Recapping the fifth Portland Pub Scrabble event of 2024
In Portland, Oregon, you'll sometimes see those April showers stick around a little longer. It's not uncommon to have a dreary, drizzly afternoon on, say, the fourth of May. And when that happens, it's perfect weather to hole up at the local pub and play six games of Scrabble with your friends.
As luck would have it, that’s exactly what the PDX Scrabble crew did this weekend. Saturday afternoon brought us the fifth Portland Pub Scrabble event of the year - this time, at Great Notion Brewing - and as usual, it was an enjoyable time for all parties involved.
Here's a recap of what went down:
This edition of Portland Pub Scrabble drew seven players, so the directors came up with an innovative format tweak - they added an extra round to the tournament, making it seven instead of the usual six, and the players completed a full round robin, including a bye for each player.
One player thrived in this format - Kolton Koehler, who cruised to the tournament win by dominating his first six games. His scores were absolutely ridiculous along the way - 451, 453, 487, 495, 647, 495. So Kolton started his tournament 6-0, and then in the last round, he drew... the bye. Not a bad way to spend an hour, right? Getting to relax with a beer and bask in your undefeated glory?
The race for second place wasn't much closer - Dave Wiegand had a lock on a top-two spot, as he started his tournament 5-1, well ahead of his closest competitor at 3-3. As it turned out, Dave lost massively in his final game, falling 569-330 to Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, but he still took second. Conrad, with the big win, improved to 4-3 with a hefty spread, and he secured third place.
Props to Kolton ($60) and Dave ($33) on their money finishes - and congratulations also to Travis Chaney, who was the top finisher out of the lower-seeded portion of the field. Travis takes home $35 for his efforts.
With this weekend's tournament win, Kolton joins the illustrious list of players who have won at least one Portland Pub Scrabble title this year. That list now includes Dave (twice), Conrad, Alec Sjöholm, and now Kolton as well.
But we've still got a long way to go before the end of the Portland Pub Scrabble series! This event marks five down and five to go. The second half of 2024 is sure to be exciting.