Blog

Bryan Benwitz Celebrates End of 2-2 Records

1st Bryan Benwitz romped through all challengers on his way to a 4-0 +556 record and a 455 average, ending a five-week streak of unexciting 2-2 records. He proudly filled the role of the everyman's hero when he defeated evil menace Charles Reinke by a very lopsided score, 469-328, to end Charles' winning streak at thirteen games. Despite the inequity of their scores, each player had exactly one bingo: ORALIST for Bryan, DISSEAT for Charles. Many more bingos than that were found on the board after Bryan beat Richard Lauder in a high-scoring showdown, 493-400. Bryan had IRENICS, SARDINED, and AMENDER to Richard's DIASTOLE and SAFROLES. The perfect night was secured with a merciless 442-245 victory over a 3-1 Dave Gilligan. The bingo count was again not quite up to standard, with Bryan's DEBASING being the only one played, but scoring 442 is always nice, with or without bingos. Counterpoint: bingos are always nice too.

2nd Charles Reinke might have had his winning streak broken by Bryan Benwitz and his notorious Scrabble skills, but he still enjoyed a strong 4-1 +406 performance. In the first round he faced off against the returning Michael David, blessedly freed from parenting duties for one glorious night (we're talking about Michael here), but Charles didn't even have the courtesy to let him win; the final score was 443-385 in Charles' favor. At the same time as that game played out, Charles took down Helen Flores 477-269, playing a 94-point DENSIFY to help his cause. However, these victories paled in comparison to the large amounts of smack that Charles heartlessly applied to his brother Thomas; when all was said and done, Charles had won by a score of 589-400. Thomas did play SHORTIA and DUETTING in an attempt to be competitive, but Charles buried him with SPIRACLE, DONEGAL, PRESTORE, and a trio of 50+ point power tile plays.

3nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +464, and one-upped the two finishers above him by averaging 473 per game. In the first round, he crushed fourth-place finisher Dave Gilligan, 478-220, thanks to bingos of LATTERS and a nine-letter OUTGNAWED (also valid: OUTGNAWN). A minor hiccup occurred when he ran into his brother Charles (gory details above), but Thomas recovered quickly from the scoring onslaught levied upon him to levy his own scoring onslaught upon an unwitting Richard Lauder, 527-251. The three bingos on the board were all Thomas': CATERERS, TENDENCY, and RAVINGS. Thomas secured a 3-1 record by beating Lynda Finn 485-366, but the win was tainted by a phony DUNNISH* (played with two blanks, no less). His other bingo, ACONITE, was perfectly valid, as was Lynda's STROLLER.

Lynda's FUTURIST, played against Helen Flores, was word of the week.

Fifteen Bingos in Four Games Sounds Like it Could Be a Record

1st Charles Reinke averaged 511 points and played fifteen bingos; with such outlandish totals, it's no wonder that he compiled a perfect 4-0 record with a +664 spread. Only Bryan Benwitz was able to prevent Charles from getting down four bingos, giving up just three of them, and consequently he was the closest to beating him, losing by a respectable score of 404-431. Charles scored comfortably above 500 in the rest of his games, his highest score being 548 against the newly-returned Richard Lauder, who scored 303 while lamenting the fact that he ever left the warm climes of Arizona. Charles' bingos in that one were TESSERAE (anagram ESTERASE), OPERATE, INVERITY, and ENAMOURS; Richard played ETERNALS and PLAIDED. A final, fraternal matchup that pitted Charles against lifetime archfoe Thomas Reinke saw Charles easily achieve victory, 520-397. The THREE nine-letter bingos on the board might be some kind of record too; Thomas had FLATTENER, while Charles found ARGUFIERS and CHARITIES. Oh yeah, and Charles also got started on another winning streak, with the win over his brother being his tenth in a row.

2nd Lynda Finn didn't quite average 500 or get fifteen bingos, but her 456 per-game average and her eight bingos were still well above her usual numbers, and her 3-1 +274 final record is nothing to sneeze at. The full extent of her Scrabble prowess was on display against Dave Gilligan, whom she beat by a score of 506-349. OUTSWAM for 105 big points was not nearly enough firepower for Dave, who had to contend with Lynda's three bingos of ANDESITE, AERADIO (one of the highest-probability new words) and a nice find of NONENTRY. Lynda showed neither mercy nor pity while dismantling the tough Bryan Benwitz, beating him 463-275 with bingos of TALENTS and GILLIES (Bryan had EDEMATA). The one loss reflected on Lynda's scorecard came in the first round against Thomas Reinke, 364-493, but Lynda at least found ISOCHOR (ISOCHORE is good as well) to somewhat mitigate the damage.

3rd Gail Salm went 3-1 -33, proving that you don't need to have a positive spread to finish in the top three. She played the word of the week BEESWING in a 335-310 win over Helen Flores, a word which almost drew a challenge when it was mentally pronounced as "Bee Swing" rather than "Bee's Wing". The bingo-related accolades were not over for Gail as she scored a cool five bucks for her triple-triple of ROTATING in a 405-371 win againast Aaron Bader. Her other bingos in that one were TZARIST and STONIER; Aaron had PINBONES. However, a 304-461 loss to Bryan Benwitz obliterated the spread points she had been carefully building up, and a 412-347 victory over Richard Lauder (playing ORIENTED and READIEST in her winning effort) wasn't enough to dig herself out of that hole.

Charles Reinke in First...Again...

1st Charles Reinke easily commanded first-place honors by going 4-0 +340 and didn't even have to contend with anybody possessing a 3-1 record! His first game was by far his best, a 523-289 win over Dave Kinzer where the three bingos on the board were all Charles': LOATHES, BOSSING, and BEEFIER. From there, it was all downhill, although it wasn't a very steep hill because the subsequent games were all wins. A second-round match against Bryan Benwitz saw Charles pull out the victory, 462-425, thanks to bingos of PONGEES and SLEETIER (Bryan had GAZETTES and OUTSITS). Charles then endured two games where none of the involved parties scored above 400: a 387-338 win against Dave Gilligan, and an even lower-scoring 354-334 against Lynda Finn. Charles' only bingo in those two games was CARROM against Dave, but there's no rule that says you have to bingo to win.

2nd Thomas Reinke's 3-2 +450 record was subpar for someone who wins nearly 75% of their games, but was enough for second place nonetheless. His first round game was actually two games, against Dave Gilligan and Helen Flores. Against the latter, Thomas won easily, 547-307, the large gulf in scores mostly attributable to Thomas' four bingos: GALOSHE, PLICATED, GLINTER, and SUBACUTE. However, the game against Dave had the opposite outcome, with Dave taking the win 422-388. Thomas had just one bingo of EIDOLON to Dave's RATTIEST, DERANGES, and word-of-the-week PREDAWNS. A close loss against Aaron Bader, 365-376, saw Thomas play no bingos (because there's a rule that says you have to bingo to a win), but Thomas made up for the bingo shortage by again playing four of them in one game, this time against Gail Salm. PEDICAB, INSOLATE, TIERCEL, and GASOLINE were more than enough to give Thomas a 487-356 win.

3rd Sue Goldstein left a game early, as she always does, but in doing so, clinched a third-place finish with her 2-1 +75 record. Her single loss came against Gail Salm, 385-357, despite Sue's bingo of MOTIONED for 80 points (Gail had TRANSIT and NAILERS). A 321-260 victory over Helen Flores wasn't pretty from a scoring perspective, but definitely looked a lot better once the "win" box was checked on the scoresheet. The scoring got back to acceptable levels with a 359-317 win over Dave Kinzer, where the deciding play was Sue's 79-point VIOLATE.