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Charles Reinke Gets Tenth Straight, is Denied Glory of Eleventh

1st Charles Reinke went 3-1 +274, leading the clump of players who finished with just one loss. He won his first two games of the night to reach the enviable "ten wins in a row" milestone, thus earning a cool five bucks to spend on dictionaries. The first was a convincing 450-341 win over Lynda Finn, propelled by bingos of SHEREEF, OUTRODE, and INLAYERS> The second was not quite so convincing, with Charles winning a tense one against Mary Becker, 381-375. Then Richard Lauder came along and decisively snapped Charles' winning streak, thus earning a cool five bucks to spend on golf clubs. That game ended with a final score of 402-342; Charles' low score could be attributed to the fact that the bingo box on his scorecard was utterly blank. Richard, meanwhile, got down TONIEST and BUMPERS. Charles did redeem himself in the fourth game by creaming Aaron Bader, 530-311.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished at 3-1 for the third straight week, but his +231 spread indicated a performance that was not quite as dominant as past excursions had been. His big game was a 480-276 victory against Betty Hasselkus. Betty did get down SPOUTING as a bingo, but otherwise struggled to score while Bryan played RESTRING and UPSTART. That good fortune continued into the next game against Aaron Bader, and Bryan won again, 403-343. Bryan's inexplicably dismal head-to-head record against Aaron is now somewhat less dismal, at 6 wins, 16 losses, and a tie. In sadder news, Bryan's chance to go undefeated was thwarted in the final game by none other than third-place finisher Thomas Reinke by a score of 348-437. An 80-point SCREENED was Bryan's lone delegate to the bingo summit; Thomas sent REIFIES, SAINFOIN (anagram: SINFONIA), and UNBALED.

3rd Thomas Reinke's +158 spread was the lowest among the 3-1's, and he averaged under 400 for the second straight week, but he gets a paragraph anyway. Things got off to a promising start when he thoroughly outscored Dennis Lloyd, 474-304. In that game, Dennis got down TENNIES, his only bingo of the night; not too bad since he went 3-2 himself! Unfortunately, Thomas also outbingoed Dennis in addition to outscoring him, playing REASCENT, GLOBATED, and LINGUISA (a type of pork sausage, usually spelled LINGUICA). Fortune then discontinued smiling upon Thomas in order to frown upon him, and the result was a soul-, mind-, and body-crushing 263-525 loss to Aaron Bader. Aaron played SOFTENS, STINKERS, STUIVERS, and TORTURED for his bingos; some of those words are appropriate to the circumstances under which they were played. Thomas did redeem himself somewhat in the next game with a 417-256 win over Helen Flores.

Charles Reinke Returns From Nationals in No Mood to Lose Any More Games

1st Charles Reinke put together a perfect 4-0 +302 performance and is now has been the winner in fourteen of his last fifteen games. Helen Flores was the first victim of Charles' rage, losing 387-493; she got down DEVIOUS and OUTAGES, but Charles exceeded her bingo output with NOYADES, NATATION, and perhaps the most difficult and astounding triple-triple find of his storied Scrabble career, SNOOTIER for 131 points. Lynda Finn was treated to roughly the same amount of rage as Helen before her, with the Lynda-Charles match ending at 492-350. Again, Charles had three bingos: BIDENTAL, IONONES, and TORULAE. Three bingos per game would then prove to be untenable, and Charles could only play INANEST and CASEOSE (mistakenly thought not to take an S, it's a peptide produced in the digestion of casein) when defeating Mary Becker 444-395.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged a rather insane 502 points per game, even taking into consideration a loss which left him at 3-1 +620. He utterly squished Thomas Reinke by a score of 496-302, playing a whopping four bingos in the rout: SPHEROID, GRIMACES, UINTAITE, and WONDERS. Bryan's ability to dominate in Scrabble contests would only intensify; he got his second-highest game ever when he pummeled Aaron Bader in the third round, 578-371. Rumors are currently circulating that this over-the-top defeat is the reason for Aaron's only playing three games. In fairness, it would be reasonable to quit Scrabble forever after witnessing the amount of bingos that Aaron had to witness: FATTIER, RECHOOSE, FLOATELS, CAROMING, and INBOUNDS was Bryan's impressive bingo list. Unfortunately, Bryan's night of total domination was ruined by a 421-416 loss to the guy in the first paragraph.

3rd Dave Gilligan finished at 3-1 +104, not quite having the gaudy bingo list of Bryan, but attaining the same amount of wins, which is all that matters in the end. He snuck away with a close win against Gail Salm, 406-396, successfully countering Gail's COTERIE and HAULERS with two of his own bingos, ROOMIES and WASTRAL (WASTREL is good). Dave's primal urge to play phonies was kept in check against Mary Becker, where his two valid bingos (EMOTIONS and HOLIDAYS) led to a comfortable 421-298 victory. However, Dave's night was spoiled from the get-go by a first-round loss, 322-437, to Richard Lauder. Richard also temporarily put a hold on his phonying tendencies by playing UNFORMED, REGISTER, and BEETLES, while Dave was forced to leave the "bingo" section of his scoresheet blank for that round.

Aaron Dominates the Collins Field

It was a hotly contested night in the church basement where Scrabble scores consistently exceeded room temperature despite how it felt at times. The Brothers Reinke were absent as they were returning from the North American Scrabble Championships. As a result there was a palpable energy in the air from the excitement of the numerous players who thought they might actually have a chance to finish in the top two for a change.

1st Aaron Bader had an unbeatable 4-0 +475 showing against arch Collins Rival Mark Kenas. Aaron averaged 480 points and 11 bingos, 7 of which are good in TWL as well. The other 4 were Collins valid for sure, even though they are marked here as TWL phonies. Aaron not only had the high average, but the high game score of the week with a 480. 

2nd Andy Bohnsack led the TWL pack with a 4-1 +215. Andy's only loss was to Lynda, during which he noted it was the third time tonight that his opponent opened with a blank bingo. Andy fired back with plentiful bingos of his own, including the lovely 5 vowel 8, ETIOLATE.

3rd Lynda Finn with 4-1 -88, showed the 3-1 finishers that if you plan on losing one game and still placing in the top three, you better play 2 at a time, like Andy and Lynda did. Despite her huge loss to Bryan Benwitz, where she was outbingoed 3 to 0 and outscored by 149 points, she mananged to claw out very close wins against all her other opponents. The closest was in the final game against Richard Lauder, where she won by the narrowest of narrow margins. It was a bit of a comedy of errors. Early in the game Richard passed on the valid UNDREST, and late in the game Lynda inadvertently emptied the bag, allowing Richard to bingo out and catch her with a large rack. Memo to scrabblers, count the bag before you play late in the game when only a bingo out could catch you.

Shout outs to Bryan Benwitz for his 150 pt. word of the week ZEMSTVO and his high TWL average of 464 and his 11 bingo bonuses tying Aaron for bingo kingo. Honorable metions to Gail Salm for her lovely ZOISITES, Richard Lauder for his lovely CATTLEYA and Helen Flores for the ever so lovely 158 point triple-triple of BLINDERS. 

This just in from Ft. Wayne IN. CONGRATS go to Thomas Reinke for his 18th place finish in a field of over 400. He finished 17.5 - 13.5 +758. To be reminded of how great a player Thomas is, follow along with his two tight losses here, and see if you can find all the superior moves that he does:

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2016/9;turn=0

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2016/12;turn=0

CONGRATS go to Charles Reinke for his 30th place finish. He finished 16 - 15 +442.

CONGRATS to Buffy Hogan for her 15-16 showing in a tough division D.