I said to someone in a private e-mail last week that I felt it in my bones that I was going to kick some major Scrabble butt this past weekend in Lake George. Well, I “almost” did just that.

In a division of 28 people, I was seeded 13th, meaning I needed to win approximately eight games to keep my rating of 1438.

In a 15-game tourney with divisions of 28, we were split into two groups of 14. The first 13 rounds were a straight round robin in the sub group. In game 14, the first place person in “Group A” played the first place person in “Group B”, the two second place players would play, and so forth, and then in game 15, it would be a straight KOTH.

At the mid-way point of the tourney, things weren’t looking all that good. I went 2-1 on Friday night, and then 1-2 on Saturday morning, and then lost my first game after lunch on Saturday (while suffering with the beginnings of a horrible headache – almost making me nauseous).

But that’s when things turned around. I won my last three on Saturday to go 6-4, going into Sunday, in 6th place. There were two players at 8-2, two at 7-3, and two at 6-4, with -- count them –- TWELVE people at 5-5.

On Sunday morning, I won my first three games (the last of the round robin games) to sit at 9-4, in 4th place (cash prizes were going to be awarded for the top four, with a merchandise prize for fifth place finisher).

In game 14, something very interesting took place. I won my game, putting me at 10-4, while two of the players ahead of me TIED their game, putting them at 9½-4½.

Ross Brown of Ottawa, Ontario was alone at 12-2, and was Gibsonized. Two of us (Matthew Tunnicliffe -– also of Ottawa) and I were at 10-4, and two others Judy Horn and Terry Kang Rau were at 9½-4½. There was NO ONE at 9-5, but several at 8-6... but none of them had any chance of winning money. It was down to the four of us (Matthew, Judy, Terry, and I) of who would place in money. Matthew had figured it out that whoever won our game would be second, and the loser would be fourth. The winning of Judy and Terry’s game would be third and the loser, fifth.

I opened with a bingo PROTEID to begin, and Matthew bingoed immediately back with SERENAD(E) to my E in PROTEID. While I continued to make good plays, Matthew drew junk after junk after junk.

With me ahead by 120 points, Matthew plays SEEINGS. I held the play... and challenged. D’oh! That was the turning point of the game. His next three plays were all 30+ plus while mine were not... He won the game by 50. If I had not challenged SEEINGS (which has two anagrams!) I likely could have kept my lead and won the game.

Second place was $300.00(US) and fourth was $75.00. So... challenging SEEINGS was a $225.00 error. I could have gone 11-5.

Actually, I should have gone 12-3... since earlier in the tournament, I had a 150-point lead against andysaunders and with two VERY late game bingos, Andy came back and won that game by less than 20 (if I remember correctly). That was the lost that hurt most.

The win that meant the most to me was against David Jones of Ottawa. I was 0-3 against him prior to this meeting, and this time I finally beat him!

So... a finish of 10-5 +500 (exactly 500), fourth place, $75.00. Not too bad at all. Rating should go up between 30-40 points (but not quite the 1500 target I’ve been hoping for! It will happen!

(another gangent)

In other Lake George News… I had a good half-dozen people congratulate me and say they were happy for me/proud of me (and hug me too) for "coming out" a week ago, including spherulitic, sophonax, and andysaunders. Thanks friends. It means a great deal to me.