Charlotte Eastern Tournament Day Two

The food here is wretched.
For breakfast yesterday we were served eggs soaked in gross egg water with an orange colored "breakfast punch" which I'm fairly sure was made out of the water the eggs were soaking in. For this delightful meal we were charged ten dollars. Dinner, and no, I didn't think it was possible, was even worse. I had an ear of corn and refused to pay the $18 bill. Anyway, this morning I decided to grab raisin bran cereal from the breakfast cart after my first game. After about an hour, I learned a valuable lesson. While fiber is a good thing, fiber in the midst of a four hour tournament session is a BAD thing...I barely made it back to my room after my last game! Oh man...what? Too much information?
Okay, I'll write about some Scrabble.
My first opponent was a woman I thought I'd played before...but I couldn't remember how she played. When she played "dishers" as a freaking bingo on me...I remembered she was good. :( A few turns later I draw maliner, there is an open d from her bingo, so I play marlined. My next turn I draw ttian?r Yay! I play tertian. A few turns after that I draw deisgto and bingo with dogiest. I am ahead by HUNDREDS! So I start shutting down the board and can see her getting frustrated. She plays some words that I don't know, like agone for 14 points...but it just wasn't worth a challenge...glad I didn't cause it was good AND I drew the second blank! Hurrah! I had swarme? But neither warmers or swarmed played, so I counted up the esses and aitches and played my w on top of an to put wan right under the triple line. She didn't block on on my next turn I bingoed with marines/swan. Another 500+ point game!

My next game was against an old black woman who reportedly was once ranked in the 1800s, but hadn't played for a couple of years...or decades. My strategy against her was simple, play as many new words as I could find AND play fast.
She was quite good, but my quick play was flustering her, she drew both blanks and came up with a clever bingo of beignet, but it wasn't worth very much and since I opened with query (kue on DLS and DWS) she was still behind. She made "quite" for 28 and I drew orates plus K. I dumped the K hoping to complete an orates rack and drew an ar. Roaster. But it didn't play...so I decided to get cute and hook it on quite for roaster/quiter. Hah. She challenged sooo fast.
Dammit.
She then took a 26 point lead and I dumped the ar and picked up an a. I played the "new word" in that rack, santero hoping to draw the challenge...but she didn't bite. She made up some ground with a high scoring zee play, but I managed to hold on and win by 23 points. Whew.
My next game was a woman that creamed me in Albany. I opened with grill leaving oe on my rack I picked up hrnir, I took a chance on grille being good and played hornier. She didn't challenge! I then drew outpas? I knew I had a word there, but it didn't play (or so I thought! I looked it up later and I could have played outpass on top of hornier for thornier!!! Dammit!!) So I dumped my p and drew an el. I bingoed with outsail/ops. I dominated the game from there, I bingoed again with the second blank with stinkers/rhos. I drew the last two tiles in the bag and wouldn't you know I picked up the dang kue. There were no eyes anywhere. I had qata on my rack...there was no place to put qat either. I decided to place the second a in a spot where I could then use it to hang the tee on my next turn. However, I started to fear I wouldn't get a next turn, so I decided to figure out what she had on her rack.
Now, I don't know how this happens, but even though I cross off each letter as they are played, by the end of the game all I have is a big ole dang mess! So I had to start over...I gave up once I figured out that she had a p and would just snatch my a if I tried to play it...disheartened I looked at the board again and found my miracle! The word id with two spaces in front!!! I put down qa with the kue on the double letter square! I ended up winning that game by 167. She said it was the worst beating she took all tournament.
My last game was against an old black dude that beat me in Washington D.C. It was one of those bitter 14 point losses AND then at the game's end he told me his bingo was a phony.
I WAS SOOOOOOO MAD!!!!
As I sat down to play today I was thinking "I owe you a beating!" Of course when he open bingoed with stormed, I guessed it wasn't going to be today. He then started making one and two point plays and I knew he was fishing...I drew a blank, but the rest of my letters sucked, so I exchanged hoping to catch something before he did...unfortunately, he bingoed with baiters. I cannot tell you how close I came to challenging it. It was just like a brain freeze or something. The other day Phil played aeriest and the same thing almost happened. Anyway, I hold the play and like right before I hit the button I see "rebaits" and that triggers the satire rack and I remember the word is good. Good lord!! Anyway, I play my own bingo through his ar "greeting" with the blank as an I, but the g is hanging right above the triple line and I'm worried he has an ess...but I decide against blocking, which was good because a turn or two later I get the tonies rack plus an I. I played inosite on the triple line for greetings/inosite. I take the lead! At one point he plays garot, I hold the play, he looks so confident, but I'm pretty sure the word needs an e, so I challenge. He tells me its good. I shrug and say, well might as well put it in the computer anyway. It's NOT good!! I extend my lead. Of course I draw the last tile...AGAIN kue!!! And of course, he asks "are there any tiles left?" I shake my head no, and he promptly blocks the last open I. And on the play which resulted in my drawing the kue, I played hum using the last u!!! Fortunately I had the second blank, so I managed to play qua and win the game by 96! So, I'm 4-0 for the morning session, with a 970 spread. They don't show standings here, so I have no idea where I am...but I know the guy in second lost a game this morning, so I might be third now.