Ronald Credo vs. Gerry Carter, Round 2 at the 5th Causeway Scrabble Challenge 2006

Testing your game against a seasoned veteran requires looking far beyond the immediate face value of the tiles. In Round 2 of the 2006 Causeway Challenge, I squared off against the UK expat superstar then representing Thailand,

Gerry Carter. The match was a masterclass in tight board control, leading to a fascinating pre-endgame crossroads where human intuition clashed beautifully with cold, calculated computer simulation.

The game kicked off at a frantic pace after I dropped a pristine, blank-free vertical bingo of TESTIER at M6 for 68 points. Gerry and I traded punch for punch across a congested grid, highlighted by my cashing the high-value X with DEX (46) and successfully challenging off his ambitious phoney play of ENTUR(F)ED (63).

The real strategic intrigue arrived late on Turn 32. Holding an aggressive ?AIILLR rack, my post-game Quackle analysis revealed a brilliant, creative "what-if" setup: playing a quiet (O)I at i13 to fish for a powerhouse GoRILLA bingo. If the bag cooperated, it would hook into either AQUA or OIL for a spectacular late-game heist. At the table, however, I chose the simpler path, dropping (LI(EN) at D5 for just 4 points.