My first tournament was in the spring of 1995, in a hotel meeting room, and I lost my first four games and cried in the ladies' room at lunch. Then I won three of the last four and drove home singing. Every one of us who plays tournaments has a story like that. Here is what I wish someone had told me before I went.

Pick a small one. A one-day tournament close to home is the best start. You'll play six or eight games, which is plenty.

You'll play people at your level. Tournaments are split into divisions by rating, and a new player goes in the bottom division with the other beginners. You will not have to sit across from a champion on your first day, unless you want to.

Know your twos. Every one of them, cold. See the list on the club page. If you only study one thing, study that.

Play on a clock first. Play at least a month of ladder games at club on the chess clocks before you go. The clock is what rattles new people, not the other players.

What to bring: pencils (more than one), a board if you have one, a clock if you have one, a sweater because hotel rooms are always cold, a sack lunch if you don't want to fight the crowd at the restaurant, and something with sugar in it for the afternoon.

Each player gets 25 minutes for the whole game. Your clock runs while it's your turn. When you've made your play and announced your score, you press your button, which stops your clock and starts your opponent's. Then you draw your new tiles on your opponent's time, not yours.

If your time runs out, you can keep playing, but you lose 10 points for every minute or part of a minute you go over. Ten seconds over is ten points. A minute and ten seconds over is twenty.

My advice: play your first few moves fast while the board is open and the plays are easy, and save your time for the end, when the bag is low and every move matters.

Both players keep score for both players, on their own sheets, every turn. Write the word, what it scored, and the running total. Check totals with your opponent every few turns and fix a mistake as soon as you find it, nicely. At the end, both of you sign the result slip and the winner takes it to the director's table.

You may also track tiles on your scoresheet. I write out the tile count before the game (A nine times, B twice, and so on, 100 in all, two of them blanks) and cross off each letter as it goes down. When the bag runs out, whatever isn't crossed off and isn't on my rack is on my opponent's rack, and I can play the end of the game knowing exactly what she has.

Tournaments use the double-challenge rule, same as our club:

• If you challenge a word and it's not good, your opponent takes the tiles back, scores nothing, and it's your turn.
• If you challenge a word and it is good, your opponent keeps the score and you lose your turn.

So a challenge always costs somebody a turn. Don't challenge a word because you've never heard of it. Challenge it because you're pretty sure it isn't there. And when your opponent plays something and you want a moment to think it over, say "hold" before she draws her new tiles. That stops the game while you decide.

Challenges are settled by the word judge, who looks the word up for you. You write the word down, both players walk it over, and the judge tells you "acceptable" or "not acceptable" and nothing else. Don't argue with the judge.

A note on the word list: at club we go by the OSPD, but tournaments go by a longer official list, and a few words are good at a tournament that you won't find in the OSPD. If your opponent plays one, it's good. Ask me at club and I'll tell you about it.

1. Shake hands and introduce yourself before you start.
2. Both players count the tiles face down before the game. There should be 100.
3. Hold the bag at eye level or above when you draw, and look away.
4. Keep your tiles on your rack where your opponent can't see them, and don't touch the tiles on the board except to place your own.
5. Don't talk during the game except to announce your play and score, to challenge, or to say "hold."
6. Don't talk about the game at the next table, ever. Not even "nice bingo."
7. If you're losing, play it out. Every point of spread counts in the standings.
8. Win quietly. Lose quietly. Talk all you want at lunch.
9. Thank your opponent. Thank the director. Thank the word judge.

The game ends when the bag is empty and one player plays out all her tiles. At our club table, the player who went out adds the value of the tiles left on the other rack, and the other player subtracts them. At a tournament, the player who went out simply gets double the value of the other rack and nobody subtracts anything. The difference between the two scores comes out the same either way, so don't let it confuse you.

Then you both stop the clocks, write down the final scores, check each other's math, sign the slip, and shake hands. And then you get up and stretch, because the next round starts in ten minutes.