Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999
From: Jim Geary
To: cgp, uk-list, sowpods-list
Subject: JG in OZ
Day -1 The week leading up to my trip was quite busy, with a software delivery promised, as well as a portion of my thesis due the Monday I was leaving. The Monday prior I presented it for the class, and afterward asked the professor how I could get him the materials as I had yet to finish and would be gone on the evening of the last meeting. He says, "You should be worrying about your tournament, not trying to crank out your school work this week. Let me give you an incomplete, and you can deliver it at your leisure when you return." Too cool. This allowed to focus all my energy on delivering the release that I had promised. Feverish efforts result in my having something that appeared to work at my desk on Friday morning, but the only way to really test realtime software is in the target environment so off to the bench I go at noon. (I had to be home by one as a photo pitchman was going to show us the results of the baby pictures we had just taken.) It doesn't work. Horror. Check the HDLC cards and find they are set at a different address than the one at my desk because of some kind of conflict. Quickly rewrite the files, and we initialize, but get no data. Closer. We're getting something on the bus, but not at the addresses I expect. Trying the old, "did you check the flux capacitor" motif(it's the hardware, not the software), I switch two cables in back of the bench. BINGO! Time 12:42pm. First words out of his mouth, "Now, I need xxxx." Required reading for software engineers: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Day 0 Oct 24, 1999 Rather than trust my fate to the vagaries of connecting flights the day of my trip, I fly into LA the day before just to make sure I'm covered. What to do when slumming in LA? Why, play poker of course. Taxi! Crystal Park. Huh? The slums of Compton, please. Oh, yesyesyes. After being checked into a lovely room with unmade bed, food lying around, and various other signs of life too horrible to mention here, I'm off to a roaring start. After a quick switch of rooms and a check on my fantasy players in the early games, I'm headed downstairs. The only medium games they have going are a 15-30 Holdem and 20-40 Stud-8. The 20 game has Mike Okasaki with whom I used to play all the time in 1997 in my secret best game I've ever been in for several months. Mike is a good player and the game didn't look that interesting, but the Holdem looked like a blast. In the time I sat in it, one player went off for $2500. I didn't get off to a good start dropping $500 pretty quickly. Eventually the game got to 3-handed, at which is something I fancy myself quite proficient. We play for a half hour more, and I end up booking a good win. I go upstairs and check out the NFL post game show on ESPN. My QB, Gannon, had stunk it up in the first half, even fumbling at the goal line, but engineered three second half drives to end up with a very good day. Digression on fantasy football: Fantasy football is the last bastion of loyalism in sports. People get teary-eyed over their colleges, but let's face it, those "student-athletes" are just recruited and thrown out when the system is done with them. They're usually isolated if not locationally, at least spiritually, from the student experience we know. Pro athletics is the same isolation writ large. You can't even be loyal to a corporate entity, as evidence by the Browns leaving town. But fantasy football is not like that. YOU pick the team. If someone sucks, YOU get rid of them. Terrell Davis gets hurt, YOU fire him. As Jack Kemp has often speechified, ownership breeds a hands-on loyalty unmatched. All sports watching experience should be so personalized. Anyway, for the two weeks that I'll be in Australia, Jane is 100% in charge of the team. So I try to compress as much information processing as possible into watching the ESPN broadcast for the late-night phone call. Looks like it's time to pull the plug on Terrell Owens, as even if Young comes back(if he was going to quit, wouldn't he have already done so by now), that team is pitiful. My only reluctance is that I've already lost my first QB, Vinny, and my first RB, Davis. Owens is the last piece of my starting lineup still on my roster. Still, fantasy football is a game of flexibility and confident, sure-footed decision-making. I think I'll leave it up to Jane. Catch the start of World Series game 2. Millwood picks up where he left off against the Mets. I thought the Braves had shook off their under-achieving ways, given the way they handled adversity this year, but it seems they're trying to find their old form. Oh well. There's a $220 Omaha8 tourney downstairs at 7pm that I decide to hit. Say hello to Badger. First table, only two other players have a clue on how to play Omaha. Still, I don't make much happen and nurse an average stack for a while. Continue to nurse average stacks until there are about five tables left. Make a couple hands hold up and have slightly larger than average stack. Play well but tight, and watch as we slowly whittle down to 3 tables. With 3 tables remaining, I make a monster hand but end up getting quartered, so now I'm a below average stack. Tourney pays 18, and it looks like I should make it. I get a great hand in a big blind, call a raise, and see a flop that completely misses. An option is to check raise hoping that he missed as well, but if I'm wrong, I'm out of the tourney. I check-fold, and try to hold on. Make it to final two tables with anemic stack. 18th to 12th all pay the same, so I'll just have to take a shot at accumulating chips. Play one hand going all in and win, but I'm still a small stack. An oddity is that most of the chips are at the other table, so that even though I'm a small stack, even the biggest stack at my table has to worry about getting out of line at these limits, as one lost hand will cripple someone. I continue to only put my money into the pot on the rare occasions when I'm willing to get busted with my hand, and continue to survive. Meanwhile, other players who had started the final two with larger stacks than I continue to go busted. I start to entertain thoughts of making it to 11th, and watch as it materializes without my playing a hand. Now the final table is within sight, but I have the lowest stack by far. At our table, everyone is folding to the blinds, while at the other table, they are getting five- and six-way action every hand. With even the 9th largest stack, I think I could run over this table's couragelessness, but it's tough to scare people out when all you can do is match the big blind. Different set of skills today. Another player at the other table goes bust and we are one away from the money. I don't have enough to make it through the blinds, so will need some help to make it. All of a sudden war breaks out at the other table. Everyone sees the flop for a raise. On the flop, it gets capped multiway. The turn makes a flush. Checked around. Oh well. The river pairs the board. War rebreaks out. It get's capped again and someone learns that second set isn't that great in Omaha. Amazingly, I make the final table. Redraw for button and I'm all in for the blind. IGHN. That's OK. Head upstairs with a nice profit for my layover. Day 1 Oct 25, 1999 Get up at 8. Out the door by 9. Meet player from Texas who is going to the airport as well and having the casino chauffeur him. Ding. No traffic, and at LAX by 9:30. Chauffeur drops me off at the wrong terminal, but providing big cushion allows me to laugh off this attempt at annoyance. Everything is hassle-free, and I'm free to cruise the concourse on a never-ending quest for knowledge. Stumble into my first duty-free shop, where I try to ascertain the advantage of dutyfreeness. English isn't the clerk's first language and I'm not even sure if I'm asking the right questions. I get the impression that it's like buying cigarettes on Indian reservations or something where you dodge the tax beat. Gee, if only there was something in this store that I 100% sure knew the price of, I could tell. Hello, what's this? 1.75 L of Jack Daniels, $25. Too much. I still await satisfaction on this issue. Day 2 (the lost day) Oct 26, 1999 Well, what to do on a 15-hour flight? Not whimper and make the best of it, I guess. I'm on a window seat, which is no prize on a flight that is entirely over water. Seat next to me is empty; seat on the aisle is occupied by adult male of equally manly size. This will clearly be a battle of wills on who can commandeer the most of the empty middle seat. Flight review: -Service: Excellent. I haven't been offered this much free alcohol since the NAMBLA '76 camping outing. Unfortunately my jet lag research had indicated that alcohol inhibits the body's ability to recover, so I'm forced to eschew. This was also my first encounter with Australian accents on a large scale. A nice combination of British precision and South Boston gaminess. One blond little stewardess was a dead soundalike for Olivia Newton-John. I managed to corner her in the galley and ask, "Summer Loving. Happened so fast?" to only be met by a blank stare and her reaching for something on her keychain. Fortunately, it was a big enough airplane for me to get away. -Meal1: Penne pasta w/ tomato and beef sauce. The sauce was a bit bland, but the portion was nice. Thumbs up on the lemon pound cake. -Meal2: Beef w/ vegetables. Great. Very tasty beef, fresh peas, and the mash potatoes may well have been on par with those at the Reno ElDorado buffet. The crackers for the cheese and crackers were unfortunately a bit brittle, and easily disintegrated under only marginal cheese application pressure. Suggestion: thicker, fresher crackers. -Movie1: Swing Working class loser finds salvation in music, dodges trouble with the police and tries to get the girl with cameo appearances by Clarence Clemmons. Sorry, Rude Boy was here first. -Movie2: Tea With Mussolini Workaday White Marmorian Flock try to find their way in 30's Italy. Yawn. I give credit to my row mate who actually persevered through this thing. I took the time to annotate my copy of Roy Cooke's essays while listening to Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny followed by Beethoven's Ninth. Note to self: singing in German is bad form on an airplane. Classical music doesn't play too well on airplanes as the subtleties are drowned out by the ambient noise. Except for the overture in Victim of Changes, this wasn't a problem with SWoD. -Movie3: Big Daddy Easily the best of the lot. It was pretty late by the time this finished, so I tried to catch a little sleep. I wake up twenty minutes before landing. I fly through Sydney customs and find a shuttle for A$7 to my hotel. Upon arriving, he says he can't break my hundreds, but $5 American will do. As I reach for it, he says, no 6. Well, I happened to know my sevenths real well, and know that the exchange rate is nowhere near .857142, but I figure I'll make up for it by stiffing him on the tip. Check in, and even though I've been up for about 24 hours, the spirit is sharp in the city. Make my way to Chinatown which is still going strong at 11pm. Call Jane and Colleen. Start walking in larger and large concentric circles to learn my way around. (When I get back to the map I have in my room, I see that I've chewed off a microscopic amount of area.) Go to bed at midnight pretty tired. Wake up many hours later. What? It's only 12:30. I got in much REM sleep in just 30 minutes. As I drift off I visualize a sphere, then another. And I wonder how many spheres would it take to completely englobe a sphere of equal size? I drift off trying to cancel out or reduce the quantity cos(arctan(1/cube root of 3)) as that keeps popping up all over my 3-D mental diagram... Day 3 Oct 27, 1999 I wake up at 3am and think the answer is 12. Without thirteen basketballs and some crazy glue handy, I'll leave the verification as an exercise for the readers. If it unfolds as I visualized it in my dream, the intersection of the tangential planes to the outer basketballs should form a regular dodecahedron. I then imagine that if the 2nd highest order perfect solid can be constructed thus, perhaps there is some cool way to make an icosahedron. I start adding basketballs to my clump of 13 to see what happens but drift off again... I reawake at 7am with what feels like the worst hangover since the last day of the 97 Kentucky Masters. Fondly recalling the recovery I engineered between 6 and 9 am that time, I crawl to the bathroom and try to down a gallon ^H^H^H^H^H^H 4 liters of water. I want nothing more than to go back to bed, but I'm afraid I'll miss the World Series which starts at 10am. Go down to Chinatown and get breakfast at Chinese bakery. Pick up newspaper and see that a celebrity's Lear Jet crashed. Will have to check later if that older model had Honeywell avionics on board. Sounds like they did what they were supposed to at least. Right across the street from the Chinese bakery is an internet cafe. After trying to explain to the clerk what Telnet was, I just sit down and try. In business. Check lots of email and scan through the 1000 messages on a.o. and r.g.p. Check fantasy football scores and look for updates on Gannon's injury as well as tidbits on Young. Cache some FF info on the local machine (remember it was #13), and while doing so see it even has compilers on it. What are the odds there's actually licenses for those? Total charge for one hour computing time: A$3. Good deal. Go back to hotel room and study for an hour. Then call the concierge to see what channel the World Series is on. After laughter on other end of the line subsides, I head out. I'd walked by a bar last night called Cheers which I figured to be a good bet for American sports television. Find it in the daylight and immediately see one TV with the game just starting. The other three people are all American students(from NY) visiting like me. Braves underachieve yet again. IGHN. Almost get killed jaywalking twice. Note to self: look right before hauling ass across the street. Go shopping and pick up some gifts. Still trying to adjust to counting change. Go back to room. Study for an hour. Around 4 pm realize that if I don't get outta there, I'm gonna crash. Get pocket map and set out for Opry House. It's about 3 miles straight north, not normally a challenge, but it's not good when you're yawning twenty feet outside the hotel door. Passing through Chinatown, see Chinese doctor's office; try to score some moxas, but he doesn't sell them. Keep eye out for acupuncturist. Start to fade around Hyde Park, but I appear to be past the halfway point, so no wimping out now. Come around a corner quayside and boom there it is. I take off up all the steps to the mental music of Gonna Fly Now and am surprised when I'm not swarmed by the children of Philadelphia at the top. Stick around for a couple minutes, yeah, it's nice, and start back along different route. Pick up some Lebanese takeout and eat it in my room. Fall asleep by 7pm. Day 4 Oct 28, 1999 Wake up at 5:30 am. Call Jane and Beaner. Go to 7-11 for some breakfast. Maybe some grape juice and a roll. No grape juice, but plenty of black currant juice. It turns out that there is no grape juice in any store I visited in Australia, just lots of black currant juice. A more ambitious traveler would've pertaken; I get some OJ. One interesting tidbit about 7-11's here: whereas the fundamentalist pressure groups coereced 7-11 to do away with pornography in the states some years back, here an entire wall was covered with it. Also, they have their own pornographic idioms. I tried "freaky slap and tickle" in the alta vista translator without success. Go back to room and study for two hours, get cleaned up and check out by 9. Rendezvous with expats at Cheers to watch Braves lose. Head to internet cafe and do fantasy football research for two hours. Do a street hiking tour through Chinatown looking for moxas. Unlike Phoenix, the acupuncturists here have actually heard of them. Like Phoenix, they are all out. Everyone tells me, "next shipment come next week." Oh, well. Walk around some more, head back to hotel, pick up luggage and get to the airport. I get there three hours before my scheduled departure, and actually go to the wrong terminal. Clerk makes a note in the computer and I'm on an earlier flight in 45 minutes. Go trinket shopping and hit Burger King where for the first time I see some yankee dollar buying power. A$5 for a bunch of food. Very strange that this would occur at an airport; I still can't forget the time I went over ten bucks at the Subway at McCarran. The airport in Melbourne is outside the city a bit, so I had a nice opportunity to watch it come up on me, kinda like playing Grand Prix racer. As I crossed the imaginary line into the city, the cabby's radio played these two songs consecutively: One Night in Bangkok & the theme from Flashdance. Clearly a good sign. I felt a shiver of excitement unmatched since the first time I pulled around that bend and saw the Vegas skyline lo those many years ago. Minor contretemps at check-in when clerk decides to test my Visa at double the cost of a ten-night stay(potential room service he says). I'm dressed comfortably(like a bum), and he starts giving me the "your card was rejected, perhaps you should stay at the youth hostel speech." Pulling out a fat wad of American hundred dollar bills, I say, "I think I can cover any room service." This seems to decidedly change the tone and pace of my check-in experience for the better. Big money goes around the world. Bellman gets lost on the way to my room. I save the day by suggesting that as the room number starts with the digit 3, perhaps it's actually on the _third_ floor and not the fourth. Tho he initially rejected this premise in the elevator, he thought it was worth a try. My initial joy of learning of no tipping is now starting to wane as I'm feeling cheated all over the place. Room is nice but there is some frayed carpet where the foyer meets the bathroom. Read Scientific American for half an hour and crash. Day 5 Oct 29, 1999 Wake up at 3:30 am. I often like to get up early and hit the casinos during the early morning hours before going to tend to my real-estate business. Oh wait, that wasn't me, that was someone else. Try to fall back asleep, but am too amused with myself over the above line that I give up and get up at 5. Unpack everything. Go down to front desk and dump money, passport, and return ticket in safe box, keeping A$1000 for the day's gambling on me. Decide to explore and find a 7-11 about 3 km down the road. Try McDonalds, but they apparently aren't open at 6am. Get breakfast at 7-11, try to call Jane(no answer), and head back. The early morning weather was a little brisk. Probably wear a sweater tomorrow. Eat breakfast and read Australian newspaper. As evidenced by the editorials, this nation is suffering some sort of identity crisis. Kinda like the Tucson of the international caste. Amusing reading tho. Try to read about rugby politics, but it causes me to drift off. Go back to bed for 2 hours. Despite the "do not disturb" sign on my door, am woken to someone pounding on it going who is in there. I yell "go away." Two minutes later, the phone rings, and the front desk says apparently we have this room as available; who are you. Retards. I guess "do not disturb" means "do not disturb unless we want to disturb you." Secretly I suspect the night clerk engineered this after losing face in the alpha contest last night. Still, what would a Jedi master do? Get up and hit the town. Get to Crown Casino around 12:30. My Lonely Planet tour guide has this to say, "Gambling has swept Australia like a blablabla" Thanks, I was worried I wasn't getting enough moralising in my guide books. Grab some lunch at one of the many restaurants. Wood-fired pizza #5 is the blandest thing I've eaten in my life. An interesting note about the service. One person sat me and took my drink order, another returned with the drink, another took my food order, another delivered it, another guy offered me a coke refill, another brought it, another brought me my check and one of the first people brought me my change. Why this level of service? No tipping. No one was beholden to one subset of the restaurant, so everybody just served everybody. Amazingly, through all this, they charged me for the second Coke, certainly not SOP in USA. But I was already stiffing them, so what recourse have I? Head to the cardroom. Apparently it doesn't open til noon, so no more real estate business jokes. The only game they have is 2-4 Manila. Manila is a mix of holdem and omaha. Every player starts with two cards, and eventually a five-card board is dealt(one at a time). At the showdown, you must use both the cards in your hand in combination with three on the board to form your best five card hand. Oh, did I mention that 2s through 6s were stripped from the deck? And a flush beats a full house. It's been many years since I've played as low as 2-4, modulo the fantasy football draft party poker game, but I would've been remiss if I came all the way to Australia and didn't play Manila. After an hour, I'm pretty sure I understand the game better than anyone else at the table. The problem is it's a $5 rake, so it's a tough game to beat. I play for a few hours and leave even, which, of course, makes me the big winner. Sidenote: no tipping the dealers here. I'm getting ripped all over the place. I ask about bigger games and they try to pump me up on a 10-20 game that goes at 7pm. Um, anything bigger? Well, we also have a stud half-pot game with $25 antes. (For those of you who are math-disabled, that's one big ass game.) Gee, do you have anything logarithmically in the middle? Well, we can always start a list. As I type this, there are no doubt several lists with no one on them save Jimbo. I'll try again some time in the evening. Head over the river to an internet cafe one of the dealers told me about. Buy a phone card for calls to the US for nineteen (aussie) cents a minute. That's a great deal. You call some local number to get access, so I suspect some sort of bogus multiplexing or something, but I fear what my phone bill would be next month otherwise. Decide to master public transportation by asking pretty girls which tram to take to get to my hotel. One of them is absolutely helpful and tells me to get on the tram with her. One stop later, she realizes we're on the wrong one. Oh well, you get points for effort, sister. Take second tram and am within a couple blocks of hotel. After cleaning up, head downstairs for dinner and run into the Larry and Mike Sherman. Have an awesome dinner in the hotel restaurant for A$20. The side salad was massive and accounted for all of A$4 on the tab. Everything was perfect. Day 6 October 30, 1999 Wake up at 6, walk for an hour. Mizzly day. Alternate study and iron for two hours. Occasionally head down to the lobby to see if there is anyone with whom to play. Walk in different direction towards and find new internet cafe. Set FF lineup. Head back to room. Slow day, so here's a few random observations on Australia: - KitKat is the national candy bar or something. - M&M's are the same, except the chocolate is different, and the peanuts are different. Other than that they're the same. - Everywhere I ask for a Sprite I'm pawned off a (Schweppes) Lemonade, which is admittedly comparable, if not in fact superior. - My hotel is right by the Indonesian consulate, so there are all sorts of protests and activism abounding with regards to the occupation of East Timor. This seems to me to make as much sense as protesting Hitler taking over the Sudetenland in, say, 1943. - There is some big referendum coming next week regarding autonomy w.r.t. the crown. Bloodless independence doesn't really move the soul for me. Moon the queen or throw rocks at some British soldiers, I say. It worked for us. - I haven't met one rude person here yet. On the infrequent occasions that I actually stumble onto a crosswalk, traffic stops. Where's the penal colony element that built this great land? - Whenever I've been in Chicago during basketball season, the papers invariably prefaced the name Michael Jordan with the words, "the greatest basketball player ever," the first time he was mentioned in any article. Here the exact same phenomenon is present w.r.t. Greg Norman. Sorry, folks, a 2-10 record when leading going into the last day does not greatness make. MJ was 6-0 when it counted(better still if you count Olympiads and NCAAs). Your icon is a choke. (Non-Aussie observation interlude) - I keep reading how the Braves have admitted that the Yankees are the better team. Unbelievable. Does that mean that next year they're just going to roll up and die should they face them again? You'll never take first if you believe you're the second best. (Note to self: GIJoel sucks, Cappelletto sucks, Edley sucks, Nyman sucks, Richards sucks, Boys sucks, Wapnick sucks, Logan sucks, Felt sucks......) If I'm Ted Turner, I'm signing players who thing the Braves are better than the Yankees and dumping the rest. - The hotel giftshop closes at noon on some days. Odd. Spend the afternoon studying and reading Scientific American. One article about the expansion of the universe mentions galaxies receding from each other at > c. TomW please explain. Take nap and meet JamesAC for dinner and run into JoelW, David Boys and Stefan Fatsis. We all head through the park to the cafe strip I had visited earlier. At every turn, they question my instinct. Invariably it proves to be the right path. While settling up the bill, I explain to them that the American 15%-20% tipping doesn't happen here. A minute after paying the cashier, JoelW says, "oh they told us it _is_ 15% here." Given the earlier complete lack of faith, I shouldn't have been surprised they would get themselves hustled. I give Joel $2 extra anyway, and make a note to stiff some American poker dealers when I get back for no reason. Head back to the hotel and play a team game in the lobby with JAC and I v. David and Stefan. We play terribly and get killed. I'm tired. Day 7 Oct 31, 1999 Wake up around 5:30. Walk for an hour. Study for about 3 hours. David Boys calls and we meet downstairs. Go back to cafes across the park with Brian Cappelletto and Myna Wallin. Curve around the park just a tad too much, thereby tripling the distance of our journey. Interesting tidbit: braniac Brain turns into Max Headroom when food deprived. Spend the rest of a nice afternoon in the hotel lobby playing team games between the four of us. I win the first two, but in the third, I'm addled with David as my partner and fail. Still, much more confidence inspiring than last night's game. Walk around to dinner with above and JoelW. Patronize the restaurant with the bathroom I had used at lunch. We owed them, I guess. JoelW has at least backed off from tipping 20% at meals. Head back to room and watch L.A. Confidential on Australian network TV. One of my favorite movies. Which reminds me, on the trip back from dinner, Brian kept trying to sell me on what a great movie Austin Powers was. (note to self: move Brian's odds higher). Somewhere in the middle of the movie, there is a paid political ad for like ten minutes explaining why Australia should vote yes for the referendum. I had no idea what issues affect the average Aussie, but I could just tell that there was something bogus about the whole thing. I vote no on instinct for now. I miss Jane and Colleen. Fall asleep. Day 8 Nov 1, 1999 As I write this, the beaner will be getting dressed for her first halloween. Jane better take plenty of pictures. Halloween isn't celebrated here, which is fine with me. I just wish I'd known before banging on the hotel room doors of all those Japanese businessmen wearing nothing but a sheet and a smile. Go with Stefan, David and JoelW into the city for lunch. Stefan's guidebook recommended an Italian restaurant on the fringes of the grid, so we check it out. Are told by waiter that we need reservations 4 months(!) in advance. After a few minutes of my attempting to explain to him the unidirectional nature of the time-flow continuum, he finds us one last table downstairs while gruffly mumbling "positron." Had a fantastic lunch. Afterwards, JoelW is off in search of sheet music and the rest of us wide-eyed innocents (anagram: noninsect) are off in search of adventure. First, tho, David has to get a cup of coffee, as it has been almost 30 minutes since his last one. As Stefan and I wait outside, David drinks his coffee and thinking that we're not paying attention, orders another one. All that Marx & Engels coffeshop marketing is bullshit. It's a methadone dispensary with a steamer. Hitting the tourist traps in the neighborhood, we first go see Parliament. When the no one can tell me what George Clinton did, we leave. We visit some little gardens, and then a big tree garden. See big trees. Meet some of the British and Asian players back at the hotel later. Guide them through park to cafes for dinner. No one questioned my navigation, and we made it successfully somehow. I wasn't hungry so just walked around for a few kilometres and headed back alone. I come into my room, and immediately sense something is amiss. Eagle eye that I am, I quickly see that the frayed part of the carpet by the bathroom door has been repaired with a strip covering the gap. I hadn't complained to anyone at the hotel, just typed it in my journal. Kinda weird. Day 9 Nov 2, 1999 Today there's a local tournament in the city. The field is about half WSC participants and half locals. There are six Americans playing: myself, Joel Sherman, Lester Schonbrun, Ron Tiekert, Paul Epstein, and Robert Felt. Before the tourney, I organize a side bet between all the Americans for A$45 (US$30), winner take all. In my first game, I play the representative from Ireland, Brendan McDonnell. After repeatedly badmouthing his chances before the game, he opens with two bingos (GANDERS, APPEARED) and I'm down 100. Pull well myself(TALESMAN, SO(L)VENT, ROTATING) and come back. He bingos late(TESTA(B)LE), but I hold on to win 516-404. In the second game, I play the organizer, a local named Sue Kyatt. On my first turn, I play SOLVENT again. She plays STRIGATE and later RO(A)DIES to my later (V)ALUATE. I bail out of a couple of bad racks with some nice 5s(ANENT & PSOAE) and win again 482-355. Of note, she challenged AWED. Third round I play Pui Cheng Wui from Malaysia. He takes an early lead and holds on. I have terrible racks and am never in the game. Just as I'm about to get back into the game, he plays HERO(I)SM overlapping many words and I'm dead. I bingo out with S(P)LATTER just to make it 320-395. Of note, I let a phony 4 stay on the board, MUNG, an abomination given that we are playing with free challenges. This was early enough in the game that one can say the result may have been different. I hereby vow to challenge many words this week. I certainly don't begrudge AWED being challenged earlier now. In round 4, I play Odette Rio, from the Phillipines. She bingos her first 3 turns (GLITZIER, VAPOURED, OBEAHE(D)) along with a later (I)NSANIES. The best rack I have all game yields CRITTURS from which you can only guess my bad racks. I amazingly only lose by 91, 464-373. In round 5, I play Dixon Assea, a player from Kenya. I lead most of the game thanks in part to GUTT(E)RS and WAISTED, but he gets a blank late and bingos out with SO(L)ARIZE to win 408-382. In round 6, I played a local player, Audree Clifton. On the second turn, she plays CHOPINE for 84, and I counter with PEDANTIC for 102. I get in SURFEIT for 85 the following move, but she comes back later with consecutive ORIGANE & SAU(C)IER and a 57pt JUTE to go back up. With the board rapidly shutting down, I get in TU(B)ENOSE for 74 to pull even, and then outplay her in the late game to win 521-463. In the seventh round, I play Peter Sinton. On the second turn, I play TABOR(I)N for 67 to take the lead. Unfortunately, this was one short of the triple line, and he plays ZINGED o4 hooking the G for TABORING for 91 points. He then piles on FLUTIEST and PROMOT(E)D, while I play words like VINO and BAJRI. Not a great game. I lose 379-468. With one round to go, Ron Tiekert has alread locked up the A$270 side bet pool, as he has but one loss and the rest of us are in the pack. Well, last round, I'm in a foreign country and 3-4. Who do I get to play? Why the World Champion. We battle it out to see who goes 3-5 and who goes 4-4. I get an early RIN(D)IER, but he counters with GARTERED. I lose a turn on "FLORIT," and he plays M(E)GALITH for 92 and it's game over player two. I later get in a non-bingo double-double REBODIES followed by ENHALOS for 79, but he continues to score and I lose 408-510. BLUCK!! Somewhere in the middle of all this, there was some horse race. Yay. Apparently, this horse race is a national holiday, where everyone puts on their nicest clothes so they can barf on them eight hours later. Funny country. Maybe some day the WSOP will be a national holiday here. Everyone can wear their big hats and show up at the 'Shoe. Binion's would look like an 1880's brothel. Except not as nice. On the taxi ride home, exchange anagrams with Michael Tang, Phil Appleby, and Tony Sim. They knew the nines okay but slowed down considerably on the bigger ones like HISTRIONICS/TRICHINOSIS and ACRIMONIES/MICRONESIA. Meet David and Adam Logan for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Adam was teaching Math at Harvard when he was like 20 years old, so first thing I do is ask him about the 13 basketballs. He immediately tells me that the answer IS twelve, but that they don't fit snugly like six quarters around a quarter. He then appends that it took 100 years or something to _prove_ that you couldn't fit 13 around. AND that they've yet to prove anything beyond four dimensions. Aren't math guys great? After dinner, watch a movie in Spanish on TV. Nothing of note save there was a bit part with the woman who played Fabi in Pulp Fiction. Also I think she played Anais Nin in that Rob Reiner flick When Henry Met Juney. Still no blueberry pancakes. Day 10 Nov 3, 1999 Realizing that I'm wofully unprepared, I spend the entire morning studying the British shorts. Run into John and Jane Williams down- stairs and head to lunch with them on Fitzroy street. Have a nice meal of spinach cannelon. Read email and cnnsi.com for an hour and as I head back, I run into JamesAC and Adam. For some reason, my being holed up all morning has induced magnificent weather to appear. This was absolutely the best day yet. So I go into town and head up to the top of the Rialto towers. The view is great. You really get an appreciation for how sprawly Melbourne is. Quickly hurry back to hotel to iron clothes for reception. Reception: First, it was great saying hello to all the people whom I hadn't seen in a while(and some ever), but out of fear of forgetting someone, will mention no one. So everyone who reads the trip report just to see where your name will pop up, here it is. *******YOUR NAME HERE******* I tried scarfing down some lamb kebabs and hummus, but word had gotten out from the warmup tournament about the book I had for the tourney, and everyone wanted to see it, some looking for values, some with a morbid curiosity to see if they were one of the 100:1's. Didn't get to eat much as I was taking lots of small bets mostly in $5 and $10 increments. I did substantially more business in Chicago last year. Most of the money fell on Brian Cappelletto and Mark Nyman, despite their short (and moving shorter) odds. Listened to speeches and posed for a few pictures with random people, and soon enough the party was over. Caught a late meal with John, Jane, Stefan and John Luebkemann at a place other than Fitzroy. As I'm waiting for them in the lobby, I'm studying my two pages of British 3's and 4's. Joel Wapnick ambles by and asks if I'm studying the 3's, 4's and 5's. "Just the 3's and 4's; it would be rude to bring the 5's to dinner." I didn't want to eat too late a meal, so just got some kind of chocolate dessert. However, it was doused in so much vodka, I thought I was in a doctor's office. Well, I'm not going to drink anymore on the trip, so it'll be OK. Day 11 Nov 4, 1999-WSC 1st day Enough chitchat, finally some content. In the first round, I'm paired with Andrew Cook, one of the highest rated players in England. I'm stuck with many bad racks, and he gets a couple blank bingos (SLINtER & STRaTUM), and I can't even break 300. 296-421 Second round, hoping to catch a break, I'm paired with Dave Wiegand of the US, one of the strongest players in the world. He opens with T(e)NDRIL for 66, and I quickly see that the British word, INTR(o)LD would've been 2 points better. Lot of good it does me. Looking at a semi-awkward rack for too long, I eventually come up with KATY making TA, ET, and NY. I start to think, "hey that's not a word," when I luckily remember the Cab Calloway song "She Caught the Katy," from the Blues Brothers soundtrack. As soon as I punch the clock, I feel sick. Probably confusing it with the British 4's JUDY & MARY. It comes off, and he plays SECRETED through the R in TENDRIL for a double-double and I'm down 160-0. Then things really start to go bad. I lose 515-368, and am now in 96th place out of 98 after two games. Worse, my confidence is shot, as I see losing a turn on a phony four as part of some big morality play where all my weaknesses are magnified at the wrong time. I should've memorized the 4's in order or something. I skip the coffee break and go straight to calling Jane to wallow in worry. She's completely upbeat and points out that I made the exact same phone call after going 1-2 to start the Phoenix tournament in February before I ended up destroying it. Buoyed, I bound up the stairs to face my round 3 opponent. I play Ricardo Gonzalez of Saudia Arabia. I play a couple 3 letter words to balance my rack and am drawing to a beautiful REST when he lays down a blank bingo on move 2. Thinking I'll bounce right back, I see that I've unfortunately picked QEY to my once promising rack and am faced with this situaiton: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee EEQRSTY 39 ----------------------------- RicardoGonz ------- 100 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| - - | 6| " N E K " " | 7| ' M I X ' ' | 8|= ' F U G U ' =| 9| ' ' ' N ' | 10| " " D " | 11| - R - | 12|' - ' A - '| 13| - ' ' W - | 14| - " n - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- so I play: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| - - | 6| " N E K " " | 7| ' M I X ' ' | 8|= ' F U G U ' =| 9| ' ' ' N ' | 10| " " D " | 11| - R - | 12|' - ' A - '| 13| - ' Q W E R T Y | 14| - " n - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- QWERTY(the designation for the standard American typewriter) for 62 points. He bingos again with LIVIDEST through the D in undrawn. To my ES leave, I pick AJROZ. I rue blocking my N in UNDRAWN which would've allowed ZANJEROS, but I use my S to good effect with SEZ o13 for 52 points and the battle is on. He remains a half step up on me while I deal with awkward racks. Eventually, I get six unique 1-pointers and a consonant but the board is getting unfriendly: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee ABEINRS 236 ----------------------------- RicardoGonz ------- 258 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| C ' ' - | 4|' R - U L I C O N '| 5| V A P O R O | 6| " F N E K " H " | 7| T M I X ' O ' | 8|= E ' F U G U S ' =| 9| D ' ' N ' | 10| " L I V I D E S T " | 11| D I D R - | 12|' J O G ' A - '| 13| I O N ' Q W E R T Y S| 14| - " n - E| 15|= ' = ' Z| ----------------------------- and I play: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| C A R B I N E S - | 4|' R - U L I C O N '| 5| V A P O R O | 6| " F N E K " H " | 7| T M I X ' O ' | 8|= E ' F U G U S ' =| 9| D ' ' N ' | 10| " L I V I D E S T " | 11| D I D R - | 12|' J O G ' A - '| 13| I O N ' Q W E R T Y S| 14| - " n - E| 15|= ' = ' Z| ----------------------------- CARBINES for 71 to pull a tempo ahead myself. We swap punches the rest of the way, but I hold on to win by 26, 402-376 Good thing too, as had I lost, I would've chanced the unenviable possibility of being 0-3 and facing Brian Cappelletto, who had started off in similarly unspectactular fashion. For the rest of the tournament, the last half row was affectionately referred to(by me at least, and probably solely) as the Brian boards. The fourth round was against Mario Saliba of Malta. For the interactive part of this trip report you may now PLAY ALONG WITH JIMBO a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee AHIJLRU 0 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 0 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| - - | 6| " " " " | 7| ' ' ' ' | 8|= ' - ' =| 9| ' ' ' ' | 10| " " " " | 11| - - | 12|' - ' - '| 13| - ' ' - | 14| - " " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- and I opened with: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| - - | 6| " " " " | 7| ' ' ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' ' ' ' | 10| " " " " | 11| - - | 12|' - ' - '| 13| - ' ' - | 14| - " " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- Same number of points as JURAL, but I thought that it would be less likely for opponent to have a dangerous overlap with the U at g8 as opposed to the A. Unfortunately, he played FOX leaving me with: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee BEHISWY 40 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 45 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| - - | 6| " " " " | 7| ' F O X ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' ' ' ' | 10| " " " " | 11| - - | 12|' - ' - '| 13| - ' ' - | 14| - " " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- where I played: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| - H - | 6| " " W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' ' ' ' | 10| " " " " | 11| - - | 12|' - ' - '| 13| - ' ' - | 14| - " " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- HWYL h5 for 30 points. He played BATH to the H, and I picked three consonants leaving me with this position: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee BDEINNS 70 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 63 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " " W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' ' ' ' | 10| " " " " | 11| - - | 12|' - ' - '| 13| - ' ' - | 14| - " " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- and I played: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " " W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I ' ' ' | 10| " B " " " | 11| E - - | 12|' D ' - '| 13| - ' ' - | 14| - " " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- JIBED for 30 points. I wasn't happy about keeping duplicate N's, but nothing else looked as good. I picked LIME, to give me a shot at LINESMEN through the E, but he played parallel to JIBED with YEA at e10 for 26: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee EILMNNS 100 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 89 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " " W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I ' ' ' | 10| " B Y " " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A ' - '| 13| - ' ' - | 14| - " " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- where I played a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " " W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I ' ' ' | 10| " B Y " " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A N ' - '| 13| - I ' ' - | 14| - M " - | 15|= ' = ' =| ----------------------------- NIM f12 for 15. Not the highest scoring play, but it leaves a good combo and threatens an S-hook on the triple line. This has two positives: I may hook it for a big score, or he may misreact to the threat. Perhaps doing so, he played UG e14. I picked DDN, to give: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee DDELNNS 115 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 96 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " " W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I ' ' ' | 10| " B Y " " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A N ' - '| 13| - I ' ' - | 14| - U M " - | 15|= ' G = ' =| ----------------------------- and I play: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I N ' ' ' | 10| " B Y S " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A N ' - '| 13| - I ' ' - | 14| - U M " - | 15|= ' G = ' =| ----------------------------- ADORNS f5 for 23 points. Ok score, and rids the duplicates, keeping LEND. The best play. He passed six tiles, and I picked EIN: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee DEEILNN 138 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 96 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I N ' ' ' | 10| " B Y S " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A N ' - '| 13| - I ' ' - | 14| - U M " - | 15|= ' G = ' =| ----------------------------- so I played a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I N ' ' ' | 10| " B Y S " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A N ' - '| 13| - I ' ' - | 14| E N L U M I N E D - | 15|= ' G = ' =| ----------------------------- ENLUMINED 14b for 82, as mentioned on NPR. He took out the triple word score with TOTE, and I picked the following. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee EGIMNOT 220 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 121 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I N ' ' ' | 10| " B Y S " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A N ' - '| 13| - I ' ' - | 14| E N L U M I N E D - | 15|= ' G T O T E ' =| ----------------------------- where I played a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' =| 9| ' I N ' ' ' | 10| " B Y S " " | 11| E E - | 12|' D A N ' - '| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D - | 15|= ' G T O T E ' =| ----------------------------- MITOGEN for 88 points. This does slot the triple word line, but is clearly the best play. Unfortunately, as reward for these two nice plays in a row, my opponent was holding both blanks and played CUIsINEs at o1 for 131 points. And I picked up a horrible looking rack. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee GHOSTVZ 308 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 252 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' C| 9| ' I N ' ' ' U| 10| " B Y S " " I| 11| E E - s| 12|' D A N ' - I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D - E| 15|= ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- Still, I found a good bailout in: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' C| 9| ' I N ' ' ' U| 10| " B Y S " " I| 11| E E - s| 12|' D A N ' - I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D - E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- ZHO for 52 points. He dumped off some 1-pointers by playing AIL at 12j. I drew to two pair and faced the following situation: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee AGSSTVV 360 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 269 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' C| 9| ' I N ' ' ' U| 10| " B Y S " " I| 11| E E - s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D - E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- where I played a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' C| 9| T I N ' ' ' U| 10| " A B Y S " " I| 11| V E E - s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D - E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- TAV c9 for 25 points. I had considered VAVS i2, shedding the extra S and nasty V, but with my opponent probably sitting on 1-point tiles, I didn't see any reason to give him a miracle V through which to bingo. Still probably addled with vowels he played OE n10. I then had: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee AEGKSSV 385 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 278 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L ' C| 9| T I N ' ' ' U| 10| " A B Y S " O I| 11| V E E - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D - E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- where I played a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L S ' C| 9| T I N ' K ' U| 10| " A B Y S E " O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D - E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- SKEG, i8 for 27 points. Plays hooking BATH might be slightly more points, but would unnecessarily open bingo lanes above. Hooking SKEG horizontally to HWYL is one more point, but once again opens up lines unnecessarily. Finally, keeping the E and playing SKAG would usually be better, but I liked holding the A as Q-insurance. Yet again, he appeared addled with 1-pointers and played IRE 14m. And sure enough, I picked the Q. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee AAEOQSV 412 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 291 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L S ' C| 9| T I N ' K ' U| 10| " A B Y S E " O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- so I played a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - Q ' - | 4|' - A ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L S ' C| 9| T I N ' K ' U| 10| " A B Y S E " O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- QAT g3 for 22 points. Looking at my AEOSV leave, I couldn't help but think that should I pick a UR combo out of the bag, I would have VAQUEROS through the Q. Unbelievably, that's exactly what I picked. My delight was sadly postponed, tho, as he played REI, h1 blocking the Q. All the G's were gone, so fishing for QINGHAOSU was now out of the question. Still, I made the best of it: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee AEORSUV 434 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 311 1|= ' R ' =| 2| - " E " - | 3| - Q I ' - | 4|' - A ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L S ' C| 9| T I N ' K ' U| 10| " A B Y S E " O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|S A V O U R E R ' =| 2| - " E " - | 3| - Q I ' - | 4|' - A ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L S ' C| 9| T I N ' K ' U| 10| " A B Y S E " O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- SAVOURER for 86. Also playable was WAVEROUS 6h for a lower score. Trying to open things up, he played OD j9. Picking a bunch of heavy consonants, I had: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee ACFOPTW 520 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba ------- 331 1|S A V O U R E R ' =| 2| - " E " - | 3| - Q I ' - | 4|' - A ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' ' | 8|= J A R U L S ' C| 9| T I N ' K O ' U| 10| " A B Y S E D O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- I chose to play a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|S A V O U R E R ' =| 2| - " E " - | 3| - Q I ' - | 4|' - A ' - '| 5| B A T H - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' C ' | 8|= J A R U L S O ' C| 9| T I N ' K O P ' U| 10| " A B Y S E D O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- COP at k7 to block the easiest bingo line. This wasn't the best move. Better was COWP in the same spot shedding the W and scoring 4 more points. I was only 80% sure of this being a word, so played it safe. The last letter in the bag was one of the two R's, leaving him with PLANERS/REPLANS, so the blocking notion was correct, even if the execution wasn't perfect. Of some interest is that had "PIRE" been a word, I could've ridded all the junk with COWFLOP l-10. He plays SAE i3, and I'm faced with: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee AFRTW 536 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba LNPR 358 1|S A V O U R E R ' =| 2| - " E " - | 3| - Q I S - | 4|' - A ' A - '| 5| B A T H E - | 6| " D W " " | 7| ' F O X Y ' C ' | 8|= J A R U L S O ' C| 9| T I N ' K O P ' U| 10| " A B Y S E D O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- where I play a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|S A V O U R E R ' =| 2| - " E " - | 3| - Q I S - | 4|' - A ' A A - '| 5| B A T H E R - | 6| " D W T " | 7| ' F O X Y ' C ' | 8|= J A R U L S O ' C| 9| T I N ' K O P ' U| 10| " A B Y S E D O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- ART j4, for 18, which I thought was a clever setup for my FW, but was in fact wrong. Best play would simply be ARF in the same spot for nine more points with fine spots for the TW. He played ALP at b1. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee FW 554 ----------------------------- MarioSaliba NR 368 1|S A V O U R E R ' =| 2| L " E " - | 3| P - Q I S - | 4|' - A ' A A - '| 5| B A T H E R - | 6| " D W T " | 7| ' F O X Y ' C ' | 8|= J A R U L S O ' C| 9| T I N ' K O P ' U| 10| " A B Y S E D O I| 11| V E E G - E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- And I went out with a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|S A V O U R E R ' =| 2| L " E " - | 3| P - Q I S - | 4|' - A ' A A - '| 5| B A T H E R - | 6| " D W T " | 7| ' F O X Y ' C ' | 8|= J A R U L S O ' C| 9| T I N ' K O P ' U| 10| " A B Y S E D O I| 11| V E E G - F E s| 12|' D A N ' A I L I| 13| - I ' M I T O G E N| 14| E N L U M I N E D W I R E| 15|Z H O ' G T O T E ' s| ----------------------------- FLOW l11 for 17 points. Final score 573-368. So I made it to the lunch break back at even. Round 5 was against Wilma Warwick of Scotland. I played reasonably well, but was always a tempo behind her. By the time I managed a late blank bingo, I was too far back. I didn't play perfectly tho. I lose 413-434. Round 6 was against Taewan Sitthasin of Thailand. He made a mistake early on misplaying TUBAIST as "TABUIST." I was able to play ball-control offense while immediately countering his two bingos with two of my own. Despite eating the Q, I win 460-355. I'm firmly in the middle of the pack at 3-3. Round 7 was against Virgillio Quiballo of the Phillipines. We both crawl through some bad racks when I get down EXTIRP for 64 points to take control. Two turns later, I played JOINTURE. I manage to find one of the two bingos to go out in this position: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee ?AELLNS 361 ----------------------------- VQuiballo IT 283 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " A - | 3| J ' C L I Q U E | 4|' O - R U - G| 5| L I B E R T Y A V O| 6| " N " P " R I Z A| 7|N T ' T ' O H D T| 8|O U ' I N D O W S E| 9|N r ' C ' E N ' E E| 10|E M E S " B A D X | 11| O U - O A A T | 12|' V R G R O W I I '| 13| I F F ' K A M A - R | 14| E E " Y E S P H| 15|= D = G ' I| ----------------------------- to win 420-281. The last round of day 1 is against Gareth Williams who made it to the semifinals of the '93 WSC. After I pass, he opens with a 5-letter word. I sheepishly challenge saying, "it's not in ours." While the runner is running, a light-bulb goes off, and I say, "wait, is in ours," and he adds that it's not even good in theirs. On my third turn, I have SILTIER but nowhere to play it. After much introspection, I convince myself that RILIEST is an acceptable British anagram of the word and lay it down. He probably thinks I'm some kind of moron, challenging five-letter American Z-words and taking five minutes to find RILIEST. On move six, he plays RADIA(N)S to retake the lead. The battle goes back and forth, until I pick the remaining blank on move 11 and get down (U)NVEILED on a rapidly closing board. On the next turn, I shut down the rest of the board with VERMIN and win a close one 412-390. At the end of the day, I have managed to find myself at 5-3, +195 in 24th place, a galactic improvement over my 96th place 0-2, -273 start. A good recovery. Answer to above: NA(C)ELLES also LAN(G)RELS Promised Jane I'd call her, but one minute after leaving the playing hall, I grabbed a well-needed beer with some of the British players. Slammed it and took a cab 20 miles or so to some Chinese restaurant Joan Mocine had read about on the internet called King of Dumplings or was that a film with Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern. Well, I forget, but it was worth the trip. There were about ten of us and everyone got something great and we shared and I pigged out all for about A$20. A little row ensued late when after Mike Sherman finished his portion of sweet and sour snapper, I commandeered it from the waiter. It was great, but I then find out after I've dumped it on my plate that Mike had intended to get it wrapped up to go. His son Larry says to me, "How do you feel stealing food from an 85-year-man?" "Tis natural selection; I can live with myself." Still, I think Mike likes me, cause I have a job and I don't live with him. Day 12 Nov 5, 1999 - WSC 2nd day I start day 2 on board 11 or so on the first row, about a 9-iron from board 1. I'm paired against Kendall Boyd of New Zealand. He plays RESINATA on move 3, SOLIDLY on move 6, and HAGRIDE on move 7, while I sit on these racks: BDLSTUV AILOSVW AALNNOR ABMNORT FKMMOZ? FGIMMO? FGIPTV? I pick the second blank, and get a late bingo of PERVE(R)S(E), but still lose big, 479-322. Apparently the end of my tenure on row one. For round 10, I get matched with Russell Byers of England who was leading much of the way at the '97 WSC. Fate was a bit kinder as I opened with (P)OWDERY, plunked down RETAINER on move 3, GO(E)THITE on move 7, and LASAGNE on move 8. Almost missed LASAGNE, so enamored was I with trying to place the British anagram ALNAGES that I completely overlooked the American-acceptable troika. I was about to play GALEA somewhere when I thought gee, GALEA plus N makes GALENA that town in Western Illinois I stayed in while visiting Jane's family over Christmas 96. Fond memories of seeing the bank thermometer read -27 at Midnight Mass and the Colonel picking up the Axis & Allies game that I'd been playing for three days were shattered when a little voice inside my head whispered, "you moron, GALENA isn't just a proper noun, it's a word!" "not only that it's part of an anagram set." Another Brit must wonder how he lost to an idiot who took five minutes to find the only playable common bingo. I win 512-368. For round 11, I've made it to the top of row 2 and am playing Arvind Abraham of the United Arab Emirates. I open with WOOD 8f, he overlaps with MOZO 7e to go up 53-16. I'm now sitting on ADEGILS. I think to myself isn't SILAGE a verb in British? All the high-prob 7's start swimming together, so I try to see if I ever recall doing SILAGING as an 8. Eventually, I wus out and play something else. Next rack I end up with AEILMST which subscribers of the JG Newsletter will recall from the MALTIES rack article. I'm sure I don't recall ever studying a British word and saying, "hey that's the MALTIES rack," so put down a non-bingo with more confidence. The next rack, I have AEISSTT and turn it into DISTASTE to pull ahead. Through the E, he plays RELAX to tie the game. With a rack of ADHIOPR, I happily play PAROTID for a double-double through the T in DISTASTE, but miss the superior HARDTOP in the same spot. The next turn he slides in a blank bingo FEATU(R)ES through an unlikely spot, but I manage to hang tough with HOWBE, CONCH, JURY and HIVES from nonideal racks. I make one mistake, at least, happily playing FUGU for a nice score from a bad rack but I should've just played FUG as Q-insurance. It's tight going into the late game, but he ends up with the blank while I make three pair. He fishes off an I to empty the bag and sitting on a great rack, and I face the task of trying to block everything simultaneously AND not opening anything new AND I'm just about over on time, so if I dick around or something, he might win without even bingoing: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee EENNPTT 388 ----------------------------- ArvindAbraha EGIINR? 353 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " K - | 3| - ' ' A | 4|' A R ' - I '| 5| L A M V I B E | 6| " G E L D I I " | 7| ' M O Z O ' N J | 8|C Q W O O D Y A U N E| 9|O H I V E S I R | 10|N " " S L A T Y " | 11|C P A R O T I D | 12|H O W B E ' A - '| 13| F E A T U r E S F U G U| 14| - " T " D O - | 15|= ' R E L A X E R S| ----------------------------- With all this in mind, I slapped down __________ as my flag dangled. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o ----------------------------- 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " K - | 3| - ' P E N T A N E| 4|' A R ' - I '| 5| L A M V I B E | 6| " G E L D I I " | 7| ' M O Z O ' N J | 8|C Q W O O D Y A U N E| 9|O H I V E S I R | 10|N " " S L A T Y " | 11|C P A R O T I D | 12|H O W B E ' A - '| 13| F E A T U r E S F U G U| 14| - " T " D O - | 15|= ' R E L A X E R S| ----------------------------- PENTANE to kill everything at once, and guarantee an out next turn. He goes over trying to find the bingo that's not there and I win 414-332. I'm now at 19th at 7-4, +264. Last round before lunch, I play Femi Awowade of Nigeria. On my opening rack, I have DEEENOP. I think isn't DEPONEE good in British. I hem and haw and finally pushed over the fence by my failure to pull the trigger on SILAGED last round, lay it down. The actual word is DISPONEE, not DEPONEE, and I'm left hoping he puts out an R(or something else, I told myself at the time, tho there is nothing else). He opens with SIX, which is usually a bad sign. Sure enough, next turn he playes IDEATES. I struggle with vowel-heavy and replicate racks the whole game while he piles it on. I still almost steal the game when he lays down a phony blank bingo with the bag dwindling down, but at the last second, he changes to an acceptable word for reasons known only to him. I steal some equity in the ending to only lose 405-421. Tho I only went 2-2 in the morning, I feel like I was doing my best. Other than the "DEPONEE" debacle, I played pretty damn well against Femi, and I never had a chance against Kendall. So, at the halfway point, I'm 7-5, +238. I'd hoped to be doing better, but I feel I'm playing well, and know that I'm capable of stringing something together. First game after lunch I got a rematch against Odette Rio of the Phillipines, who had beat me with ease at the warmup tourney three days prior. Once again, she dropped 3 bingos on me early in the game (TOROIDS, DELISTED, & HUMPIEST) while I was blessed with these racks: DEFINSW (got down DEWANIS for 44) AADFOTW CDFLNOQ CMNQRRX CLMNQRU CEGILMT and I'm quickly history. Next time I play her, I'd like to see her have maybe at least one bad rack of her own. I try to create counterplay, even getting a phony safely down, but lose 322-446. Having lost two games in a row, I'm hoping to catch a break from the pairings but get the redoubtable Bob Felt. Going second, I have DILOORT. His opening rack is DEEILN?. Serendipitously, he makes the blank an A for (A)LIENED, and I am able to get down TOROIDAL (DECLINE would have yielded the other bingo for me). A couple plays later, I have AEIIRSS with the D at L8 being the best letter through which to bingo. I know the British word DIARISE and remember it has an anagram, AIRSIDE. AIRSIDES, though two points less, is a much better play defensively than DIARISES. But I can't recall whether or not AIRSIDE is an adjective or a noun. I think well SEASIDE is definitely a noun, maybe it's like that, but I can't visualize any usage where AIRSIDE is a noun, and perhaps influenced by the DEPONEE debacle lay down DIARISES. He eschews the S on the triple line, and instead plays BEWAILER 11e for 102 points. Of course, AIRSIDES is good, and post mortem, Bob actually tells me that he uses it with respect to his work at airports. This error is the archtype of the kind one would never make playing double-dictionary full time. (There is quite a nice list of which that I'm anecdotally aware from the American team, but I proselytized sufficiently in my 97 report.) I temporarily retook the lead with JOSHED through the exposed S, but he gets down MATZA in the other spot AIRSIDES would've blocked for 56. I get lucky and land a rack that gets ADOPTING down at b6 to take a 13-point lead at one point, but he simply plays QuEEN a4 for 80 parallel to it, and I'm dead. A weaker player would just attribute this loss to "he got both blanks, what could I do," but I know I failed to maximize resistance. I lose 406-517. My next game was against Shafique Thobani of Kenya to whom I had lost two close games in DC. He led early, but with consecutive plays of OLEARIA, VIEWING and UNMEW, I took the lead. With 2 blanks available, and none on my rack, I took a turn out to shut several bingo lanes, but he manages to squeeze a blank bingo in a less likely spot. Now I'm faced with trying to come back, after I've conspired to shut down the board. Can't pick anything, but still manage to pull ahead. Unfortunately, he picks his 4th S to keep his 2nd blank from getting lonely and hooks DONGS onto VIEWING to win the game by 9 points, 359-350. After this game, I really felt frustrated having been just outside the top and watching four games go by with very little opportunity for me to get in the game. Now just 7-8, I'm emotionally exhausted and hoping to catch an opponent from Neptune or something, find I'm paired with another strong American, the equally frustrated Lisa Odom. I pick well, she doesn't, and I play pretty well. She actually got down two late bingos, but it was still a rout, 495-321. I don't think either one of us took much satisfaction from the game, and both hit the bar immediately after the paperwork was complete. So at the end of day 2, I'm 8-8, and will not be World Champion this century. After slamming a couple brewskies with the UKees, Joan has us(her, Les, LisaOdom and StevePellenin, JamesCherry, AdamLogan and myself) tramming to a Greek restaurant -- apparently the Greeks comprised a large portion of the immigrant population over the years, explaining the aforementioned Manila phenomenon in the casino-- on the other side of town. (Tip for travelers, the best way to dodge bus fare is just to get behind Lester in the automated fare-paying receptacle queue.) No one had made reservations, so we had a bit of a wait. Stood outside in the rain doing British anamonics with JamesAC, Adam and Lester. Apparently, I'm not the only one who has been studying. Get a table and have another wonderful meal. Over dinner learn that Adam's undergrad advisor at Princeton was none other than Andrew Wiles. His senior year was the year that Wiles had to fix his proof, but Adam said that he wasn't aloof despite the massive project he was working on. Lester and I ordered everything on the menu basically and halved it. The bus ride back was uneventful, tho I did enjoy ambushing an exhausted Lester with capitalist epithets. Agitprop is a dish best served after a 3000-calorie dinner. Lester in turn impressed all by combining the words "rightwing" and "The Utne Reader" in one sentence for what was probably the first time in the history of the English language. Afterwards, hung out in the hotel bar with Stefan, Mark Nyman, and Mark's lovely girlfriend Tabitha Nixon until they closed around 1 am. Had a very pleasant time with the three of them. The nice company and many Jack & Seven's (er, Jack & Lemonades), helped me forget some of the pain of being 8-8. It had been a while since I drank that much and I think my body missed it. Day 13 Nov 6, 1999 - WSC 3rd day After going on a bad run to finish the day yesterday, I once again stumble into a very strong American, Joe Edley, who interesting to note, has never had more than a sip of alcohol in his entire life. Which, who knows, may explain why he beats the crap out of me, despite being on the long side of 5-0. I have no doubt that part of the secret of Joe's preeminence over a 20-year span is attributable to his inspired mental and physical preparations. In this particular game, I jumped to an early start with GOETIE(S) on my second turn, but he played YESTREEN for 94 through the T immediately and followed it up with DRIPLESS through the S, and QUARE for 50 to the second E. Around that time, I'm sitting on a rack of EEEISST and with 63 unseen tiles, realize that that's it for the E's and S's, while I'm down 130. Not a good sign. Clever boy that I am to realize this, not so clever am I to miss SEELIEST on the boring side of the board. This was the first bingo I missed all tournament, but I can take solace in the loser's mentality, that I would've been dead anyway had I found it. Postgame analysis also revealed that on the GOETIE(S) play, I had E(C/K)LOGITE through the same innocuous looking L, which certainly would've stopped him from using my word as a through-tile smorgasbord. Once again, a slight imprecision early in the game leads to a rout. I lose 360-496. My second game of the day was against Rodney Judd of Pakistan. On my first rack, I pick up AEITWX, and think, c'mon God, it's time for me to catch a break, give me an S. Blank. Ding. I play WAXIE(S)T (microscopically better defensively than TAXWISE) for 98 points. Finally, I'm gonna be the guy dishing it out I think. A couple of short plays later, he lays down RAPINES, and my 98-point lead has vanished into thin air. Soon thereafter, I get the second blank and play BA(I)LORS to go back up by 80. Now completely rolling, I pick out of the bag the bingo rack AEIILMR. The S is open in TAXWISE so I'm faced with slotting the triple-triple with the first letter of my word at g1. I choose to sacrifice two points and play MILIARES instead of the anagram RAMILIES because an M in 7th position seems much safer than an R. Problem is MILIARES isn't a word! D'oh! He plays NONELITE on another part of the board(n1) (he would've left the R untouched and played there anyway), I put down the correct RAMILIES, and he throws down TOWERING through it! I pull the Q, while he plays YEAH at n1 for 70, hooking the N-O-N-E of NONELITE. I manage to get down a late DILATERS for 80 but it doesn't matter. The 229 points he got after I pissed a turn away were enough. I end up losing 502-525. A complete fuckup. Suck down some cookies and I'm facing Trevor Hovelmeier of South Africa. He opens with GOLIAR(D), but I'm dealt ADEELNT and play the highest-scoring ANTLERED. A few turns later, he gets down TOASTED, while I play REWIRING. It's neck and neck, with an unseen blank remaining. I get down VINERY for 41, followed by GYVED for 39, but fail to pull the blank and am waiting for the inevitable blank bingo where I lose again. Towards the end of the game, I find myself playing the natural UNHORSE, but opening up the northwest quadrant with through letters for him to bingo out with. Miracle of miracles, I see we have left the blank in the bag til the very end, and I win 481-406. My fourth game of day 3 was against Eugene Goh of Singapore. On my first rack I have EEEKOT?, and play OKE 8h. The next turn, I have EENPTX?, and play EXPO(N)ENT through the O. The play was apparently significant enough to make the official web site, but it was actually a screwup. I should have played EKE on my first rack, to leave undoubled letters. I just had a temporary lapse. I then would've had EXPONE(N)T for 101 points instead of the airball that it was. I realized this right away, and got a little chuckle when I saw EXPONENT mentioned in the press releases. Anyway, it's a lot easier to chuckle when things go well, and they went pretty well this game. The next turn I pulled SULFATE out of the bag and I was up 150 pretty quick. I get the second blank late, just as he's desperately trying to open the board, and play CLEAV(I)NG to run away. Final: 535-283. Lunch of the third day I'm disheartened but very clear on my objective. Win at least 3/4 to finish with a winning record, something I failed to do in DC after losing the last five. Just when I need an easy match to start this run, I find that I am once again playing Bob Felt. Why doesn't he just win some games and leave me alone? We swap some early high-prob bingos before he gets down UPROOTAL. I had almost blocked the spot, but saw a better play elsewhere, but one that made a hook word which I wasn't sure was valid. Finally convincing myself that "BEH" was good, I laid it down. Bob, happy that I didn't block his UPROOTAL spot, didn't see it til much later in the game. I certainly wish I'd made the legit play. Anyway, I struggle, struggle, struggle trying to get back in. Just as I pull even, he makes a nice play of (G)ADABOUT for 88 points. I try to set him up so that when I play my blank bingo, he's emptied the bag, but the board is too closed for me to do anything. I blow some spread here trying to win the game, and lose 320-465. The spread blown turns out to be telling, as at the end of the tournament Bob was exactly two spread points ahead of me, not that anyone really gives a shit who comes in (x)th as opposed to (x-1)th where x is a large number that I won't reveal til after round 24. Three rounds to go, I need to win them all. In the sixth round of the day, I'm paired with Tony Sim of Singapore. I have some vowel-heavy racks, and at one point slot a triple line with the O in OUTLOVE, not really inferring that I should be scared of a triple-triple. He shuffles, shuffles, shuffles and I get a little worried. Finally, he plays REACTOR(S) through the O for 80, not bringing himself to play ACROTERS for 140. I stay a little behind him and play FRISKET for 98 and I'm off to the races. I'm almost slowed down by I-heavy consecutive racks of: DIIINST IIILQSU EIILSU? but get down NITID, QI, and U(T)ILISE for 149 points over those turns and I end up winning 467-347. One down, two to go. This round, I'm paired with local Joan Rosenthal who starts out buttering my muffin by saying how much she enjoys my writing on cgp. Well, this snoozer of an iliad ought to straighten her out. Once again, thinking I'm finally catching a break, I open with PEATIER for 74. Things turn south immediately thereafter as I can't buy an easy rack while she gets two blank bingos, GOATI(E)R and S(T)EALED to go ahead in the midgame. Worse, I completely lost my mental control. Rather than focusing on my short-term objective, I was plagued with sadness and self-pity and frustration and anger as I though about all the effort that I had put into the game over the last few years just to come up a no-op at this tourney. I've never had a mental breakdown of this order of magnitude in the middle of a tournament game before. Usually, I can correct fuzzy thinking with auto-suggestion right away, but this was like a dam breaking. Despite all this, computer critique reveals I didn't really play poorly. I futzed about trying to get a bingo down with my later racks, but by the time I did, she had scored enough to pull away. I lost 406-427. I said nice game, and staggered away crushed. We both had used our full allotted time, so there wasn't much time to regroup the troups for round 24. Now, I said, you gotta win this game to make sure you don't go below .500 again. There's, of course, no shortage of tough players at the WSC, and I get Dylan Early of South Africa who is probably just as desperate as I to get to .500. I pick the blank first tile out of the bag, and am on an uptick til the J and Q follow close behind, yielding AAAJOQ?. I pass 5 and he opens with DIRTY h8. I get AENUPY?, and the first thing I think of is PYENGADU! which is a complete airball as far as hitting the premium squares. A couple seconds later, I think of UNP(L)AYED which is 25 more points. A couple turns later I have SEANCES but nowhere to play it due to the right angle formed by UNPLAYED and DIRTY: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o -> jaygee ACEENSS 111 ----------------------------- DylanEarly ------- 91 1|= ' = ' =| 2| - " " - | 3| - ' ' - | 4|' - ' - '| 5| - - | 6| " " " " | 7| ' H ' ' ' | 8|U N P l A Y E D ' =| 9| ' V ' I ' ' | 10| " I " R " " | 11| M O T - | 12|' O U Y - '| 13| - O R ' I ' - | 14| - I " N " - | 15|= ' G ' =| ----------------------------- The best play is INCREASES at 10e for 65 points. Whether I was in any mental condition to be finding 9's through discontiguous tiles will never be known as I elatedly played NASCENSE at b8. It wasn't til the perfunctory challenge came back with the word disallowed that I even considered that I had made a completely boneheaded play. He makes a nice play, and I try to open the board for my S's. He immediately puts down GANDERS to "my" spot, and I've gone from rolling to deep trouble in just a few turns. I squirm like a fish on a hook for a few turns before stumbling into ALATIONS b2 to pull within 20. I pick the second blank on this draw along with EEKMOS. No bingos play, but I do get down MEEK a1 for 60 the next turn, and now I'm back in game. The board is shutting down, so I had enough presence of mind to not pin all my winning hopes on getting a blank bingo. With this in mind, I gladly burn my S for a 26 point play, and keep an eye out for the five unseen E's which might steer my below average leave into something bingoable. Luck smiled on me as I left the J and Z in the bag and picked EER which was good for bingos in two spots. Next turn, I played GOVERnED off of the G in DIRTYING, but if I had a gun to my head, I would've laid down HOOVERED off of the H in WEALTH, which I was only 95% sure was a verb. Given that 89 points were probably just as good as 95 points there, I took no chances. There was still a worry of picking the J and Z and him having some 60-point special, but that was not to be. He plays WIZ and I play JERID to go out. I win 459-399, but I think we're both pretty dissatisfied with the game. Being the guy who fights and fights only to lose to a late blank bingo is something I could relate to, and I felt bad for him in some kind of Betazoid empathic way I never feel for anyone. We're sitting there after the game, and he's saying something, and I can barely hear him, and I'm just drifting off in some kind of resignedness like a zebra that's just been dragged down by a lion and doesn't fight, doesn't yell, doesn't kick, just gets a glazy look in its eye and walks toward the light at the end of the tunnel. The emotional turmoil I had somehow postponed last round was coming back and with interest. I feel all self control just floating out of my body, not caring what anyone in the world thought of me at that moment, and as tears came to -- "AND WITH THIS CRAZY SYSTEM THE CANADIANS..." Felt had sat down. Jarred back to the zeroth astral plane, I quickly gather my things and head down to the bar. For the third straight day, Mark Nyman, who had just qualified for the finals match the next day, had beat me there. Someone buys me a round, maybe it was even me God forbid, and I get into a large circle of Australians, and Brits, and Americans, and Canadians and I guess a lot of people none of whom I remember. After a few drinks, I head to dinner with Phil Appleby, his wife, Mark, Tabitha, Stefan and Esther Perrin. We ended up at a great restaurant on -surprise- Fitzroy street and had an awesome meal. Phil kept ordering more wine and this tab came out a little higher than A$20. :) Mark and I split a vat of jambalaya, and I was pretty gorged by the end of the evening. Go back to hotel bar with the gang and drink til they close again. Day 14 Nov 7, 1999 - WSC finals Surprisingly, don't wake up at my usual 6 am. Probably would've slept right through the finals if Stefan hadn't called at 8:40. As I'm walking into the hall David Boys asks me for a number on the match, something I hadn't considered really. Groggily, I pull "Nyman -200/+150" out of thin air, and David puts 20 on Joel. Take a few more small bets beforehand and my books balance almost perfectly and I lock up a slight vig. Interesting to note, prior to the finals, no money had been wagered on JoelW to win it all. I don't let this affect whom I root for, as it's unprofessional for a gambler to root for an outcome after making a wager. Just go forth secure in the knowledge you did the right thing, or seek to find out why you did the wrong thing. In fact, I'll bet against the Suns and root for them to win the game, even if it means losing my bet. Emotional and financial equity should be orthogonal or discipline will fly out the window. As far as rooting for a given participant in this match, I didn't really root for either. They're both friends of mine, and I'll be happy for either one for winning. It seems to me that once you start rooting for friends vs friends, you need to come up with some numbered hierarchy or something to remember whom to root for. Something like, "well Mark is my 13th best friend and JoelW is my 17th best, I guess I'll root for Mark." Sounds like a big waste of time and energy to me, so I basically root for a good clean game where nobody gets hurt. That being said, there are a few personal exceptions, but I, of course, won't name them. The match was very well played and certainly up to the standard of a world-championship match. Kibbitzing was fun, and I was fortunate to be wedged between Lester Schonbrun and Ron Tiekert, two people who know a lot about the game. The games are well documented elsewhere, so I'd just like to say that Joel Wapnick is a very worth champion and certainly has one of the most impressive resumes in the game. Joel visited Phoenix last spring for a music conference and came to my house one night for dinner. Afterwards, Jane couldn't stop commenting what a nice man he was. That sums it up. After many (nice) group dinners, I was in the mood for something a little smaller and went to dinner with Stefan and Ben Loiterstein who had just flown in the previous day from New England to catch the finals. We hit a little Italian/Greek restaurant(these were almost always linked here) and had a nice low-key dinner. We ordered an appetizer of cheese saganaki and asked the waitress if she was gonna do the whole "opa!" thing, and she looked at us as if we were on crack cocaine. So we did it on our own. Got back to the hotel and found Adam and James in the lobby analyzing the finals' games on James laptop. It was a bit of a challenge keeping up with these two and the computer, but it was quite enjoyable. I normally don't push myself that hard playing diaper toss with Colleen. Got in a couple team Clabbers games somewhere in this timeframe, before dropping in on the drinking circle. Most of the others were all from England, and somehow the topic of cultural perceptions came up and I remarked that everything I know of England comes from Brassed Off, Doctor Who and the Clash rockumentary Rude Boy(wow I worked that into this report twice). Tabitha remarked that her view of America was hewn by watching the Waltons and Jerry Springer. Now that she actually was seeing a real American in the flesh, I thought of rushing over and knocking her chair over, but feared that the semiotic irony might've been lost on her. Mark, a producer of the British game show Countdown, recounts a surreal taping that unfortunately will never air. He claims the tape has been destroyed but I secretly suspect he retained a copy. Tabitha tries to stump me on British geography by asking me to identify municipalities of less than 3000 souls, but I've been drinking too much to let her get anything by me. Eventually the bar closes and we say our goodbyes and disperse. Just between us, I was sad that the evening had to end. Day 15 Nov 8, 1999 - Flight home Caught a cab to the airport with Mark and Tabitha. A delightful ride with Mark recounting all the flights in his lifetime he had missed. He said that every January 1st, he allots about a thousand pounds to his non-refundable ticket fund. But he's confident he's going to make this flight. They were taking holiday in New Zealand for a couple weeks before heading back to the moors. The topic of my web page came up and they gave me a dead pool tip of a famous person who was dying for the dead pool. We tell cabby our respective situations, and he drops us off at different points several hundred yards apart. Five minutes later, we're in the same queues at the terminal. Say goodbye for, according to Mark, what was the fifth time finally, and decide rather than take any beat on a currency conversion, buy presents in the airport. Unlike American airports, everything seemed reasonably priced, tho that might have been attributable to conversion strength. Do notice in the duty-free shop that a 1.75 of JD is now significantly cheaper than stateside. My bags had already weighed in at over 70 kilos(I checked on the scale at the ticket counter), so I decided to pass. After loading up on stuff, run into Brett Smitheram, who has brought a set and is flying Greek airlines or something back to London. We play speed scrabble, and I get smoked. Find out half the American team is on my flight, Lester, Randy, Bob Felt, Brian, Steve and myself, along with various companions. Lester and I stake out an empty middle row of 4 between us and he shows me some game he has been playing for 25 years or so called Jotto. It's like a Mastermind, using five-letter words as guesses. I'd never played it before, but suspected that I might be OK. We play a dollar a guess, with a one dollar penalty for phonies, but with double challenge risk distribution. I get him pretty good on the British word ZUZIM(I knew learning that would eventually prove useful), while he got me good on the British word OONTS, which is something I should've definitely known, as it's a 2-to make-3-to make-4-to make-5. I was blowing two bucks a guess with SONTS, JONTS, TONTS, etc trying to nail down the fifth letter. Jotto was a fun way to pass the time, and I think if we'd been playing it for the last three years, we'd have known the fives much better, which may or may not have made any marginal impact on our respective finishings. While doing this, we watched the movie The Thomas Crown Affair which was supposedly Rene Russo's big nude debut, but unfortunately we got the airplane version, and I really don't see me renting it after having seen it just to get to that part. I was too into the Jotto match to really notice the other inflight entertainment. Was still on a bummer from the tournament so listened to the Smiths all flight. Gillette would do a good business with some kind of product placement with them. A quick terminal change and layover at LAX, and I'm on the next Southwest flight to Phoenix. While on board, I get wrapped up in an article in SI on the Chargers-Dolphins 82 AFC title game, and am the last person to stagger off the plane. All my inadequacies were forgotten when Colleen jumped into my arms. Aftermath I can't sleep nights. I can't stay awake days. I want to play another 24 games right now. I want to show the world that I know how to play this game. Two years is an awfully long time to wait to redeem yourself. I can usually hit my horizon playing medium-stakes poker tournaments in about a month. The WSC's horizon could easily be ten years. I have to make a decision. It's tough to compete with an entire world playing one version of English Scrabble while I play a different one. I thought at the time that Bob Lipton's dodging the '98 North American was a foolish cry in an empty forest. Now, it makes some sense to me. But not playing any Scrabble at all isn't much of a choice. Maybe knowing the OSPD cold isn't a bad starting point for preparation for the '01 worlds... Quiz for North Americans: Find the numerous OSW-exclusive words inserted into the (non-game) narrative. (At least 10). Quiz for others: Find the various Rush references surreptitiously included. Thanks I'd like to thank everyone who made the 1999 WSC happen. It was a great experience. I'd like to thank all the nice people Australian or otherwise who made my visit so pleasant. I'd like to thank all the participants and hangerson whose company was so enjoyable. Mostly I'd like to thank Jane and Colleen for always supporting me and replacing Scrabble as the most important thing in my life.