It's March 2012...

And I've dropped of the face of the planet. Well, not really. I realize that the iTunes podcasts all aren't downloaded- I'm going to try and make an effort to switch the host in the next few weeks so they'll be active again.

Just a quick note..

To let anyone who's paying attention know that I'll be switching all the podcasts on iTunes from one host to another, so there may be some random interruptions with the listings there.

You also may have noticed that I'm still not posting on here as much- your best bet is to follow my twitter account (@scrabblepodcast) or follow the Facebook page. Chances are between the three places, I'll have posted something recently.

Things I learned from club this week

1. Missed ACMOTTU to an H. Also forgot MAUT.
2. RURBAN is a cool word.
3. EINRRY? plays through an A.
4. CEEKNT? has one anagram.
5. OK, here's the big lesson: I lost the second game three times. Here's how:
    a) I had AEGNORS and thought S(MUTCH) was good but didn't know for sure.
    b) I didn't take long enough to find the one spot my opponent could play his Q for a bunch of points.
    c) I didn't find BREN as an outplay, the only one that would've won.
Had I done a, b, or c I would've won the game. Here's the question I have for you more experienced players:
So I held MUTCH when it was played, but luckily let it stay. Here's the board. So what should I have done? I had a slight suspicion that SMUTCH was good. But if I play my bingo and I'm wrong, I likely lose. I obviously end up blowing the game anyways, but can anyone come up with a strategic way to decide whether not to make the play?

Things I learned from club tonight...

1. ACHILRS has two anagrams. I could've played the second through an L on the board as a 2x2.

2. CEINPRT plays through only one consonant for an 8. Unfortunately, that consonant was on the board and I missed it.

3. DEKNRS? plays through a C two different ways, and through a D one way. Would've scored a lot more than DUNKERS.

4. I had both V's and both Y's on my rack at one point, which made me think of the word ZYZZYVA- interesting fact: there is only one other seven that contains a V and two Y's. (There are no words with all four.) I got to play NAVVY.

5. Missed YINCE and OOCYTE as plays again. I need to learn these words.

Things I learned from club last night...

Game one:

1. GOWD is good, I've reviewed it perhaps once, but didn't see it.

2. GORRA* isn't good, and I have no idea why I thought it might be. Just BEGORRA(H).

3. If you have a Z,G, and S, and there's an A to play through, you should play ZAG, not ZAS. Yep, I did that.

4. JAUP is the anagram of PUJA. Wasn't 100% on it.

5. Other than those mistakes, I made decent plays during the game- but lost 288-408. Sometimes things just don't go your way.

Game two:

1. BEEILNY plays through an R.

2. ISOPODAN is good. Though I played SADI(R)ONS instead of IS(OP)ODANS.

3. Sometimes when you have a really unlucky game, you get really lucky in the next game.

TWITTERY

Uh, yeah, I'm on twitter.

Not sure if I'll do much with it, but you can follow @scrabblepodcast if you'd like to find out.

Interestingly, 'TWITTERY' is defined as 'nervously agitated' on Zyzzyva.

1-0 Club night

I know, it's kind of lame that I only play one game at my local club, but until my bosses figure out how to let me work less than twelve hours on a Monday, one game is all that's happening. And unfortunately, it's a rushed game, because I'm doing it on a late evening 'lunch break'.
Here are the things I missed that I should still have spotted if I was in a rush:
1. from a rack of AEILNRZ, playing things like ZEIN or ZE(B)RA for 50+ points, rather than L(E)Z for 32.
2. remembering the anagrams of RATANIES that have the R near the end. I rattled them off once I was home, but blanked during the game.
3. NOVENaE is good, NONEVEn* isn't. And if you aren't 100% sure, you should just play something for less points that's enough to still win the game.
I did luck out though, in that my opponent didn't see their out play, plus they tried to put an S on SIERRAN, which I challenged off. Though I deserved to lose the game given my ending phony bingo play.