Blog

1st Thomas Reinke ran away with the top spot, going 4-0 +363 and averaging 479 points per game. Thanks to last week's cancellation due to the 4th of July, Thomas approached the game with renewed vigor, and was not seriously threatened by any of his four opponents. In fact, his scores went up with each game played, a fact which does not bode well for anybody hoping to beat Thomas in the future. His first game was against brother and lifelong nemesis Charles Reinke, and it was his only game where the winning margin was less than 100; he won 435-353, getting down bingos of PITIABLE, DOURINES, and ATTENDEE (vs. EQUALITY and ROUPIEST). He then rattled off two more sizable victories, 465-290 against Betty Hasselkus (playing GOOFIER, WIENERS, and TAURINES) and 476-323 (playing ANTIMALE). Sitting at a comfortable 3-0 record, Thomas then was afforded the chance to play the other 3-0 player, Dave Kinzer. This matchup was even more contentious than usual given that Dave had beaten Thomas a month prior, evening up the lifetime series at 2-2. This time around, Thomas showed no mercy, winning 541-315. Dave had one bingo of INSANER, but Thomas had three of them: GERMIER, ROUTINE, and the 131-point triple-triple LISTENED.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +271, a distant second to his brother but second place nonetheless. He recovered well after an unwanted loss in the first round, winning his next three in a display of incredible resilience (getting loaded up on buttery, salty goodness in the form of Ritz crackers didn't hurt either). His largest win came against Aaron Bader, a 515-301 drubbing where Aaron's 90-point AZURITE only lessened the bleeding against Charles' UNSOAKED, MONOCLED, and COENURES. A game against Bryan Benwitz was substantially closer in terms of score, but exactly the same in outcome, as Charles won 388-342. Bryan's sole bingo was SEINERS (bypassing SEREINS and SERINES, both of which are severely underrepresented in the club's bingo database), while Charles had ABUSIVE and TERSELY. The comeback tour was completed with a 461-368 victory over Dennis Lloyd. Dennis played SLEETING, while Charles got down TERNIONS, COLLIES, and ADAPTOR.

3rd Dave Kinzer also finished at 3-1, but, by the unbreakable rules of mathematics, his +154 spread left him in third place. He won his first three games, and in none of those games did he allow his opponents to break the 300-point threshold. A first-round bout against Sue Goldstein ended decisively in Dave's favor, 352-257, thanks to a 75-point bingo of DENOTES. The following game against Dennis Lloyd was even more decisive than that, as Dave got his second-highest winning margin ever (167 points) by winning 419-252. Again, he played just one bingo, FLOURED. The pattern of decisive victories continued with a win over Carl Skalitzky, 347-229, although no bingos were played in that one. After debating the merits of going home with an undefeated record, Dave decided to tough out one more game, but this decision didn't work out as planned, as he was steamrolled by Thomas Reinke 315-541, reducing his +380 spread after three games to a more sedate +154.

In addition to Thomas' triple-triple of LISTENED, two other triple-triples were played: Gail Salm's OUTLEAPS (122 points) and Bryan Benwitz's SOUNDING (140).

1st Thomas Reinke recovered from two straight weeks below .500 and went 4-0 +224. He opened the night with a game against the returning Aaron, who hadn't played Scrabble for a month. That rust manifested itself as a 4-point loss, as Thomas won 440-436. He played TEENAGE (takes a D and an R, but no S), and REFUTING, while Aaron's late BEGRIMED wasn't quite enough to get the win. Thomas had another close game in the second round, beating Bryan 425-407. He had bingos of FOLIATED, TEENIEST, and ENERGIDS, but his game-winning play was PLOTZ for a whole bunch of points. Against Dennis, he won 417-328 despite playing only one bingo, ENRAGED. His big win was against Charles in the final round, 458-345. He bingoed early and often with SPALLED, COLUMNEA (n. a bushy tropical plant, note the "bushy" part of the definition which is very important), and UPROUSE. Thomas is pulling ahead in the lifetime series against Charles, which is now at 112-104 in his favor.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +292, his fifth straight 3-1 performance. He kicked Charles' behind in the first game, 473-390, with the score only being as close as it was because of a late surge by Charles. Bryan's big play was the word-of-the-week-quality QUADRICS for 113; he also played BOODLES and OVERMAN (no word on whether they put a Y on the end of that one). He had bingos of ATOMICS and SARCENET (n. a silk fabric, also SARSENET and SARSNET) against Thomas, but lost 407-425. After that, there were no more Reinkes to play, so he faced Betty and won big, scoring 430 and playing COOLIES and DETENTE. His final-round match against Dennis was close throughout, but he managed to eke out a win by bingoing with DEPORTED to finish the game.

3rd Dennis Lloyd returned from an extended hiatus to come in 3rd with a 3-2 +42 record. He started off with a two-on-one, and set himself up for a good night by winning both games. He beat Dave 409-364 despite Dave's high-scoring TOPAZES, and he beat Gail 438-350 while playing CAROUSED and RULINGS. In the next game, he beat Helen despite her challenging off his phony of (not going to put it here so as not to sully the malleable minds of our youth with easily rememberable phonies). He eventually did get down LENGTHS to win 360-314. Now sitting at 3-0, he faced tougher competition the rest of the night, facing what ended up being the two players who finished ahead of him in the standings.

As everyone noticed already, next week's session falls on July 4th. An email will be sent out soon to figure out if we are going to meet. If we don't, don't forget to eat lots of hotdogs! Or even if we do, actually. There's no club bylaw that says you can't eat lots of hotdogs while playing your games.

1st Charles Reinke obliterated the competition (reduced in number, as we were unsuccessful in recruiting any Magic the Gathering players) by going 4-0 +461 and averaging 483 points per game. His first game, against Bryan Benwitz, was also his most closely-fought, as he came out ahead in a high-scoring bout, 476-432. The final board configuration was a stark testament to the power of high-probability bingos: Charles played FRAGILE, MORALISE, and IODATES, while Bryan played SARODES and GESTATE. Charles followed that up with his highest-scoring game of the year, a relentless 588-point flood of scoring in which his opponent, Thomas Reinke, could do nothing but drown (but not before scoring 373 of his own points). Charles played WONTONS and TAVERNA, both for a moderate amount of points, before unleashing a 167-point triple-triple of PRECHILL. Thomas had won six of the seven previous contests between these brothers, so the final result of this game was judged to be completely fair and just. Charles wouldn't again reach such dazzling scoring heights, but he did soundly beat Gail Salm 492-398 in the next round despite Gail's tri-pronged bingo assault of WAIVERS, TAENIAS, and STUDDIES. Before you complain about typos, a STUDDIE is an anvil, so STUDDIES is not just an ignorant misspelling of STUDIES. Charles had INCURVE and TRENDIER in his winning effort. The undefeated night was completed with a 377-269 victory over Dave Gilligan which saw the victor get down bingos of PASTRAMI and INFERIOR.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +112, showing remarkable grit and perseverance in overcoming a first-round loss to come in second in the standings. He took down Gail Salm in the second round, 394-315, partially thanks to an opening bingo of FLOATER; Gail's SHIRKED later in the game proved to be too little, too late (reminder: to comfortably beat Bryan, aim for four or five bingos plus some 50-point power tile plays). In the next game, Helen Flores applied another piece of Bryan advice (don't let him bingo) by playing the only bingo in their game (AIRHEAD), but the advice proved to be shoddy in quality as she still lost the game, 305-360. Bryan then went into the last game eager to reverse his bingo fortunes, and somewhat succeeded, playing two of them (BALDIES and PROVERS) in a 432-410 win against Thomas Reinke, who played REMOTELY and TIMELINE. Bryan has now won four straight against Thomas and inches ever closer to him on the yearly standings, now just a percentage point behind.