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Thomas Reinke Unfazed by Room Change, Dim Lights, or Opponents' Desperate Attempts to Prevent Him From Winning

1st Thomas Reinke acclimated quickly to playing in the lobby of the church and overcame the somewhat dim lighting to go 4-0 +441. He established his dominance early by taking out Dave Gilligan 440-275, getting ESTROUS and REFRAINS from his rack to the board for some coveted 50-point bonuses. Meanwhile, Dave did eventually find the bingo in EENORST, a rack which might have more phonies played out of it than any other. A later game against Aaron Bader saw Thomas improve on that 440 score with a 497, while Aaron had just 344. The margin of 153 would stick Aaron's spread total permanently in the negatives. Thomas enjoyed four bingos in that one, two containing a K and two containing a V, but none of them being AKVAVIT: instead, he played KURGANS, ALKALIES (a strange-looking plural of ALKALI), DATIVES, and SLOVENLY. In weak response, Aaron got down ERIGERON for just 59 points. Thomas finished up his evening by outdueling Richard Lauder in a high-scoring game which is also Richard's highest losing score this year, 471-401. Both players had two bingos: OUTWIND and MATINEES for the losing party, SAMPLER and DIALLAGE for the winner.

2nd Bryan Benwitz kept his yearly winning percentage at an even 75% with a (you guessed it) 3-1 record and +143 spread. Like Thomas, he got off to a great start by defeating Gail Salm 482-378, playing a trio of common seven-letter bingos (TAUNTER, MARTINS, and ARSENIC). However, his great start meant he had to face Thomas in the second round. While he managed to hold Thomas to a relatively low score (371), his own score (319) was also quite low by Bryan standards, and since it was a lower total than Thomas', he regrettably had to mark a loss on his scoresheet. Bryan's scoresheet entry for that game was sadly bingoless, but Thomas enjoyed his bingos of AQUAFITS and PALADINS. Bryan got back on track in the third round with a revenge victory over Charles Reinke, 448-408. The bingo mojo returned with plays of WORRIES, OVERTART, and SCUTAGE; Charles' mojo was slightly weaker, playing just PROBATES and SLOGANED. To wrap things up, Bryan got a tough win over Helen Flores, 403-351, which saw some I-heavy bingos get played: Bryan's LIAISES and Helen's IODISING out of an ugly three-I rack.

3rd Aaron Bader returned from his adventure abroad and displayed little to no rust, going 3-1 -20. As with Bryan, Aaron's 3-1 record keeps him at an even 75% winning percentage for the year. His first round matchup against the ever-formidable Richard Lauder saw Aaron come away with a 413-360 victory, thanks in part to bingo plays of SPARGES and MICELLES. In the next round, he extended his active winning streak against Charles Reinke to three games, this time by a score of 379-341. Charles bingoed with the unlikely HURTFUL, but Aaron's 98-point SHARING sealed the win for him. After the previously mentioned game against Thomas Reinke which sent Aaron's spread plummeting into sub-zero territory, Aaron was paired against Betty Hasselkus in the fourth round and took the well-fought victory, 383-349. Betty had one bingo of DEFUSED, while Aaron showed off his prodigious knowledge of stem bingos by setting down DETAINS and TREASON.

No One Brought Any Leftover Halloween Candy

1st In what is becoming a weekly occurrence, Bryan Benwitz came in first with a 4-0 +467 record. In the first round, he beat Lynda 478-356, most of the spread coming from his held-for-an-eternity-but-begrudgingly-accepted play of VICHIES (n. VICHY, a type of mineral water, usually resembling the naturally effervescent type from springs in Vichy, France) for 105. Can anyone say "word-of-the-week"? Against Charles, he played tight defense and prevented his normally bingo-prone opponent from bingoing at all, winning 404-317. He got down the low-probability SCORCHER in that game as well as the higher-probability PAINTIER. In the next round, he got some small measure of revenge against Thomas, who had beaten him three times at Lynda's tournament last weekend, with a 418-382 win. Both players got two bingos down, so it was Bryan's late X-bomb that sealed the deal. He faced the similarly-undefeated Terry in the final round and showed no mercy to the visitor, winning 510-288. I would make a joke involving his bingo of BEHEADS, but maybe it wouldn't be in good taste.

2nd Gail Salm went 3-1 +185, going undefeated if you just ignore her first game. A first game where Helen beat her 482-305. Not a good start, but Gail recovered, first by beating Lynda 446-375 with the bingos DETOURS and BREEZING. Against Dave, she need only one bingo, TREENAIL (n. a wooden peg, also TRENAIL) to win 423-235. She must have been saving her bingos for when she needed them most urgently, as she bingoed four times against Thomas, winning 479-376. She played AUNTLIER, ENTAILED, ERMINES, and went out with VALINES for good measure. Thomas did get down TARGETED, but it wasn't even close to enough. A triple-triple or two would have served him a lot better.

3rd Richard Lauder went 3-1 +5, averaging a dominant 365 compared to his opponent's measly 364. He won 378-370 against David in the first round, playing FEELERS versus David's MUSICAL. He also challenged off David's reasonable attempt of TOTALERS* (only RETOTALS is good), which given the final score made a big difference. His attempts at bingoing in the second game were futile as he lost 312-360 to Terry, whose attempts at bingoing were successful by way of AIRIEST (the club's favorite bingo, now played 30 times!). In the next game, he squeaked out a victory over multiple-time club champ Charles, 375-372. Against Warren in the fourth round, he won 396-354, playing BARONIES for 90 as well as TIGERISH, which drew a challenge. You can also spell that word TIGRISH, which looks even worse, somehow.

Bonus paragraph: 4th Terry Hope made the long and trecherous journey to Madison to play four games of Scrabble, and she won three of them. Her hopes of an undefeated night/positive spread were dashed when she faced the always-unwelcoming Bryan, but 3-1 is still pretty good.

A Club Session Where We Dealt With the Psychological Ramifications of Eating Halloween Candy a Week Early

1st Charles Reinke went undefeated, which doesn't seem that unusual for him, going 4-0 +376. Rather than waiting until the end of the night, the Reinke bros got their weekly matchup out of the way in round one, with Charles winning 461-420. His bingo of INGROUP with both blanks at the end of the game was the deciding factor. Against Bryan, he unleashed his full scoring arsenal, scoring 584 while playing TURISTA, AREOLAS, EXUVIAL, and DIOLEFIN. Bryan successfully extended that last one to DIOLEFINE* while playing PATINAE, a natural attempt considering OLEFINE is a word. In the third round, Charles won 424-383 against Lynda, playing SOLVABLE and REGNANCY. You can guess what happened with that last one; that's right, Lynda quickly extended it to PREGNANCY for 60-some points. Unfortunately there was no more room remaining on the board for a futher extension to PSEUDOPREGNANCY. Dennis sought to end Charles' loss-less night in the final game, and got off to a quick lead, but as Charles often does, he came back to win 430-357. PARSERS for 106 followed swiftly by BOOGERS left Dennis wondering why the heck he even showed up in the first place.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +343, coming in second place to his brother once again. After losing his opening match with Charles, he turned his focus towards Gail, and felt no remorse as he won 525-294. He played MORTALS (anagram STROMAL), FIRRIEST (adj. abounding in firs), and HANDRAIL. Against Mary, he won 474-389, overcoming an early closed board/close game to play SORBANT and DEMIURGE (n. a being responsible for the creation of the universe). Mary played the phony CLANLESS*, which stayed on the board due to it giving Thomas a high-scoring counterplay. Always think before you challenge! Thomas finished up his evening with a win over Lynda, 439-371. Club historians may remember that Thomas lost to her on an outbingo just last week. Eager to not repeat mistakes of the past, Thomas this week blocked Lynda's outbingo, securing the win and retaining his sanity.

3rd Bryan Benwitz was the other player who had three wins plus a loss to Charles, finishing with a 3-1 +38 record. He drew Gail in the first round and prevailed 412-373. Gail played HELMETS for 91, but Bryan's LEGONGS (n. a Balinese dance) and NITRIDES were too much to overcome. Things took a sharp turn for the worse against Charles, a 221-point turn to be precise, but Bryan kept his cool and came back with a 446-301 win over Richard. For his final act, he brought out his patented word cannon aganst Mary, playing PERVADES, MANDRELS, and the word-of-the-week, CICALAS (n. CICALA, a variant of CICADA, pluralizes to CICALAS, or CICALE). Mary did get down the nice ENTOMBED to keep it somewhat close, for he part.