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Charles Reinke Says Hello to 2016 With Another Loss-Free Excursion

1st Charles Reinke's reign of Scrabble terror continued uninterrupted into the new year, as he went 4-0 +208. In the first game of the night, Lynda Finn had a promising start in her attempt to dethrone this tyrant, but was stymied in the endgame by Charles' bingo-like play of TEAZLE, and ended up losing 454-479. Remember that TEAZLE, TEAZEL, and TEASEL are words (and verbs), but not TEASLE*. Or don't. Dave Gilligan was next up on Charles' list of "people I want to beat at a board game", and again, Charles barely escaped with a win, 387-369, in part because he accepted the phony RERINSED*. Why would you ever be able to rinse something again? It just makes no sense. Charles attempted to justify his failure to challenge by noting the low amount of points the play scored; he was mocked anyway, much like peasants would mock a king for being so much better than themselves. The string of close games continued as he faced eternal foe Thomas Reinke, earning the win 383-364 in part due to his play of CEILIDHS, pronounced "kay-lees", which is a Gaelic social event. Tired of only winning by 20 or so points, Charles flexed his muscles against Andy Bohnsack, scoring a decisive knockout, 458-312. In that game he played PELLICLE, which was chosen as word of the week, and held Andy bingoless.

2nd Thomas Reinke had a perfect night if you discount his unwinnable game with Charles, going 3-1 +303. His first game, a 486-347 win against Bryan Benwitz, featured the nine-letter HARPOONER, which presumably means something to the effect of "one that harpoons". He followed this up with a 438-407 win versus Gail Salm despite Gail's 83-point play of the ever-useful word STOURIE. After the aforementioned beatdown at the hands of his brother, he rebounded by mercilessly and blatantly phonying against Lynda Finn, with BADGERY*, in his 499-347 win. Lynda attempted to counter the phonying with a few phonies of her own, which were removed from the board quickly, and will not be mentioned by name.

3rd Helen Flores' new year's resolution to win 75% of her games during this calendar year got off to a perfect start as she went 3-1 -67. A bingoless affair with June Scott ended in her favor, 331-325. The bingo counts increased slightly in her next game, against Susan Vergeront, with her playing ROSEOLA and Susan responding with the nice find of TRIAGING. Bryan Benwitz ruined her perfect evening in the next game, selfishly hogging both blanks in order to play JOURNEY with nary an apology. Undaunted, Helen saved her best for last, defeating Gail 389-377, helped along by her almost-a-word play of AMAROSA*. AMOROSO, a type of wine, is probably what she was thinking of, but who am I to say?

Dave's LORNEST was the sole new bingo of the week, if you could even consider it "new" since we have been using the new dictionary for almost a year now.

Charles Reinke Says Goodbye to 2015 With Another Loss-Free Excursion

1st Charles Reinke recovered from the recent interruption of his last winning streak to begin work on a new one, going 4-0 +376 and averaging 473 per game in the process. His biggest success came against Helen Flores, where he won 527-342. Helen got down ERASURE as her only bingo, while Charles had a pair of high-scoring bingos in TRAGICAL (94) and AVIDITY (92). Bingo fortunes would be more favorable for both players when Charles narrowly defeated his brother in a high-scoring contest, 494-481. The victorious twin had a quartet of seven-letter bingos to seal the deal: EMETINE, RESTERS, AMORINO, and SWEATER. Meanwhile, the non-victorious twin had RASHLIKE, UNTINGED, and word-of-the-week BIGEMINY (n. a type of heart arhythmia).

2nd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +468, with only a loss to his brother marring an outstanding performance wherein he averaged 495 per game. He started the night off with a bang by defeating the soon-to-depart-for-warmer-climes Richard Lauder 524-361. Richard deployed the phony SHELVAGE to try to stay in the game (along with the valid DRAINER), but Thomas one-upped him with three bingos of his own: SENIORS, ALATION, and AZOTURIA (n. an elevated level of nitrogenous compounds in the urine). The tile bag was even more biased towards Thomas when he thoroughly dismantled Mary Becker's winning aspirations, 548-304. In that one, Thomas had FIVE count 'em FIVE bingos: FOOTAGE, INFECTS, INTERNAL, INSNARE, and REMOTES.

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +155 and averaged an impressive 453 per game, almost seventy points above her previous yearly average. Her high game came at Bryan Benwitz' expense, although both players scored above 400 in a 475-406 shootout. Lynda won the bingo battle, with her three bingos (CLOTHES, STUFFER, and ATTORNED) outscoring Bryan's two (STEERAGE and LIGROINS). She only got one bingo (REGAINED) against Richard Lauder, but managed to dominate the matchup anyway, 471-329. This was despite Richard's MONSTERA (n. a genus of flowering plants) and ANODISE. Lynda's run at an undefeated evening sadly ended with a 422-496 encounter with first-place finisher Charles Reinke.

Gail's TAJINES and Richard's ANODISE were the new bingos played this week.

Charles Reinke Reaches Twelve Straight, but Mary Becker Makes Sure it Doesn't Become Thirteen

1st Charles Reinke went 4-1 +559 and averaged 484 per game, but the real news was twofold: his winning streak was extended to twelve (or eleven, depending on how 2-on-1s are counted in the streak), and his winning streak came to an end. The disrupter was none other than Mary Becker, who took down the seemingly unstoppable twin by a score of 427-448. Mary's bingos were UNITIES and ENVIOUS while Charles got down SNARFING and RITUALS. Well before that game, Charles soundly defeated Bryan Benwitz 547-344 despite playing just one more bingo than his opponent (Bryan had ALATION and ANTEDATE; Charles, WAFTAGES, PACIFIER, and UNABUSED. Charles improved on that 203-point margin by demolishing Richard Lauder, his 497 easily eclipsing Richard's 268. IVORIEST, INDICTED, and word-of-the-week ENDOSMOS were Charles' bingos in that one.

2nd Thomas Reinke had a suitably identical win-loss record to his brother's, but his failure to find eighteen more points somewhere meant that he was put in second place. Like his brother, Thomas had a pair of devastating wins. The first was a 476-290 victory versus Dave Gilligan (playing LIGHTEN, CONFETTI, and EASIEST), and the second was a 560-337 romp over Dennis Lloyd (upping the bingo output to four with AUDILES, WOMANIST, OVARIOLE, and CENTAURS). As is frequently the case, one brother was the source of the other's only loss; Charles took the win 470-392, playing the exceedingly low-probability ERASION and GASEOUS to counter Thomas' SOLATIA and SIGHTSEE.

3rd Mary Becker finished at 3-2 +8, benefiting from a fifth game just like the other top-three finishers. Her highest-scoring game of the evening, a streak-busting win against Charles Reinke is already chronicled above, but in case you missed it, Mary triumphed 448-427. Her other 400-point game was a 409-365 victory against Dave Gilligan. The bingo situation in that game was exactly equivalent; both Mary's LINGERS and Dave's STONERS score 65 points. In the category of "close losses" was a 318-319 loss to Sue Goldstein which saw neither player get a bingo.

Only two new bingos were played, and they were actually the same word: both Charles and Gail played IVORIEST in the same round. In another bingo-related oddity, Bryan Benwitz had an opening rack of AAILNOT in two straight games, went second in both, and played ALATION in both once it was his turn. Creepy.