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1st Charles Reinke finished with a 4-0-1 +411 record, which technically counts as "undefeated" but does not qualify for the designation of a "perfect night". Coming into the session with nine straight wins, Charles was looking to get a quick win to extend the streak to ten, but James Frankki had other plans: their match ended in a deadlocked 365-365 tie. After unconvincingly (and unsuccessfully) pleading club leadership to allow the winning streak to continue on grounds of a technicality, Charles went on to win his next four anyway. He defeated Bryan Benwitz 490-405 thanks to bingos of NOPALES, BORACES, and SWEETLIP (Bryan got down SORDINI and the nice find of REPANDLY). The next round saw Charles tasked with playing two at once, but this extra measure of challenge was surmounted; he beat Michael David 450-385 (playing ADENINES and LOCKETS) and Dave Gilligan 530-289 (playing the useful high-probability eights of NEOTERIC and DATELINE). The establishment of a new winning streak was completed with a 431-411 win against Thomas Reinke. Thomas displayed an unfortunate lack of awareness as to which varieties of cheese have made it into the dictionary, phonying with STILTONS in addition to his valid play of OBDURATE. Charles had LEPROTIC, ROBINIAS, and OBEDIENT as his bingos.

2nd Aaron Bader did his part in helping to bankrupt the club by playing two triple-triples during his customary four-game series against Mark, which Aaron comfortably won, going 3-1 +105. The first game saw Aaron take a relatively low-scoring (in the Collins context) win, 414-353. Mark got in his one victory in round two, 439-401, but the bingos played were all unspectacular seven-letter words, so no bytes will be wasted in this writeup to list them (instead we'll waste bytes by writing frivolous parentheticals). Round three was a high-scoring 485-455 win for Aaron, who did most of his damage by playing PEARMAIN for 185. Mark played MAUVEIN#, ANKUSES, and word of the week GALABIYA (which has roughly two thousand valid spellings and six thousand invalid spellings). If you thought their round three game was embarrassingly high-scoring, you'll turn beet red at the score of their fourth-round game. The final tally was 432-480 in Aaron's favor. It was in this game that Aaron played his second triple-triple of the night, OUTSERVE for 158.

3rd Lynda Finn only played three games, but made the most of them by finishing 2-0-1 +128. She also disordered the orderly statskeeping of the club by introducting another tie game into the system. Against Mary Becker in the first round, Lynda won by a healthy margin, 448-336. She played two different bingos out of almost the same rack, COOLERS (CELOORS) and ORIOLES (EILOORS). Her normally strong scoring instincts seemed to disappear in round two, but her winning instincts did not, as she took down Dave Gilligan 346-330. Lynda played LENTOID; Dave played RETIREES. In what would end up being her final game, Lynda faced off against the fearsome Thomas Reinke, and came away with an acceptable outcome, which was a 432-432 tie. Both players got three bingos: DECRIES, HUNKIEST, and PATZERS for Lynda, URINATES, NEGATES, and AURICLED for Thomas.

1st Charles Reinke obliterated the field by going 5-0 +810. His first game was actually two games against Helen Flores and Gail Salm; both of them were lopsided wins in favor of Charles that served to give him a large amount of momentum that could not be stopped. His game against Helen saw him play four bingos (INDICTER, ROULETTE, GRUESOME, and ALIENORS) on his way to a 519-323 victory. The game against Gail was even better, as he scored 555 thanks to three bingos of DEPLETES, AEROLITH, and TAENIAS. In the second round, Dave Kinzer proved to be his most formidable opponent; he led for a significant amount of the game, but in the end fell short, 350-377. Dave's bingo of URINATED was countered by Charles' BONITOES (the anagram of EOBIONTS). Up next was none other than Thomas Reinke, but his first-place position in the club standings did nothing to deter Charles, who won 425-378 and got one game closer to equalizing the lifetime series in which Thomas had taken a sizable lead. A closing game against Dennis Lloyd hearkened back to Charles' first two games; it was a runaway 542-326 win for Charles, who played EXISTED, ELUTION, AERATED, and NATTERS and once again proved the utility of high-probability seven-letter words.

2nd Thomas Reinke enjoyed a 3-1 +220 performance, but he might not have enjoyed it so much if he had realized that it would actually lower his yearly winning percentage, which was at 80% before the night's games. He started off with a tough game against Mary Becker; his out-bingo of VESTURE made the game look uncontested, but the 476-389 final score was deceptive. The second round saw more success for Thomas as he defeated eventual third-place finisher Dennis Lloyd 428-315. Thomas' strong start was quickly extinguished by his brother Charles, who beat his brother 425-378, playing TINKLIER and ANODISE to Thomas' FOREWORD (in playing FOREWORD, Thomas passed up making the blank a V for OVERWORD, an appropriate word to play while in the midst of a cut-throat Scrabble contest). Second place was locked up by a strong 483-359 win over Bryan Benwitz, who had won their last four encounters. Out for vengeance, Thomas played PEDIGREE, STIGMAS, and ARCUATE, while Bryan played INTERMAT.

3rd Dennis Lloyd got in one last Scrabble session before his trip to New York for a tournament, and he certainly ensured good luck at that tournament with a third-place finish, going 3-2 +225. Dennis' first game, against Bryan Benwitz, was an especially triumphant victory given that he had not beaten Bryan once in the calendar year 2018. The final score pushed the result into "drubbing" territory, as Dennis scored 444 to Bryan's 285. Dennis had all three of the board's bingos: HEELERS, TOWELING, and ATTAINS. A 315-428 loss to Thomas Reinke (where Dennis played BRUNCHES to Thomas' SLOTTERS and STAUMREL) left Dennis at an inauspicious 1-1 record, but he was given the chance to quickly vault up the standings by playing as the "one" in a two-on-one for the next round. Making the most of the opportunity, he won both games by large amounts. He beat Dave Gilligan 382-263, getting down DEBITING, but his 514-263, three-bingo victory against Betty Hasselkus was even more convincing. His three bingos were SIGNORE, STONIER, and UNGENTLE. At this point, his spread was +411, but much of it was wiped out in the final game, which was a tough 326-542 loss to Charles Reinke. Regardless, news of Dennis' strong showing should be sent to all the New York players so they can be properly intimidated when they see Dennis sitting across the board from them.

1st Michael David returned from an extended absence having (presumably, based on his record) studied the entire dictionary three times. It paid off, as he went 4-0 +349 and came in first place. The powers that be didn't let him ease into things, as he faced Charles in the first round, but he won handily, 417-336. His bingos were a double-blank NIMBLEST as well as a bingo somehow containing both a U and a W (new rule: you are entitled to a free exchange if you have both of those letters at once, effective immediately), OUTGREW. In the second game, he went up against another tough opponent, Bryan, and again won handily, 424-305. Bryan's potential high-scoring play making PRESTRUNG* was deemed invalid by the mean challenge arbiter. You know, like a tennis racket is sold prestrung? Or a Christmas tree with lights already on it? Humph. Against James in the third round, he played the very offensive PISSIER (adj. PISSY, soiled with urine). That play was the key to his 385-294 win. In the final round, he beat Dave 422-364. Dave got down RASHEST, while Michael played SANDMAN (n. a mythical person who makes children sleepy by sprinkling sand in their eyes) and INDICTER.

2nd Charles Reinke played 15 bingos over his five games, which resulted in a 4-1 +384 record and a second-place finish. His opener against Michael was his worst game by far, as he only got down GHOULIES. After vowing to do better next game, he played two at once, David and Helen. He had a high-scoring match with David, winning 523-407 with bingos of ALBATAS (n. ALBATA, an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc, not to be confused with BABBITT, an alloy of tin, copper, and antimony), KATIONS, and RUBEOLA. Dave got down TARGETED and MANDREL for 98, but on the turn after that Charles hooked it with an S for 80 points himself. Against Helen, he won 497-351, a game that would've been a loss had it not been for the 150 points he got as bonuses for playing bingos. In the third round, he had a huge game against his brother, scoring 561. He bingoed early with COLESSEE (n. a joint lessee), and also added HERNIAE, WINTERER, and INDULINE. For the finale, he played Bryan and won 447-317, stymying his opponent at every turn while somehow bingoing four times on a closed board. It's fun when there's one bingo line on the board and you miraculously hit it with your letters; it must be even more fun when that happens four times in a single game.

3rd Mark Kenas went undefeated against his usual Collins-dictionary opponent, and lost to his unusual Collins-dictionary opponent, ending up at 3-1 +121. His big game was in the opening round, as he beat Aaron 532-368. He bingoed with AMORALLY, GROOVIER, and GRANDSON. Aaron struck first in the second game, with WOULDEST, but Mark's triple-triple of TRANSFER for 140 (not the highest-scoring play of the night; James' STARCHES in the first round scored 194) led him to a high-scoring 509-493 win. That 493-point loss for Aaron is the 7th-highest since the club started keeping track. In the third round, he won 440-394, playing EXPLAIN early and GOITRES late. Aaron got down MILIARIA (n. a skin disease) which was chosen as word-of-the-week. In the final game, Mark got to face a new opponent, Thomas, and was so disoriented by the change that he lost 372-477. It also didn't help that he didn't bingo while Thomas got down four prosaic (for him) bingos: OREGANO, ALMONER, BRASSIER (promptly extended by Mark with an E for BRASSIERE) and DENTALS.

As a reminder, next week we will start using the new words from the latest dictionary update. A sheet with all of the new words was emailed out, and hard copies will be available the next few weeks. Hope you guys are all ready to finally play EW!