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Andy Bohnsack Discovers the Joys of Winning

1st Andy Bohnsack finished atop the weekly standings thanks to his 4-0 +157 performance, beating some very formidable opponents along the way. He got his biggest game out of the way quickly, a 478-321 first-round drubbing of Charles Reinke. Charles's sole bingo was also a phony, SARIOUS (this is the second time Charles has gotten away with this "word"; SOUARIS is the word in that rack), but Andy had no reason to challenge as he had built up a comfortable advantage with his bingos of RECLINER, TIERCES, and REUSING. Continuing the theme of repeat phonies, Andy played the phony JADEITIC in the course of his 436-359 victory over Peter Schmiedicke, the second time that Andy has slipped that particular misspelling past his opponent (JADITIC is the true adjectival form of JADEITE). Andy was able to take part in a game with no phony bingos when he beat Gail Salm in a high-scoring contest, 431-411. Gail's WAISTED and PIROGEN, along with Andy's CITTERNS, AERIEST, and TRENDIER were all perfectly valid words.

2nd Aaron Bader averaged a session-leading 443 points per game and ended his night at 3-1 +420 [marijuana joke goes here]. He, too, was a phonying phonier, playing UNSLOWED to contribute unjustly to his win against Thomas Reinke, 419-334. To atone, Aaron also played the Word of the Week ANORTHITE in the same game. Thomas played EMOTION for not nearly as many style points. Against Barb Besadny, Aaron pulled out all the stops, resulting in a 552-268 final score that didn't even qualify as the highest score of the night (Peter Schmiedicke scored 558 in one of his games). Aaron's bingos (DISPOSER, ENDPLATE, and RUCOLAS) were supplemented by a generous helping of power-tile bombs that combined to create his ridiculous final total. First-place finisher Andy Bohnsack was the proud supplier of Aaron's only loss, with their game ending at an oddly low score of 348-389.

3rd Thomas Reinke also went 3-1, but his miniscule spread of +36 was much lower than Aaron's; thus, he is relegated to the bottom of the writeup. In the clash of the brothers, Thomas defeated his twin Charles by just one point, 404-403. Thomas played DEHISCE for nearly 100 points (actually just 99); Charles got down BERIMES and LEOTARD. Outbingoed again by Bryan Benwitz, Thomas managed to win again, 442-414. Bryan's JOINDERS, CHORTENS, and SCARRING could not prevail against Thomas' RELOCATE and GROSSING. Abiding by the old adage "save the best for last", Thomas' highest-scoring game came in the last round when he defeated Richard Lauder 482-390. Richard scored himself some triple-triple money with his play of HOARIEST for 122 points, but Thomas was not undone by this high-scoring play, and ended up with three bingos of his own: RESTART, LASERING, and SAPIENCE.

We also welcomed back Steve Busalacchi after a decade-long (or more) hiatus. He did win one game in his return, 401-285 against Helen Flores.

Just two bingos from the new dictionary were played this week: RUCOLAS (Aaron) and LASERING (Thomas).

Aaron Bader Loses a Game, but the Soothing Salve of First Place Will Heal Even the Direst of Wounds

1st Aaron Bader topped a group of five players with one loss thanks to his 4-1 +515 performance. Almost half of his final spread total came as a result of a 504-274 encounter with Sue Goldstein. Aaron played a trio of eight-letter words to secure his victory: SOLENOID, ARIDNESS, and ACTINIDE. A later game against Lynda Finn was marred by the unwelcome blight of phony words; Aaron erred with DONNART (only DONNERT, DONNERD, and DONNERED in our dictionary) while Lynda got away with RULINESS. It was Aaron's win, 489-363. Finally, as the hour grew late, Aaron unleashed his largest game of the evening when he defeated Bryan Benwitz 508-430. Bryan had three bingos of OBELISE, GIRDLER, and BEACHED, the last for 98 points, but was matched every step of the way by his opponent, who found PARRIED, PATNESS, and NEEDLES.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a club-leading 464 per game en route to a 4-1 +403 finish. He managed to extend his winning streak up to twelve in a row before encountering Peter Shmiedicke in round two, a classic example of an unstoppable force encountering an immovable object. The game ended heavily in Peter's favor, 515-406, thanks to Peter's four bingos of SEDUCING, MANROPES, RATTIER, and SIRVENTE. Thomas responded to that disappointing loss by drubbing Susan Vergeront 567-300. Just like his opponent had done the previous game, Thomas deployed a total of four bingos on his nemesis: ECHIDNAS, ROTARIES, FORECAST, and the new word REMOULDS (SMOULDER and MOULDERS were previously valid). The ultimate triumph, however, was attained when Thomas beat his brother Charles 452-431. Charles got down AUROREAN, MIGRATED, and the new BRIDIES, but Thomas's nice nine-letter find of GONOCYTES paired with a lesser find of EXOTICA carried him to victory.

3rd Charles Reinke ended up at 3-1 +280, frustratingly just one rung below his brother. Things started off smoothly, with a game against Gail Salm ending 525-320. Gail played ORACIES (the new anagram of SCORIAE); but Charles had ENTHRALS, PUMMELED, and SAUNTER for a decided advantage in BPFB (bonus points from bingos). Bryan Benwitz fared slightly better, but not better enough to walk away with the win, as Charles prevailed in their matchup 435-383 despite Bryan's tri-bingoed assault of REVOTING, BONESETS, and TONNERS. Charles had VEINULET and a word-of-the-week candidate, SYNKARYA (plural of SYNKARYON, a type of cell nucleus). Charles' third win was a somewhat low-scoring contest against Aaron Bader, 403-359.

Andy Bohnsack deservedly won Word of the Week with his ridiculous, unbelievable, and mind-boggling find of SOUNDSTAGE against Peter Schmiedicke, played to the word AGE which was already on the board. Unfortunately for fans of justice and proponents of meritocracy, Andy lost the game 423-436.

Lots of new bingos were played this week: REMOULDS (Thomas), DUALLIE (Charles), BRIDIES (Charles), ORACIES (Gail), SARNIES (Gail), and DISOWNER (Dave).

Thomas Reinke Goes Streaking

1st Thomas Reinke went undefeated for the second straight week, extending his winning streak past 10 and all the way up to 11. His opening defeat of Andy Bohnsack featured a miss of NONSKIER, a word that much more aptly describes Thomas than what was actually played, EINKORNS, einkorn being a type of wheat. An unnaturally low-scoring game occured in the normally action-packed Reinke-Reinke matchup in the second round, with each of the twins playing only one bingo apiece, Charles with WINKERS and Thomas with TALESMAN (n. a person summoned to fill a vacancy on a jury, not a misspelling of TALISMAN). In his third game against Bryan Benwitz, an early successful challenge by Bryan awakened Thomas' wrath (others call it luck), which was channeled into three consecutive bingos, HYALINE, ARBORES, and CHEVRES, the last of which will be placed on the "Cheesy Bingos" list. This author has been told not to speak of his final game of the night, a win for the T-twin against Peter Schmiedicke,  because it "just kind of was a sad game all around".

2nd Aaron Bader played smothering defense on his way to 3-0 +557, holding his opponents to an average of 291, utilizing the tried and true "draw all the tiles by playing lots of bingos" Scrabble strategy. Flexing his near-perfect word-finding abilities, he played eight bingos against his victim's one, the highest scoring being a double-double EXORDIA for 112. Sensing that a matchup with Thomas was inevitable, he left before the final game, maintaining his perfect record. You can't run from your problems forever, Aaron!

3rd Charles Reinke found that if you stare unblinkingly at your tiles for long enough, sometimes words pop up out of nowhere, going 3-1 +246. Ignoring deep philopsophical questions like "What is a word really?" and "As master of my own reality, should I not be allowed to play any word I wish?", he defeated Bryan by 1 point, 426-425. ORANGIER and SERVITOR (n. a male servant) were his bingos, not quite matched by Bryan's DETOURS and OCTAVES. After falling to his brother, he picked up his winning ways by unleashing his bingo-cannon against Lynda Finn, playing four, including SLACKENS for 107. Charles saved his best for last against Helen Flores, scoring 499 and finding the triple-triple MATELOTE (n. a fish stew, not to be confused with MATELOT, a sailor) for 140 game-winning points.

Only one new bingo was played tonight, Bryan's RACINOS. The word of the week was Helen's ENSCONCE.