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Aaron Bader Outwords Everybody

1st Aaron Bader took on a veritable "killer's row" of opponents, but was undaunted by the challenge, winning them all to go 4-0 +318. He started out with a 430-372 win over Thomas Reinke, getting bingos of MAENADS and SURGERS against Thomas' CIRRATE and ALMONER. Later he would achieve a victory over the other Reinke, beating Charles 433-398 thanks to CHANTEYS and a timely nine-letter find of EULOGISES (Charles had CORMOID and DEBATING). Unfortunately for Aaron, there is no third Reinke to exploit for easy victories, so he had to settle for a win against Bryan Benwitz instead (his inclusion as an honorary third Reinke is pending a vote from the Reinke tribunal). Aaron still remembers the time Bryan scored 645 against him, so on this occasion he refused to let Bryan even reach the 300 mark; the final score was 393-288. No remorse was felt when Aaron got by the phony DEMODING (only DEMODE and DEMODED are good). Overall, Aaron showed an extreme lack of remorse for any of the actions he perpetrated on his defenseless opponents.

2nd Lynda Finn continued her strong start to the club season, and retained her current top spot in the standings, with a 3-1 +412 record. Her one loss was against, who else, Aaron Bader, who defeated her in a high-scoring bout, 536-416. Lynda had CAROTINS as her only bingo, and it was not nearly enough against Aaron's WAVIEST, OUTLEAP, SECRETIN, and RABBETS. The rest of Lynda's games resulted in more favorable outcomes; she defeated the suddenly-vulnerable Thomas Reinke 425-383 with high-quality expert bingo finds of STARTED and AGONIES. Thomas contributed to the high level of bingoing in that game by getting SOUARIS and RETINOID. Lynda finished up her night with her largest win ever, winning by a margin of 369 points against Richard Lauder, 565-196. Her accomplishment was mildly sullied by a phony ANNULIS (a creative combination of ANNULI and ANNULUS), but she offset that error with a nice find of SMARAGD (an obsolete term for an emerald, also SMARAGDE) as well as two other bingos, GRITTIER and OVEREDIT.

3rd Charles Reinke rounded out the top three with a 3-1 +224 finish. He took the first game against Dave Gilligan 459-335 despite getting outbingoed two to one (Dave's BRINIEST and LANTERNS vs. Charles' HAIRPINS). He then posted another strong win over Bryan Benwitz, 464-341. This time around, he was the one outbingoing somebody, getting two bingos of BENISON and OUTPRAY vs. Bryan's lonely SANATIVE (adj. having the power to cure or heal). After stumbling against a ruthless Aaron, he recovered in the final game against his own brother, winning a low-scoring matchup 366-354. In a dramatic departure from their usual high-flying style, each involved player had just one bingo: PLANGENT for Charles and TACRINE for Thomas. This situation seems like it's begging for a collusion investigation, except usually when people collude, it's to get really high scores, not really low scores.

Overall Club Win Rate Holds Steady at 50 Percent

1st Thomas Reinke bingoed 13 times, which is a pretty good amount of bingos but not, you know, a totally insane amount of bingos, and as a result went 3-1 +380. His night got off to a good start against Betty, against whom he scored 524 and slapped down four bingos. Against Aaron in the second game, his out-bingo of TOENAILS was not enough, and he lost 439-452. He also played ANTIRED (adj. opposed to communism) and OREBODY that game, the latter being the oft-speculated missing link between REBODY and FOREBODY. More bingoage occurred in his 499-367 win against Dave:  JOINERS, AROUSING, OBESITY, and ACETONIC. Dave kept it close-ish with his double-double of DELISTED and a variety of high-scoring plays, but the bingo deficit eventually caught up with him. In the final game, challenger Bryan struck first with LOATHED and latter added TRANNIES, but Thomas' RUINOUS and AERATIONS were enough to win, 430-390.

2nd Lynda Finn, following her first place finish last week, came in second (a disturbing trend??????) this week, going 3-1 +102. She opened the session strongly against Charles, winning 462-408 with the aid of a SCALDING BONFIRE. She hit a minor roadblock in the form of Dave in the second round, losing 364-392, but quickly recovered against Helen, 443-401. Her recovery happened to include the phony LUNKIER* (real word URNLIKE), but we're not going to judge. It certainly looks very much like a word. Lynda finished off her night with a resounding 452-418 victory over Aaron, where she played NEUROMA, RELOADS, and GRATINEE. Lynda has now won against Aaron 4 out of the last 6 times they have played.

3rd Bryan Benwitz edged out Gail for third place, going 3-1 +48. He defeated Richard in the opener with his out-bingo of TEOSINTE, overcoming Richard's GUANASE, TITULAR, and MORSELED. He followed that up with a close 414-381 win over Helen, featuring the so-questionable-it's-not-even-good-in-Collins IVORIEST (adj most ivory?). Speaking of Collins, in the third game Bryan beat Aaron, 407-385. Not quite as decisive as the last time Bryan accomplished that feat (the number 645 is for some reason popping into my memory), but good enough. His sole bingo that game was SAUCIERS (n. SAUCIER, a chef who specializes in sauces).

Aaron played the word-of-the-week, HETAIRAI, which is a plural of HETAIRA, a concubine in ancient Greece. In other news, the club has now passed 13000 unique bingos played, which seems like a lot. In other other news, Gail probably some sort of club record when she won the low K prize with a 39 point play. New rule: prizes for low plays will not be awarded for words scoring more than 25 points. We will not continue to reward such an obvious lack of effort.

Lynda Finn Starts her Year Perfect - Can She Keep it Up? (Meanwhile Everybody is Playing Triple-Triples)

1st Lynda Finn had her first-ever 5-0 performance, and her 100% winning percentage places her neatly at the top of the year's standings. Her perfect record did not include wins over either of the notorious Reinke twins, but her accomplishment should not be diminished as she beat some of the club's top players on her way to first place. A phony of LIVIDEST, played in a 435-348 win against Helen Flores, was a dark spot on her scoresheet, but the remainder of her nine bingos were valid, leaving her with a perfectly acceptable 11% phony rate. She downed Aaron Bader by an even hundred points, 443-343, thanks to her successful application of the "don't let your opponent bingo" strategy. Meanwhile, she had three bingos of her own: MANTLES, HEAVIEST, and SCULLER. A final game against Bryan Benwitz came down to the last play (and the last few seconds of Bryan's clock), but Lynda was again victorious, 430-416. Bryan had a 99-point REDEEMS, but Lynda's two bingos of TZARIST and TENPINS were just enough to take the win.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-1 +259, with only a loss to the provably unstoppable Lynda preventing him from attaining the glory of an undefeated record. He started by taking out Thomas Reinke 426-396, playing RAMULOSE, TRAINMAN, and RATIONED. The three-bingo theme continued when he matched up against Richard Lauder and showed not a trace of mercy, winning that one 506-256 and getting down INTERTIE, DORSERS, and REFUSALS in the process. A fourth-round encounter with Gail Salm seemed to be another runaway victory for Aaron, with an early triple-triple of SORRIEST for 122 points putting him in a comfortable position, but Gail's counter-triple-triple of RELATION, also for 122 points, got her right back in the game. The final score ended at 476-398, so the impact of the "never give up" moral was slightly diminished, but still...never give up!

3rd Charles Reinke snuck into third place with a 3-2 +657 record. After losing his first two games by a combined total of 22 points to Bryan Benwitz and Gail Salm (I believe this technique is called "sandbagging"), he reeled off three huge wins to end up averaging 488 for the night. He started his comeback with a 479-337 win versus Richard Lauder, playing VESTMENT and the damaging 99-point RECODES (Richard got down UNMIXES and WASTRIE). Charles followed that up with the highest score of the nascent club season, a 583 against Helen Flores. His bingo list was substantive: GOVERNOR, GUNBOATS, HITLESS, and a 104-point TRUCKMAN (is that like a TRAINMAN?). Similar ruthlessness was displayed against Dave Gilligan, who had beaten Thomas Reinke earlier in the night and was thus due for some brotherly payback; Charles won their game 557-273, playing BULGARS, SPLICED, and a 104-point BEYONDS.

In total, four triple-triples were played, perhaps a club record (nobody really knows): Aaron's SORRIEST (122), Dave's ENLARGER (140), Gail's RELATION (122), and Gail again with MONTAGES (131). In other news, the club has to fold because there's no money left after all these $5 triple-triple prizes.