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1st Thomas Reinke once again snagged the top spot in the weekly standings with his 4-1 +405 record. He suffered a minor setback in the first round, losing to Richard Lauder by a score of 375-380, but encountered no other obstacles on his way to the proverbial gold medal. By the third round, Thomas' bingoing abilities were fully warmed up, as demonstrated in a 466-405 win over Helen Flores where he played NUTRIAS, SIMULATE, and UPBOILED. Helen did have a nice play of BOARDERS for 94 in that one. Thomas put the final gem in his crown by conquering his fraternal foe, Charles Reinke, by a score of 502-368. Charles got down RECOUNTS and PARADING, but Thomas played SALSAED#, SERMONIC, DENTURAL, and GALLERIA in a high-scoring slugfest typical of the international Collins lexicon that they were using.

2nd Charles Reinke trailed slightly behind his brother with a 4-1 +284 final record. A pair of 500+ point games buoyed his average for the night to a lofty 461 points per game. The first 500 game was against Sara McLaughling, 517-367. Sara found FEISTIER to keep the game mildly competitive, but Charles's bingos of DRAGROPE, REGIONS, and SUBATOM put the score well out of reach. Charles continued the bingoing rampage by playing four of them (FORTIFY, EVASION, OLDNESS, and PREUNITE) against Richard Lauder, who, to his credit, found a 167-point triple-triple of ESTOPPED. The final in that one was 531-430.

3rd Sara McLaughlin made her club first appearance of 2023 and made the most of it, finishing 3-1 +391. All three of her victories (and, for that matter, her singular loss) were by more than 100 points. She defeated newcomer Francesca Lazio by a score of 408-283, with each player getting down a single bingo: REMARKED for Sara and GENDERS for Francesca. Sara built on that success by vanquishing Helen Flores, 435-279, this time getting down two bingos, ATRESIA and WEANERS. Helen, sadly, was held bingoless by some unholy combination of Sara's defensive prowess, the vagaries of the tile bag, and possibly the (mis-)alignment of various celestial bodies.

Bonus fourth paragraph: Dave Kinzer also went 3-1 with a spread of +123. Paradoxically, his best game was a 399-457 loss to Thomas Reinke where he got an 89-point bingo of LOCATED.

We welcomed two new players, Matt and Francesca Lazio. While they didn't have much immediate success in winning games (new players rarely do...), they both demonstrated considerable ability to play all seven tiles at once in the form of a bingo, which bodes well for future victories.

1st Charles Reinke secured first place in the nightly standings with a comfortable two-game lead over his next-closest competitor, finishing at 5-0 +464. He played four bingos (VARMENTS, RETINOID, SOLACED, and PEARLIES) in what was otherwise a closely-contested game against Thomas Reinke, who played SINUATED and DIAGNOSE. The final tally in that one was 461-453 in Charles' favor. Charles' bingo output would only go lower from that point forward, but he continued his winning ways, including a 485-273 win over Helen Flores. Helen got down a nice find of VASTIEST, while Charles had DOVECOT and WANGUNS. WANGUN is a Native American word for a chest of supplies at a labor camp, but what Charles was most concerned with was the fact that it scored him 78 points.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +352, losing two games to his brother but winning the rest. Surprisingly, his highest score of the evening was in the game described above, which he lost 453-461. The other encounter against Charles also ended unfavorably for Thomas, the final score being 437-468 despite Thomas' finds of TRUEBORN and GOONDAS. However, a big win against Richard Lauder, 427-335, ensured that Thomas didn't lose too much ground in the yearly standings. His bingos there were BIGUINE and the always-useful AIRIEST. Fun fact: AIRIEST has now been played 37 times at our club since modern recordkeeping began in 2011. The only bingo played more often is ETESIAN, played forty times. EASIEST and ATONIES are the other two to have been played more than thirty times.

1st Bryan Benwitz continued his dominance of the east side with an unblemished 4-0 +361 record. Notably, he achieved the rare "Anti-Reinke" by defeating both players with the last name Reinke in a single club session. Against Charles Reinke, neither player scored 400, but Bryan was significantly closer to 400 than Charles was, with a final score of 399-320. A crafty AZOTEMIA followed up with a 95-point LARDONS spelled doom for Charles. Again, neither player broke the 400-point barrier when Bryan vanquished Thomas Reinke 388-379, mostly relying on his 94-point OLIVINES to supply him the win. More high-level bingoage was displayed against Dave Kinzer, where Bryan's three bingos of LEAVIEST, DEAREST, EQUISETA, against Dave's singular AIRHEAD, delivered a 426-326 win.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +384 and laid down an impressive thirteen bonus plays to be crowned this week's "bingo king". He played his brother Charles Reinke in two games and won them both, the first being relatively close at 437-412, the second being not so close at 455-346. In the second round, Thomas played two games at once, and unleashed a torrent of bingos in a pair of games that were both decisive victories: 482-349 against Richard Lauder (who played the word of the week, NAZIFIES, for 102 points in his losing effort) and 479-353 against Renato Umali. Thomas' combined bingos in the round were SCOOTED, ACTIONER, SOBERING, EUCHRED, RURALIZE, and UNIRONED. Only a third-round loss to Bryan Benwitz prevented Thomas from attaining the coveted 5-0 record.

Also of note were a 176-point play of BLUEFISH from Renato Umali and a dizzying 572-point game from Dennis Lloyd, who played four bingos, including a 124-point LAZIEST. That 572-point game represents Dennis' highest-scoring game in his club career, barely eclipsing a 571-point game dating from March of 2022.