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1st Aaron Bader went undefeated in his games against Mark in their weekly "Collins Goofball Dictionary Featuring Words That Make No Sense" battle, ending up at 3-0 +441. He won the first one 424-354 with totally normal bingos of NANOWATT, TERMINAL, and PEROXID. In the next round, Mark played SERJEANT for 95, but Aaron ended up scoring 546 points anyway. He was helped by two Collins-only comparatives, DOCILEST* and ORNATEST*, as well as "real" bingos of HOBNAILS and IMPAIRED. In the third round, he held AAEEDMT on his first rack. A nice set of letters if you know what to look for, and Mark gave him an O on the center star so he could play OEDEMATA for 92. Things snowballed from there, as he added VIOLONE, REIFYING, RESHONE, and KATSURAS (n. KATSURA, a deciduous tree of China and Japan). The final of that game was 574-442, which is the first game this club season surpassing the 1000-points combined threshold. And before I forget, thanks go out to Aaron for not playing too many Collins-only bingos so that I don't have to risk polluting the minds of our readers with British oddities.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +186, continuing his streak of top-two finishes. He had a very close game again Dave to open the night, winning 386-380 with his sole bingo being BARGUEST (n. a goblin, also BARGHEST). Dave played LATHERS and ANESTRI, the last of which was an out-bingo. There are 9 words in that rack; only one, NASTIER, would have given him the win. Against Thomas in the second game, Bryan won 469-399. Thomas opened with SCARIFY, and later added MEUNIERE (a word which his brother also played in the same round), but Bryan bingoed an extra time for the 70-point victory. He played INCITES (don't forget about the Z-hook for ZINCITES), CHASTEST, and DILUTORS. In the next round, he faced James and won by 200-ish points, playing VEERIES and ESTRONE. He faced a similar situation against Charles that he did against the other Reinke, as Charles started off with an opening AMBOYNA (n. the mottled wood of an Indonesian tree, also AMBOINA) against him. He fought valiantly against the unfairness of an opposing opening-rack bingo, but ended up losing 386-473.

3rd James Frannki made a pit stop on his way home from work to play a few games of Scrabble, and finished in third place with a 3-1 +178 record. He had a big game against reigning club champion Charles, winning 446-404. He put on his best poker face while playing the phony GEARLIKE* and managed to get it past his opponent, and also played the very valid THEREON. The rest of his games were blowouts in one direction or another, starting with a 420-266 win over Sue where he got down FORETELL. Against Bryan he seemingly couldn't get his racks to make words (a common problem often rectified by flipping over the table) and lost 234-431. In the final game, he won 429-250 against Helen despite her playing a bingo (AURICLES) while he didn't. He must have been doing some serious scoring with the high-point tiles; in any case, it's the highest no-bingo game of the club season.

Honorable mention to Sue Goldstein, who went 2-1 +23 including a 462-point game against Dave, which is tied for her highest game ever since we started keeping track.

In other club news, the new dictionary is going into affect for tournament play starting in February. We think we will start a few weeks early, so cheat sheets will be provided starting next week that include all the new words up to 8 letters, with the idea of starting to use the new words the week after that. Don't worry, it's only about 250 words. And if we can get it, we will also have the list of words that has been removed. Again, don't worry, most of them were pretty stupid anyway.

If you want to get an early start, the new 2's and 3's are EW, OK, and ZEN. That's it. None of them take an S.

In other other club news, next week we will be trying a new location, First Congregational Church at 1609 University Ave, Madison. An email will be going out containing details, and we will also update the club website with the needed information as well. Hope to see you all there!

1st Charles Reinke had his first undefeated session in over four months, going 5-0 +375. He started off witha two-on-one, playing Mary and Dennis. His game with Dennis was pretty close, 426-386, with Charles playing SANGERS and DASYURE (n. a flesh-eating mammal, so a human?) and Dennis playing OPTIMAL (definitely the optimal play) and TREADING. His game with Mary was a little more lopsided, with Charles bingoing 5 times and notching the highest score of the session with a 578. His bingos were LINECUT, BICKERS, DEAERATE, WEIRDOS, and NOODLED. In the second game, he faced the seemingly unbeatable Bryan, who was on an 11-game winning streak (18 if you count the tournament he went undefeated in over the weekend). I say "seemingly" unbeatable because I'm looking at the scorecards now and they both indicate that he was beaten 357-400. He then faced Thomas, against whom he had only won 2 out of the last 10. He was in a trend-busting mood, I guess, because he won a nailbiter, 403-397. His bingos that game were REDTAIL and a snugly-fitting INCLOSER on a tight board. To cap off his perfect night, he deftly navigated clunky racks to beat Dave, 353-305. Dave's play of VARIATE was the sole bingo on that board.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +567, bingoing twice in every game. He faced Lynda in the first round and won 414-344, playing HERIOTS and INVOLUTE (v. to roll or curl up). Neither player thought that INVOLUTE had any extension, so the D and the S hooks that would have provided great riches went unused the entire game. He then faced two in the second round, Dave and Helen. His star play against Dave was the nine-letter EXCELLING, played off of EX which was on the board. There are 274 other seven-letter extensions for EX, including EXTENSION. In his game against Helen, she opened with a bingo-bango of OUT words, OUTLINE and the word-of-the-week WHITEOUT, but he perservered to win 488-384. He played GUILTING and NONCRIME (n. something which is not a crime, like playing Scrabble) to win that one. After a 6-point loss to Charles in the third round, he faced James and won 477-314. James played DELUGING, while Thomas played OUTRAVED and TOONIES.

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-2 +36, edging out a couple 2-2 players for third place. Her opening round match with Thomas was marked with a sad face ":(" in the bingos area on the scorecard, a commentary on how that 344-414 loss went for her. But things improved for her in the second round, as she beat Dennis 438-394. I heard talk of her phonying multiple times in that game, but at least her bingos were fine: GUARDING, SKITTER, and AUSTERE. In the third round, just like the other two people who attempted the same feat, she won both games of a two-on-one, against Helen and James. Her 440-314 victory over Helen was made easier by her 108-point phony of TOXIMES*. TOXINES is a word, and so is TOXEMIA, but there is no provision in the rules for arbitrarily combining two words to make a new won. Against James, she won 395-329, using an out-bingo of SORITES (n. a type of argument used in logic, and it needs the S on the end) to snatch victory from her disbelieving opponent. In the final round, maybe it turned out that Bryan is unbeatable after all, because she lost 301-431, this time indicating extreme distress on her scorecard with TWO sad faces ":( :(".

[Editor's note: after publication, it was revealed that James defeated Lynda instead of the other way around, and that Bryan Benwitz should have been in third place at 2-2 +109. Madisonscrabble.com regrets the error.]

1st Bryan Benwitz went 4-0 for the second consecutive week, bringing his current winning streak to 10 games. He opened with a 434-364 win against Thomas, playing bingos of GREETED, COULEES, and MIGRATED. Against Lynda in the second round, he deftly navigated a low scoring game, winning 361-308. His bingo of SELTZER for 102 points surely made the difference in that one. He unleashed his full fury (about 3.2 kilofuries according to the sensors) against Charles, scoring 547 against one of the toughest players the club has to offer. His bingos were INFECTED, REZONED, SINECURE (n. an office or position that requires little to no work, an example being the directorship of the Madison Scrabble Club), and TALIPEDS (n. TALIPED, a person afflicted with clubfoot). Against Gail, he won 416-376, a close game aided by his phony-of-the-week play of GERONIMO*. In his defense, he didn't have a real bingo that fit on the board even with his blank; sometimes you have to make your own best play. Now that he's won 10 in a row, whoever beats him next will receive five dollars, and if you think that that provides an incentive for him not to ever come back, remember that he doesn't get paid for the win steak until after he loses.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +169, coming in second place for the second consecutive week (don't worry, third place did change from last week). He lost to Bryan in the first game, with only a baby bingo of AERIEST near the end pushing him over the 300-point mark. AERIEST now has a 3-times-played lead over its anagram, SERIATE, in the "most played bingos" category 22 to 19. In the second round, he played two, Helen and Richard. Against Helen he won 391-304 with bingos of ATOMIES and RALLIES. In his game against Richard, he extended his opponents' DICTIONS to BENEDICTIONS for a good amount of points, and ended up winning 448-422. Expert pro tip of the day: if DICTIONS is on the board and there are seven open spaces above it, fish for OVERPREDICTIONS for the entire game so that you can say you played a fifteen-letter word. In the next game, Thomas faced Lynda and won a close one, 399-384. Both sides bingoed once: BINDERS for Lynda which was immediately met with TINGLES for Thomas. He then faced Charles in the final, and came out on top 487-376. He played PAREIRA, TENSIVE, and an appropriate-for-what-his-opponent-was-doing-the-whole-game OUTBITCH (v. to surpass in bitching).

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +227 while played two bingos every game, a model of consistency. He faced both Daves in the first round: against Dave Kinzer, he played two useful-to-know bingos, TENTORIA (n. TENTORIUM, an internal skeletal framework in the head of an insect) and ARENOSE, and won 479-283. In his other game against Dave Gilligan, he won 432-359, despite not challenging off Dave's phony PANELER* (only REPANEL is good). In the next round, he scored 460 against Gail, with double F-U bingos of REFUNDER and BOATFUL. As stated, he faced Bryan's full fury in the third round, as he lost 410-547. He did play FLORUIT (v. used in conjunction with a specified period or set of dates to indicate when a particular historical figure lived, worked, or was most active, Latin for "he/she flourished") and SILOING. He also lost big against Thomas 376-483, but he did get his required two bingos down, TWEENERS and PINOLES.

Dave Gilligan played the word-of-the-week, COTQUEAN. There are two very different definitions for it: 1: a coarse masculine woman. 2: a man who busies himself with women's work or affairs. Everyone should remember this word from when they read Romeo and Juliet in highschool. And remember, if your opponent opens with QUEAN with the Q on the double letter score and the N on the star, you can place COT in front of it for 60 points!