag AEESS, and was able to hook SEArEST, making PHREAKS, for 84. General discussion followed in the endgame about whether PHREAK took a Y (it doesn't, even in Collins).

"Congrats, you just outplayed me." This, said to Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (Piedmont, CA) by David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC) after Conrad defeated him, 455-405. To me, Conrad said, "This threw me, because I thought he played so well." Conrad opened with PANTILE, David responded with TROTTErS. Later on, Conrad got down COASTER, then drew MELANGE out of the bag. Though David got ZONE for 70, it wasn't enough. David confesses to me a few minutes later that he has lost three in a row.

A great game for Ryan Fischer (Charlotte, NC). He defeated Win Inthara (Orlando, FL), 452-303. I'm just going to list a few of Ryan's plays, and you'll see why Win wasn't sure they were playing in English: MANGILY for 69 to open, HRYVNIA through an I for 34, ZLOTY for 27, CADUCEI to an I for 36, SWEVEN for 39, and LINELIKE to the E for 74. Win managed to play TOADIES, so he was in the game, sort of.

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, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.