This evening I logged my second-highest Scrabble score to date and my highest scoring game under NSA rules by beating Tina in a friendly (that is, non-club) game. The final score was 563-362. I had four bingos by the fifth turn (DIFECTA*, SWAINED*, ADULTERY, and TRENAIL), and got in a fifth (MISTIER) before it was over. I had a sixth one on my last rack (PUTTIER) but it wouldn't play. Tina's score of 362 is very respectable, all things considered - and she scored two bingos herself within her first three turns (BILKERS and COVERING). The way things were going early in the game, I was hoping we'd trade bingos back and forth with a few 25-point plays here and there until the bag was empty... but it didn't work out that way.I've got to confess, DIFECTA* was a calculated risk. Poorly calculated, as it turns out, since it isn't good. I knew PERFECTA and TRIFECTA, and I figured since TRI- is a prefix for three, and DI- is a prefix for two, I'd put it down and see if it stayed. I was really only about 65% sure there, and normally I like to have a higher level of confidence before putting down a questionable word... but at that moment, I thought my logic was unassailable. I was much more certain about SWAINED*, but SWAIN is a noun, not a verb.
As for my highest scoring game, that was a fluke which I'm sure I'll never see again. Let's just say if it had been an official club or tournament game, it would have broken the (at the time) North American record until Michael Cresta's 830-pointer a couple of years ago.
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Win or no win, I was also hoping we'd keep trading bingos. It was just fun!! I've balanced my initial frustration with not having challenged DIFECTA* (living so close to the dog track and all) with the good decision I made not to hook my first bingo, BILKERS, onto it, making DIFECTAS*. Although I wasn't sure enough about DIFECTA* to challenge, I thought you might either know for sure or be iffy enough about it to take a chance and challenge my play.
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