Blog

1st Thomas Reinke returned from a myserious 1-week absence with no evidence of having taken such a long break (probably because he played a tournament in the interim), going 4-0 +594. He beat Gail 478-405 to start his night, playing ESTROGEN followed by IONOGEN, the last hooking his previous bingo for OESTROGEN. Gail got down DEPICTS and DIRTIER, as welling as challenging off his phony OUTCLEAN*. Only CLEANOUT is acceptable. In the second game he scored 546, playing CONTUSED, BALLGAME, ATHEROMA (n. a disease of the arteries), and TSARDOM (swap the first two letters for the similar concept of STARDOM). His bingo-ey ways continued against James, who started things off with a double-double RENATURE. The next four bingos were all Thomas, RESEATED, ALEHOUSE, RAINDROP, and AGENTIAL. The final total after the onslaught was 518-323 in Thomas' favor. For the final game, he played a game of Collins with Mark, but didn't get to use his (extremely limited) British word knowledge while playing CYANINE, MENIALS, and LENITIES all in a row early in the game. He used that advantage to hold on to the win, 431-393.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +489 to capture second place. He won 454-328 against Mary in the first game, playing BELLOWER (not to be confused with BELLFLOWER) and NOTATES. Here's a tip about NOTATES: if you have that rack, don't even bother looking for 8s, because no letter goes with it to make another word. In the next game, he lost to Dave 347-412, failing to bingo while watching Dave play SENNETS and EVENEST. Dave has won 3 of the last 7 against Charles, a much better win rate then he had in the previous dozens of games. Charles got back to his winning ways against Bryan, 441-359. He bingoed late with ESTRONE (which, like ESTROGEN, takes an O in front for OESTRONE), and Bryan's promising ADEHORT rack yielded no winning bingos. In the final game, he notched the club's highest game of the season with a 628 against Helen. The main reason for such a high score was his nice find of BIVOUACS through the U for 185 points. Add three more bingos, and you get a lot of points.

3rd James Frankki made the trek from Milwaukee to play some Scrabble with us, ending up in third place with a 3-1 +186 record, barely beating out Dave G. Versus Bryan in the first round, against one of the best Madison has to offer, he won 400-380, playing DEFECTOR (for 98 points somehow) and ORIENTED. Against Helen, he scored 482 with bingoes of NONBASIC (adj. not basic, what a definition) and PINHOLES. NONBASIC drew a challenge, which is understandable, because we don't have enough of a dataset on James to know if he plays phonies or not. In the next game, he faced the full brunt of Madison's fury, taking four bingos to the chin and losing 323-518 against Thomas. In the final game, he faced the undefeated Dave, and had to win by 100-ish points to surpass him in the final standings. He did just that, countering Dave's FATUOUS with his own EROSION and winning 469-345.

1st Bryan Benwitz edged out the #2 finisher by fifty spread points, going 4-1 +482. A first-round matchup against Richard Lauder ended squarely in Bryan's favor, 409-301. There were just two bingos total played in that game, but both of them were impressive finds: Richard's SYLVITES to Bryan's word-of-the-week SAYONARA. The next game, against Charles Reinke, was not quite as favorable for Bryan, as he recorded his only sub-400 score of the night, 355-389. The pairings ensured that Bryan had a chance for redemption, as he was pressed into an emergency two-on-one (something about desperate times calling for desperate measures) and won both matches by large margins. A game against Helen Flores ended at 508-282, while a game against Dennis Lloyd ended 471-327. Bryan's bingos in those games were CHOICES, EPILATE, RELIEVED, and a monster 123-point ACQUITS. The two-one-game also opened the door for a first-place performance thanks to the additional game, and Bryan seized the opportunity, beating repeat opponent Charles Reinke in the fourth and final round, 431-393. His bingos in that one were INERRANT and the 98-point double-double DIARIST, while Charles had OUTSMILE and OVERSIZE.

2nd Charles Reinke was tantalizingly close to the glory of the first paragraph, but fell slightly short, going 4-1 +433. He opened up the action with a two-on-one match, which, like Bryan's, was an unqualified success; 464-376 was the score against Dennis Lloyd (who played LOUNGES to Charles' BITTERER, FOLIOED, and DATABASE), while 459-267 was the final against Gailm Salm (Charles had EMETINE to Gail's CONGERS). The winning ways continued in a 389-355 win over Bryan Benwitz (again with just two total bingos, Charles' SAINTLY and Bryan's ENLARGE). After a 472-315 triumph over Richard Lauder which saw Charles play a trio of bingos (ATISHOO, PROBERS, and HAIRLESS), he would have been smart to duck out early and keep his 4-0 record intact, but in his foolhardiness, he elected to stay, and that proved to be his downfall. A 393-431 loss to Bryan Benwitz ensued, and the shards of his perfect record lay sundered and irreparable at his feet.

3rd Dave Gilligan made a difficult but wise decision that the player above him in the standings was unable to commit to, leaving after the third round to maintain his solid 2-1 +7 outing. His first game was, if not an unmitigated disaster, then a disaster of the commonplace kind, as he lost a bingoless contest to Helen Flores 251-338. After that disappointing showing, many players would have abandoned ship right then to join the Magic the Gathering players at the adjacent table, but Dave persevered, winning his next game against Dennis Lloyd 433-397. Dave had three bingos in that one: MANNERS, OUTLEARN, and OBVERSE. Dennis got down MONITOR and the phony OUTAWED (OVERAWED is good). Dave then took down Gail Salm in what would end up being his final game, 429-371. HANDILY and SERIALS were Dave's two bingos (he still is incredulous that RESAILS is a valid anagram of SERAILS - wait til he hears about SERAILS), while Gail had AEROBES.

1st Jeff Clark, an itinerant wanderer from a faraway realm known as "Michigan", paid a visit to our club and showed us how it's done, going 4-1 +187 and coming in first place. He started off with a decisive 492-375 over the reigning club champ, Charles, playing bingos of CAROTIN, JOUSTER (for 114 points, accounting for almost the whole difference), and ODONATES. His hopes of defeating both Reinkes were quickly dashed when he lost 318-458 to Thomas, able to do naught but watch the person across the board draw all the good tiles. In the third round, he was introduced to the common club challenge of playing two at once, and passed the test with flying colors, beating both opponents. He had his high game of the night against Gail, winning 506-336 with bingos of RINGERS and SANTERA. Simultaneously, he beat the still-slightly-rusty Andy, 413-386, passing up AVOIDER for the fancier AVODIRE (n. an African tree). In the final game, he withstood Richard's triple-triple EGESTION and eked out a 451-438 win. UNDRAPE and NIDUSES helped, as did his phony of ADOPTAGE*. All told, his 80 percent win rate should be enough to become the new club champion, so if we don't see him again, now we know the reason.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +506, best among all Wisconsinites in attendance. He scored 585 in his opener against Gail, playing CABOVER (n. a truck with the cab over the front axle), ISLANDED, TINNERS, and NOTARISE. Against Jeff, he opened with MODERNE (later extended to MODERNER), later added TALESMAN (n. a person summoned by a tales (a writ to fill jury vacancies)) and LIERNES, and cruised to a 458-318 win. Normally when Thomas is 2-0 +427, he gets to play Charles, but tonight, Helen was next up. Things went slightly better for her than Thomas' other opponents, but it was still a 426-331 victory for Thomas. Again, normally, when he is undefeated and hasn't yet played Charles, the fourth round is the time for the weekly twin matchup, but it just wasn't meant to be as he ended up playing Bryan instead. It was a high scoring game, with five bingos combined, but Bryan managed to win 455-439. The key play was Bryan's QADI for 50+ late in the game, a possibility that was not spotted by Thomas because Thomas is world-renowned for his inability to track tiles. Relatedly, Bryan is world-renowned for his perfect ability to track tiles. Seriously. Does he ever mess up?

3rd Bryan "Perfect Tile Tracking God" Benwitz tallied a 3-1 +129 record, edging out Mark for the final coveted paragraph. Things didn't get off to a great start for him as he lost 288-390 to Helen. Details are scarce, but analysis of his scorecard indicates that he didn't play any bingos. That's gonna be something he needs to work on if he wants to beat Helen ever again. After that game, though, things immediately got a lot better for him, starting with a 490-295 win versus Dave. He played BONUSES, ENURETIC, and OWLIEST (which Dave then played in his next game). After that, he squeaked by Mary 422-402, despite Mary's bingos of ORANGES and RELATION and her bingo-like JOSH for lots of points. We already know about his 455-439 win against Thomas, but what you don't know is that he played three bingos while executing it: ANNUALS, GUTSIER, and DESTINE.

Good luck to everyone playing in the Wisconsin Dells (but actually located in Middleton) tournament this weekend!