Mike Wolfberg's 641-Point Game with a 212-Point Play

April 26, 2016 - Worcester, MA Scrabble® Club

Mike's opponent played a bingos on his fifth move using an unacceptable two-letter hook word. On his next play, he was able to play the bingo so that it left the final letter in the 15th column. Mike then considered playing JETTER, but decided it was probably not acceptable. He started to place WATTER onto the board and then noticed he could try the high-scoring WATERJET. He was not confident of the word and was not feeling good about its being challenged, but the challenge came back ACCEPTABLE!

A few turns later, when Mike played KAF, he considered playing SNACKIER (which included a blank) along the bottom row, but was unsure of it. He was still luckily able to use the blank for a bingo on his next turn.

When this game was played, the 212-point play was the second-highest-scoring play in Worcester, MA Scrabble® Club history, with Mike's 311-point word played about 14 months earlier being in first place.

   a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
   -----------------------------
 1|=     '       =       '     D|
 2|  -   D   "       "     L - I|
 3|    - E     R A J   O   I   P|
 4|'     E T     ' U   C U F F S|
 5|      P A       G A E   T    |
 6|  "     R "       H A     Q  |
 7|    '   R   '   '   N   ' U  |
 8|i     O E   V I B E S '   A G|
 9|N   ' I     ' T A X     ' Y O|
10|C "   L A D       I     G " T|
11|E       B I O     L -   L   H|
12|N     M O N K '   E N V O Y S|
13|T R E M     A N D       W O  |
14|S -       "   A U T O     R  |
15|=     '       W h E E Z I E R|
   -----------------------------
   a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o


Mike Wolfberg            M.C.
----------------------   -----------------------
trade 2          0   0   ROAD        8f  10   10
NOTARIZE   f4   89  89   NODE        12d 29   39
FUME       e3   30 119   WAG         c11 20   59
MIB        d2   29 148   QI          9e  11   70
HOY        13g  26 174   BOLSTER     14h  0   70 (challenged off)
GEOIDAL    i4   11 185   BOLSTER     12i 77  147
WATERJET   o8  212 397   (lost turn for challenging)
FAG        c1   32 429   GUILE       4i  12  159
URP        j4   23 452   gROUTIER    m8  66  225
KAF        1a   30 482   PATTER      15h 27  252
CUISiNE    n1   77 559   DAM         2b  18  270
SEX        m3   32 591   SHIV        14c 26  296
ORACY      1k   33 624   CIVIL       k8  29  316
NINE       k3   19 643
(DLN)            8 651
(50 sec. over) -10 641

 FINAL SCORE       641                       316  (total = 957)

The play-by-play .gcg file for this game can be found here.

A photo of the board at the end of the game can be found here.