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16 Bingos is a Lot

1st Charles Reinke returned to form with a dominating 5-0 +668 performance, with his 16 bingos being the driving force behind the domination. Somehow he only got down a single bingo against Andy in the first round, but he followed that up with 7 in the second round. Before you get too excited, he was playing a two-on-one, so only get a little bit excited about his feat. Against Mary, his star play was the nine-letter TREACLIER as he scored 553 points. Against Betty, he played REPTILIA, ABEYANT, and TABLING on his way to 502. Further bingoage occurred against Thomas, where Charles outbingoed him 4-0 but only won by 98 points. ONLY 98 points. What was he doing? I'm actually kind of embarrassed for him. In the final round, he capped off his perfect night with another 4-bingo outing, this time against Bryan, playing PELAGES, PERDITION (another nine!), DIABASE, and BESTOWAL (anagrams TEABOWLS and STOWABLE). Bryan did get down TRANKING, which leads me to wonder why TRANQING* isn't acceptable.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +337, but didn't play 16 bingos or even come close really. His opening-round 459-303 win over Helen was sullied by the 101-point phony WOODLIKE* (adj. resembling wood, see, I even came up with a definition for it). He and Bryan played one bingo apiece in the second round, ROTATES for Bryan and PINESAP for Thomas, as Thomas got the 424-341 victory. Things went south for him against Charles, but promptly turned north again versus Andy, with the 495-299 final score telling the sad tale. Thomas got down TRISTEZA (n. a disease of citrus trees, borrowing exactly the Spanish word for "sadness") in that game.

3rd Aaron Bader secured third place with a 3-1 +164 record. He walloped returning Milwaukee-ite James Frankki in the first round, playing ANTIRED (adj. opposed to communism) and ANTIMERIC (anagrams ANTICRIME and CRIMINATE). He was down for much of the second-round against Dave, but got down a semi-miraculous MUSKIER at the end to win 357-322. Miracles were in short supply in his game against Bryan, as he fell to Bryan's COTTERED, CALORIES, and BLEATED. Against Dennis in the final round, his big play of OXIDATES for 98 carried him to a 379-322 win.

Points Distributed Inequally Once Again

1st Thomas Reinke averaged a rather high 503 points per game en route to a 4-0 +830 night. I guess that's what happens when you outbingo your opposition 11-2 over 4 games. In the first game of the night, Mary played the best defense of any of his opponents, holding him to a mere 472 points and limiting him to two bingos, INSIDERS and PRONOTUM. Thomas wasn't limited in his bingoing against Bryan in the next round, getting down DEROGATE, TONEMES, TURACOS, and ALEURONE while Bryan stared helplessly at his non-bingo racks of clunky tiles. In the third round Thomas dropped an even 500 against Aaron, using a devastating 200-point bingo-bango of RAMENTA and PISTOLE to turn a close game into a blowout. Against Gail (coming off a win against Charles, which explains things), he upped the scoring even more, playing ANOXIAS and SETTLES on his way to 554 big ones.

2nd Bryan Benwitz only averaged 492 points during his 3-1 +673 night, which isn't even 500. The highlight of his night/year/life came in the first round, where he scored an amazing 673 against Gail, playing 5 bingos and earning the unending (at least until the club session was over) admiration of everyone in attendance. He played the word-of-the-week MARAVEDI in that game, which means "a former coin of Spain". His good fortune quickly turned south against Thomas, but then just as quickly rebounded against Mary and Dave in the last two games, where he scored 475 and 465 points respectively.

3rd Aaron Bader went 2-1 +221, earning third paragraph privileges in this prestigious writeup. He put the hurt on Charles in the opener, winning 448-305 and playing PERIDOT (n. an olive-green gemstone) and COARSENS. Against Dave he scored 578 while playing three bingos, ADAPTORS, UNTREAD, and TOODLES. Dave, never giving up in the face of an unstoppable scoring onslaught, did get down RELOANS for 87, and his score of 342 lead to one of the higher combined game scores of the year. He wasn't so lucky against Thomas in the third round, even if Thomas did almost challenge REWED. Don't laugh; sometimes words look really weird until you turn the board around!

Aaron Bader Banishes Foes to Nether Realm

1st Aron Bader dominated the evening from start to finish, going 5-0 +526. Things seemed to be off to a rough start in a two-on-one against Lynda Finn and Gail Salm, with both Lynda and Gail bingoing on their first turns, but Aaron reversed his fortunes through sheer willpower (and tile-drawing technique) to win both. Following that triumph, he held the high-scoring Charles Reinke to 313 points while scoring 393 himself, all despite getting outbingoed two to one (Aaron had WETTEST; Charles had ANVILTOP and CENTRALS). Andy Bohnsack fared only slightly better than Charles did, losing 336-425 to the unstoppable Aaron machine, but he at least played the word of the week, HERSTORY, to lessen the blow of the loss. To wrap up his perfect evening, Aaron took down Bryan Benwitz 470-357 thanks to bingos of ADROITER and BARTERED, proving conclusively that he would never again lose a game if he didn't have all those Collins words rattling around in his skull.

2nd Lynda Finn went 4-1 +363, her only loss being to eventual first-place finisher Aaron Bader. Her best game was a 450-293 win over Gail Salm where she succeeded in preventing the bingo-oriented Gail from getting down any bonus plays. Lynda had two of them herself, the high-probability TONEARMS (anagrams STOREMAN, MONSTERA, and ONSTREAM) and INSTEAD (too many anagrams to enumerate; look them up yourself). A two-on-one match versus Sue Goldstein and Dave Gilligan was successful in much the same way as Aaron's two-on-one; a 398-314 win over Sue saw just one bingo of BASTARDS, but Lynda had three bingos (MOISTENS, ALIENEES, and CUPOLAS) to beat Dave 438-364. Lynda then took down a high-flying Helen Flores, who had just beaten BOTH Reinkes in succession, by a score of 423-313.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +434 and finishing with a club-leading 464 per-game average. Falling victim for Bryan Benwitz' penchant for bingoing at inopportunte moments, Thomas lost his first game 432-422. Bryan's late game PRONOTA, in addition to finds of LEADSMEN and the nine-letter CHINTZIER through HI on the board, were just enough to beat out Thomas' FERMION and EXCLUDE. Thomas's two-on-one excursion was not as successful as Aaron's or Lynda's; he beat Betty Hasselkus handily, 497-239, but fell to Helen Flores 401-426. Helen found her chances were helped by matching Thomas' bingo total, as both players had two such plays: SPITING and RETREAT for Helen, MISERERE and YEASTING for Thomas. Rebounding strongly from that disappointment, Thomas released the full power of his Scrabble might upon an unwitting Andy Bohnsack, and won their game 539-408. Andy did play DENARII and STODGIER, but when Thomas bingos four times (RATTENER, SWAGMAN, REALIZER, CAPTURED) a win is rather unlikely.