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Thomas Reinke Denied Third 700 Game By Selfish Opponent

1st Thomas Reinke went a perfect 4-0 with an even +800 spread, snapping streaks and breaking records along the way. His first two games were victories (as expected given his win-loss record), against Bryan and Betty, but those were unimpressive when compared to his third game of the night: a 695 dropped on Richard, the highest individual game of the year and second highest since the club entered its modern era of record-keeping. Thomas bingoed with FALTERS, RETINUE, ANTINODES, CEMBALO (n. a harpsichord), and the triple-triple IDLENESS. Those, combined with a few high-scoring power tile plays were enough to propel him close to the fabled 700 mark. In his final game, he possibly surpassed even that accomplishment by ending his brother's 13-game winning streak, a streak that was thought by many to have no end, continuing in perpetuity until the sun itself transformed into a blackened husk and fell from the sky.

2nd Charles Reinke, going 4-1 +147, had a pretty good session except for his seemingly interminable streak getting terminated. He made a habit of coming from behind on this night, first overcoming early deficits against Joe and Helen in a 2-on-1 to win both. A victory over Gail was followed by a close contest against Susan, 414-375. Susan bingoed twice, with TOADIES and ARRESTS, before Charles could get one of his own, ATTORNEY, which ended up being enough for the win. His tendency to play from behind backfired in the last game against Thomas, with him watching helplessly as his brother laid down ACHIOTES, SLUTTIER, and VIREMIAS in a 308-440 loss. Here's an expert Scrabble tip from the writer: if you want to win, you have to play some bingos, dummy.

3rd Joe Horowitz made the first of what may be many appearances in the top three, going 3-1 +437. He played a close game with club-leader Charles, coming up short 382-412. Rather than let that loss haunt him for the remainder of the night, he channeled his disappointment into Scrabble dominanace, winning his next 3 games by over a combined 400 points. Joe's devastating bingo of HEIFERS for 111 (that's a lot of points) was they key against Sue. In his next game against Barb, he again won big, 472-254, playing VALUERS and MANHOLE (n. I was going to put a risque joke here but this is a family-friendly blog, sorry. Just forget about it). His last game against Mary was a little closer 404-357, in part due to Mary's plausible phony of ATONALS*. Hopefully Joe can continue this streak of good play in his first tournament this weekend. At the very least, he will not be forced to play either of the Reinkes.

Bonus! 4th Helen Flores had a great night, missing out on the top three because of some arcane rules about "margin of victory". She went 3-1 +40, including wins over the tough-to-beat Bryan and Aaron.

Gail played the word of the week, REQUINTO (n. a type of small guitar).

Charles Reinke Has Win Switch Stuck in "On" Position

1st Charles Reinke lengthened his current winning streak to nine, following up last week's perfect 5-0 record with a still perfect but slightly less perfect 4-0 +314 performance. Just one more win will see him awarded five bucks for winning ten games in a row. Interestingly, if irrelevantly, all four of his opponents ended up with 2-2 records. The first of those opponents was Bryan Benwitz, who lost by a clean hundred, 331-431. Charles landed INTONER and TITHABLE (anagram: HITTABLE) in that game, setting a two-bingos-a-game precedent that would not be deviated from or improved upon. He played ENATION and AVOIDED to fell his brother Thomas, who wielded weaponized words of ARSENOUS and TOOTLES but still lost, 441-434. Dave Gilligan would be the final victim of the night; despite total parity in the bingo count column (COINTERS and OUTRIDE for Dave, EVASION and a nine-letter UNMERITED for Charles), the score was a lopsided 459-321 in Charles' favor.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke, perfect through three games but feigning fatigue in order to avoid playing the fourth game, finished at 3-0 +364. He averaged a slightly-above-average 425 per game but was able to hold his opponents to a stifling 304 per. Both Joe Horowitz and Sue Goldstein were made to feel Peter's inextinguishable fury as he downed both of them with ease, 438-275 versus Joe and 459-264 versus Sue. Neither opponent bingoed, but Peter picked up the slack by bingoing four times in the two games, with ERUCTATE, PETALOID, ABRASIVE, and SNIGLET. A match against Dave Gilligan was significantly more competitive and ended with just a six-point margin, 378-372 for Peter. Dave managed to get down the only bingo played against Peter that night, IMPORTER for 76, but Peter again bingoed twice with SAGGIER and the useful TINWARE (anagram: TAWNIER).

3rd Andy Bohnsack was strangely (for a field of seventeen) the only 3-1 player, so his anemic +51 spread proved irrelevant. He squeaked by Gail Salm, 375-367, which didn't help the spread column much but definitely put a pleasing checkmark in the win column. It was a battle of high-probability bingos: CURATES for Andy, TONIEST and TRAINER for Gail. More bingos fitting that description were unleashed when Andy roughed up Thomas Reinke and got away with it, 439-384. Andy's OUTSEEN and TAENIAS didn't earn him any style points, but a win is a win even in the absence of style points. Meanwhile, Thomas' DONZELS earned a meager amount of style points which were quickly negated by a play of GENITOR. Dennis Lloyd can claim responsibility for Andy's solitary defeat, with a final score of 389-354 proving once again that the person who scores more points will usually win. Andy played MAESTRI and STRIATA to Dennis' ARENOSE and SHALIER. Guess what I have to say about those bingos?

Just one new bingo was played this week, Betty's FEEDINGS.

Charles Reinke: "4-0 isn't Good Enough"

1st Charles Reinke one-upped the theoretical "perfect" 4-0 record by going 5-0 +531. He also average 460 points per game, which somehow is not that much higher than his overall average this year. During a two-on-one matchup with him as the one, Charles paradoxically unleashed his two largest wins, 438-288 over Joe Horowitz and 552-355 over Gail Salm. He had five bingos across those two games: TEARILY, DEAFENS, RELAPSED, RANTINGS, and URANIDE. Perhaps the adversity of playing two games at once gave Charles anagramming powers beyond what his brain is normally capable of. In any case, Charles was enough on his game to resist a strong challenge from Andy Bohnsack, whom he defeated 474-411. Both players were able to play nine-letter bingos (RESTRAINS for Andy, VALERATES for Charles), a very rare occurrence considering how infrequently nine-letter bingos get played in the first place.

2nd Thomas Reinke failed to improve on his 4-0 record going into the "stoppage time" fifth round, finishing at 4-1 +298. His opponent in that final round? None other than his own brother. Their matchup progressed not in their usual high-scoring fashion, but instead, in a more somber way; Thomas was held bingoless in a 356-366 defeat. Charles, meanwhile, got down two high-probability bingos, ROSEATE and ANTLERED. Excluding that game, Thomas had a very productive night, including his own two-on-one against Dennis Lloyd and Helen Flores. Dennis fared quite well, losing 432-460 despite getting outbingoed four to one (the one being FINDINGS, the four being TWANGLE, LAVATION, REGRINDS, and RADULAS). Helen did not fare quite so well, but put up a fight in her 349-453 loss, playing REMOUNTS. Meanwhile, Thomas added three more bingos to his substantial collection: UNAKITE, ROBORANT, and CLAUSIVE (PLAUSIVE is valid).

3rd Aaron Bader scanned the horizon for any sign of Mark Kenas' return; finding nothing but blowing tumbleweeds, he reluctantly turned back to the playing room to play four games using the neutered dictionary. Despite his disappointment, he put together a solid 3-1 +273 record. Aaron started off strong, beating Barb Besadny 426-294. However, his win was tainted by a phony of EUPHROS, played in addition to the perfectly valid RUSTLED. UPHROES and EUPHROES are both acceptable spellings of that word, which is a part of a boat. Only valid bingos were played in the course of a 503-357 drubbing of Lynda Finn: CHORINE, PLACATER, FORESTS, and MODERNLY. The single blemish on Aaron's scoresheet (other than the miscalculated spreads [just kidding, Aaron didn't do that this week]) was a loss to Thomas Reinke, 349-423. Aaron got down the strange-looking EOBIONTS, but received no extra points for playing an uncommon word. In the same vein, Thomas was not deducted any points for his prosaic finds of REWAXES and DRIVELS. New rule proposal: if nobody in the room knows the definition of the word you just played, you get ten extra points.

New bingos played this week were RANTINGS (Charles), EENSIER (Gail), and DANCIER (Joe). Barb Besadny only played one bingo, but made it count, with a 122-point triple-triple of RETIREES against Susan Vergeront.