Blog

1st Thomas Reinke ran roughshod through a field of 14 Scrabblers, ending the night with five wins, zero losses, and 800 points of spread. He got off to a quick start in the first round, facing both Gail and Betty in a two-on-one and winning both games by large margins. Against Gail, he played bingos of CERATES, ABSEILER, NABBERS, and CRAVENER. Semi-fun fact: he had played the then-phony CRAVENEST in a game a few years ago, before it was added to the dictionary. Against Betty, he was held to only a single bingo, VOYAGED. That game would prove to have his lowest bingo total of the night, as he eventually ended up with 15 rack-clearers, an average of three per game. Against Mary, he opened with BLADERS, then added EATERIES, INERRANT, and VIRAGOES (n. VIRAGO, a domineering woman) on his way to a 517-point game. In the third round, he faced Bryan, who saw as his first two tiles two W's. Not a good omen, because even though he opened with WOWING, Thomas underlaid it with ANEMONE making five overlaps. He then quickly added a double-double SPIELED (SPIELED and SPEILED are both good, but only SPIELER) for 90 and in the end won 495-322. In the final game he faced a familiar (literally) opponent, and bear Charles 428-350. It would have been a bigger win, but Charles went out with AREOLES to cut a large amount of spread.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went his usual 3-1, coming in second as he was the only person to finish with that record on the night. In the first game he faced Dave K., winning 444-292. His bingos in that game were EARSTONE (a fancy way of saying OTOLITH), GUANINE, and NUPTIALS. Against James in the next round, he won 438-334 with bingos of HOLARDS and FAIREST. James played NUTTIEST and PENDANT, the second of those right in front of a triple-word score. An extension to DEPENDANT or APPENDANT would have scored a fair amount, but neither were played, probably because DEPENDENT is the more usual spelling and APPENDANT isn't a very common word. Also, no word on whether an extension to PEANUTTIEST was considered. He slogged though a tough game against Thomas as detailed above, eventually getting down RASSLED but losing 332-495. In the final game, he beat Barb 451-382. After a slow start for both players, they both played two bingos, SEQUOIA (one of 39 seven-letter words with five vowels) and GREEDIER for Barb, and INOSITE and PURLINS for Bryan.

3rd Helen Flores returned from a fun (remember, fun can be had at tournaments in ways other than winning games) Phoenix tournament to play yet more Scrabble and had a successful night, ending with a 2-1 +361 record. Her first game (which was in the second round due to her tardiness which has been noted) was a close 387-392 loss to Barb; both players played OUT- bingos, OUTWEAR for Barb and OUTRATES for Helen. That part was equal, but Barb also played ZESTIEST which helped tilted the game in her favor. She got one of her highest scores ever in the next game against Dave, as she scored 527 in a big win. She only played two bingos, BOOMIER and STARTING, so I'm assuming that she also had some big power-tile plays. In the last round she held Gail uncharacteristically bingo-less and won 497-309. For her part she bingoed with VIOLINS and UGLIEST.

1st Charles Reinke found himself on the top of the proverbial heap with a perfect 4-0 +334 record. His first game was, unsurprisingly, a victory, with Charles triumphing 418-334 over James Frankki. Charles had SNEERED and PANIERS as his bingos, while James had SERENADE (which is SNEERED + A). A match against Dave Gilligan ended with Charles' out-bingo of GURGLING, which took a relatively close game into "drubbing" territory, 452-267. The upward trajectory for Charles continued as he faced off against Bryan Benwitz and won 516-389. Bryan played CRISPIER and URETHANS, but Charles proved once again that three bingos is better than two by playing DETENTS, DEBATING, and EMENDERS. That previously-mentioned upward trajectory, which seemed poised to unceasingly continue upward for all eternity, did drop down a little bit in the final game as Charles squeaked out a close game against newcomer Barb Pratzel, 398-376. Barb's SQUAREST for 100 was the highest-scoring bingo of the night, but it fell just short of securing her the victory.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +224, but his 80% winning percentage was barely higher than his 79.2% winning percentage for the club season, meaning he should have tried harder to go 5-0. His first game was a two-on-one with mixed results; he beat Dennis Lloyd in a tightly-fought 385-369 contest, but fell to Bryan Benwitz 397-440 in the other game. Interestingly, Thomas phonied Dennis with the plausible-sounding misscore, a word which all Scrabble players have used at least one time while correcting an incorrectly-counted play. In the second round, Thomas had another close game, but used bingos of DIVORCEE and DRONERS to take out James Frankki 408-392. James played CHOLERA, which is good in Scrabble but not good in real life. After a solid 405-324 win against Betty Hasselkus, Thomas went up against Mark Kenas in a game using the Collins dictionary. That one was a blowout in Thomas' favor, 493-339, and he had a trio of nice bingos: ACACIAS, FURANES, and word-of-the-week NAPROXEN.

3rd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 +147, taking third by just a few spread points over Barb Pratzel. He started strongly and fearlessly by taking down Thomas Reinke 440-397, playing bingos of ALEURONE, ENDORSEE, and ARRAIGNS to great effect. A game against Gail Salm in the next round was slightly less comfortable for Bryan, but he still got the win, 398-375. Gail did outbingo him by getting UNSEATS and BETAINES to Bryan's sole SUNTANS. In the third round, Bryan suffered his only loss, the 389-516 final score wiping out all of his spread and leaving him in the negatives. However, all that spread was gained back and more with a 524-316 win over James Frankki. His three bingos of MENTION, REVILER, and TORSADE were nice, but even nicer were his non-bingo plays of FUNPLEX and QAJAQ, the latter of which might not get played for another two decades.

4th Barb Pratzel, in her first-ever experience with competitive Scrabble, went 3-1 +130 (with a 406 average!) and just barely missed out on the top three. Her best game was a 458-378 win against Gail Salm where she played UNEARTHS and STRIVEN. With six bingos in four games, she found herself right at home with the club's collection of bingo-prone players!

1st Thomas Reinke shook off the ice accumulated over a multi-week absence from Scrabble, and came in first place with a 3-1 +277 record. His first play of the night was a 106-point double-double RAMPANCY, and he used that early advantage to escape with a 475-449 win against Bryan. Bryan managed that many points despite only one bingo, LOUDEST, while Thomas added SERRANO and GAIETIES (the fourth time he's played that word). Against Charles in the second round, he won decisively, 467-336. A seemingly great accomplishment, until you look at the standings for the night and see Charles' name at the very bottom. Thomas bingoed with AVERAGED, PANFRIES, and SNIFTER in that one. After that, he faced the scorching-hot Dennis, and succumbed 380-418. Dennis' early power-tile plays and bingo of GLANCED were enough to outrun Thomas' TENORINO (n. a high tenor, plural TENORINI) and ASSENTER. In the final round, he cruised to a 451-293 win against Helen, who would've put up more of a fight if the blank she drew wasn't the last tile in the bag.

2nd James Frankki came in second with a 3-1 +54 record. He started his night off right with a 413-345 win against Helen. Helen had a nice find of APERTURE, but two is more than one, and James bingoed twice, with VETOERS and EARNEST. Bingoes were hard to come by in the next round as he faced Bryan. Neither player got down all their letters at once, although James did try a phony with both blanks on an extremely closed board. The final in that one was 262-356, and now that I've typed that out, everyone can forget that that game ever happened. Things went better for him in the third match as he beat Charles (who, I might add, is the reigning club champion) 405-385. He played the always-useful AILERON to help him along the way. To complete his evening, he beat Dennis 418-358, with bingos of PANELING and CURTALS (n. an animal with a clipped tail). Dennis did have a high-scoring SITUATE, but it was too little, too late.

3rd Bryan Benwitz earned third despite playing only three bingoes, ending up at 2-2 +232. He scored well even with a single bingo against Thomas, thanks to a steady stream of high-scoring plays. After his 356-262 win against James which I said we could all forget about (I lied), he faced Helen and lost 351-372. Helen played an unusual 3-U bingo, UNUSUAL. There are only six other seven-letters words with that many U's, including MUUMUUS which has 4 of the cursed tile. Bryan didn't end up bingoing that game (probably because he couldn't draw three U's at the same time because Helen was hogging them all), but any complaints ceased when he beat Charles 566-381. Such a high score was made possible by his triple-triple SEAWANTS (n. a form of currency in the form of polished shells, more commonly known as WAMPUM). The 185 points he scored for that are the most he's scored for a bingo since the club started keeping track.

Belated congratulations to Dennis Lloyd for winning the second division of the tournament he played in New York City. He was the bottom seed, rated far below everyone else, but showed his Midwestern mettle and went 6-2 +296 to win. In addition to some cold hard cash, he gained a bunch of rating points that will be redistrubted to the needy.