Blog

1st Richard Lauder walked in, sat down, won three games, said "see you losers later", and walked out, coming in first with a 3-0 +267 record. In the first round, he won 458-343 against, according to his scorecard, "Helen (1 Phony)". I'm guessing the "1 Phony" part was him leaving himself a note about how many phonies he thought he could get away with before Helen would start challenging them. In any case, both his bingoes were decidedly non-phony, INSOLENT and AIRBAGS. After that, he faced Dennis and won 401-303. It was a close game until he played TONNERS followed up with a big X play, while Dennis drew clunkers to go with his blank. His quest to go undefeated seemed to hit a snag when he was paired up with Thomas for the third game, but he showed no fear and won 385-331. Thomas was held bingoless, while Richard got in his phony with PRESIZED* as well as a valid LANNERET (n. a male lanner). He then took his ill-gotten "High-I" prize of four dollars (we really should stop giving those out for phonies) and departed an unchallenged victor.

2nd Dennis Lloyd finished four points ahead of third place with a final record of 3-1 +128, meaning that if this writeup mysteriously stopped two-thirds of the way through, Dennis would get a paragraph and the unknown third-place finisher wouldn't. Dennis racked up a good amount of spread in the first round, winning against Dave 499-349. He bingoed three times, with LUSTIER, ANNELID, and ROPINGS, while Dave wrote in the bingo section of his scorecard "None to be spoken of". But the winds of fortune shifted dramatically in the second game as he was held bingoless against Richard, and he lost 303-401. Then the winds of fortune re-shifted back in the "fortunate" direction, just in time for his game against Charles. He ended up bingoing three times, with HEADMAN, REINDUCE, and a game-deciding INQUIRE for 123 points, and won 447-398. In the final round, he faced Bryan, and they ground out a low-scoring contest, with Dennis eventually winning 321-294. That's what happens sometimes, when neither player wants to open things up for their opponent.

3rd Thomas Reinke is mercifully being granted a paragraph for coming in third with a 3-1 +124 record. He faced James in the first round, and got off to a quick start with RAILHEAD. He later played UNEROTIC (anagram of NEUROTIC, hmmmm....) and won 427-358. Against Betty in the second round, his BECARPET (v. to cover with carpet) was met with DROPPING. The game was close until he phonied with SILESIAN* (only SILESIA is good), a phony that propelled him to a 454-350 win. After that, his only loss of the night came at the hands of Richard, 331-385. In the final game, Dave put up a good fight, bingoing three times (the third game in a row he performed that feat, by the way), with STERILE, MUNDANE, and IDEATIVE, but Thomas was able to eke out enough points in the endgame to win 412-407.

Bryan played the word of the week, OUGUIYA. An OUGUIYA (also spelled OUGIYA) is a monetary unit of Mauritania, divisible into five KHOUM, making it one of two currencies not divided into a multiple of ten. The other, of course, being the Madagascar ARIARY, divisible into five IRAIMBILANJA.

Somehow the writeup for this session got deleted and we're not rewriting it, so you can look at the results for yourself and imagine what the writeup would have been like!

1st Thomas Reinke upped his session winning streak to three, ending up with a 4-1 +164 record. In the first round he beat Harriette (hailing from the far lands of Chicago) 385-346, his only bingo being SUBZERO. The bingos were more plentiful (plentifuller????) in the second round, as he played four of them in a 474-361 against James: OUTSEEN, INVASIVE, GORDITA (apparently a real word that was not just conjured out of thin air by Taco Bell) and REPTILES. Following that, he faced Charles, who started off strong with a double-double UNBOLTED, but Thomas then got three quick bingos down: ACTINIAS, VERONALS, and LAIRAGES. Charles later added AMITROLE (n. an herbicide), but the damage was already done, and Thomas won 492-384. In the final round, he played two at once, and in two different dictionaries! Against Mark, he won 444-414, failing to utilize his newfound British dictionary knowledge by playing only lame American bingos, which were BASELOAD, DECADENT, and IONIZERS. THe dictionary swapping must have confused him against Lynda, though, because he lost big, 298-424.

2nd Aaron Bader came in second at 3-0 +214, sweeping Mark in their weekly Collins series. The first game was a surprisingly low-scoring (by the standards of the dictionary) win for Aaron 425-394. Mark bingoed with BLEARER, SILURIAN, and the word-of-the-week, WURTZITE (a mineral named after a dude called Charles-Adolphe Wurtz), but lost to Aaron's sole bingo of SIRDARS. The next round was a little higher-scoring 455-410 in favor of Aaron. Aaron bingoed with PINASTER, MOISTURE, and MIELIES*, while Mark got down FASHION but failed (along with Aaron) to extend it to FASHIONMONGERS. In the final game of his night, Aaron won 473-335, playing SORNINGS* (SNORINGS is good in the normal dictionary), SMIRKED, and TAXPAID (adj. paid for by taxes). And with that, his night was over, as he graciously let someone else play Mark.

3rd Charles Reinke had nearly the same amount of spread and wins as Aaron, but foolishly lost a game instead of just not playing it, so he came in third at 3-1 +217. He got off to a quick start, beating Helen 541-265 in the first game. He bingoed with BACKLOTS, EDIFIER, SPOILAGE, and VENDIBLE (also able to be spelled VENDABLE). His scoring dropped fairly dramatically after that (as could be expected when you start off with 541), with his next game being a 402-395 win against Lynda. Lynda played POETISE for her bingo, and Charles played INCREASE and INTERNAL. The loss that prevented him from coming in second, or maybe even first, happened in the next round, against Thomas. Considering their great similarities, I don't understand why every game between them wouldn't be a tie; nevertheless, Charles lost 384-492. In the final round, Harriette found out what it's like to be "Reinked", as Charles beat her 412-370. So much for a warm Wisconsin welcome!