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Overall Club Win Rate Holds Steady at 50 Percent

1st Thomas Reinke bingoed 13 times, which is a pretty good amount of bingos but not, you know, a totally insane amount of bingos, and as a result went 3-1 +380. His night got off to a good start against Betty, against whom he scored 524 and slapped down four bingos. Against Aaron in the second game, his out-bingo of TOENAILS was not enough, and he lost 439-452. He also played ANTIRED (adj. opposed to communism) and OREBODY that game, the latter being the oft-speculated missing link between REBODY and FOREBODY. More bingoage occurred in his 499-367 win against Dave:  JOINERS, AROUSING, OBESITY, and ACETONIC. Dave kept it close-ish with his double-double of DELISTED and a variety of high-scoring plays, but the bingo deficit eventually caught up with him. In the final game, challenger Bryan struck first with LOATHED and latter added TRANNIES, but Thomas' RUINOUS and AERATIONS were enough to win, 430-390.

2nd Lynda Finn, following her first place finish last week, came in second (a disturbing trend??????) this week, going 3-1 +102. She opened the session strongly against Charles, winning 462-408 with the aid of a SCALDING BONFIRE. She hit a minor roadblock in the form of Dave in the second round, losing 364-392, but quickly recovered against Helen, 443-401. Her recovery happened to include the phony LUNKIER* (real word URNLIKE), but we're not going to judge. It certainly looks very much like a word. Lynda finished off her night with a resounding 452-418 victory over Aaron, where she played NEUROMA, RELOADS, and GRATINEE. Lynda has now won against Aaron 4 out of the last 6 times they have played.

3rd Bryan Benwitz edged out Gail for third place, going 3-1 +48. He defeated Richard in the opener with his out-bingo of TEOSINTE, overcoming Richard's GUANASE, TITULAR, and MORSELED. He followed that up with a close 414-381 win over Helen, featuring the so-questionable-it's-not-even-good-in-Collins IVORIEST (adj most ivory?). Speaking of Collins, in the third game Bryan beat Aaron, 407-385. Not quite as decisive as the last time Bryan accomplished that feat (the number 645 is for some reason popping into my memory), but good enough. His sole bingo that game was SAUCIERS (n. SAUCIER, a chef who specializes in sauces).

Aaron played the word-of-the-week, HETAIRAI, which is a plural of HETAIRA, a concubine in ancient Greece. In other news, the club has now passed 13000 unique bingos played, which seems like a lot. In other other news, Gail probably some sort of club record when she won the low K prize with a 39 point play. New rule: prizes for low plays will not be awarded for words scoring more than 25 points. We will not continue to reward such an obvious lack of effort.

Lynda Finn Starts her Year Perfect - Can She Keep it Up? (Meanwhile Everybody is Playing Triple-Triples)

1st Lynda Finn had her first-ever 5-0 performance, and her 100% winning percentage places her neatly at the top of the year's standings. Her perfect record did not include wins over either of the notorious Reinke twins, but her accomplishment should not be diminished as she beat some of the club's top players on her way to first place. A phony of LIVIDEST, played in a 435-348 win against Helen Flores, was a dark spot on her scoresheet, but the remainder of her nine bingos were valid, leaving her with a perfectly acceptable 11% phony rate. She downed Aaron Bader by an even hundred points, 443-343, thanks to her successful application of the "don't let your opponent bingo" strategy. Meanwhile, she had three bingos of her own: MANTLES, HEAVIEST, and SCULLER. A final game against Bryan Benwitz came down to the last play (and the last few seconds of Bryan's clock), but Lynda was again victorious, 430-416. Bryan had a 99-point REDEEMS, but Lynda's two bingos of TZARIST and TENPINS were just enough to take the win.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-1 +259, with only a loss to the provably unstoppable Lynda preventing him from attaining the glory of an undefeated record. He started by taking out Thomas Reinke 426-396, playing RAMULOSE, TRAINMAN, and RATIONED. The three-bingo theme continued when he matched up against Richard Lauder and showed not a trace of mercy, winning that one 506-256 and getting down INTERTIE, DORSERS, and REFUSALS in the process. A fourth-round encounter with Gail Salm seemed to be another runaway victory for Aaron, with an early triple-triple of SORRIEST for 122 points putting him in a comfortable position, but Gail's counter-triple-triple of RELATION, also for 122 points, got her right back in the game. The final score ended at 476-398, so the impact of the "never give up" moral was slightly diminished, but still...never give up!

3rd Charles Reinke snuck into third place with a 3-2 +657 record. After losing his first two games by a combined total of 22 points to Bryan Benwitz and Gail Salm (I believe this technique is called "sandbagging"), he reeled off three huge wins to end up averaging 488 for the night. He started his comeback with a 479-337 win versus Richard Lauder, playing VESTMENT and the damaging 99-point RECODES (Richard got down UNMIXES and WASTRIE). Charles followed that up with the highest score of the nascent club season, a 583 against Helen Flores. His bingo list was substantive: GOVERNOR, GUNBOATS, HITLESS, and a 104-point TRUCKMAN (is that like a TRAINMAN?). Similar ruthlessness was displayed against Dave Gilligan, who had beaten Thomas Reinke earlier in the night and was thus due for some brotherly payback; Charles won their game 557-273, playing BULGARS, SPLICED, and a 104-point BEYONDS.

In total, four triple-triples were played, perhaps a club record (nobody really knows): Aaron's SORRIEST (122), Dave's ENLARGER (140), Gail's RELATION (122), and Gail again with MONTAGES (131). In other news, the club has to fold because there's no money left after all these $5 triple-triple prizes.

New Season, Same Game

1st Thomas Reinke started the new club season off right, but not as right as he could have, going 3-1 +292. He opened with a big 525-299 win against Gail, where he played VOTARESS, SHINOLA, and RECANED (dumbest RE- word ever?). A smart person would have stopped playing right then and there to maintain a 525 average on the year, but Thomas, greedy as ever, desired wins over statistical feats. To that end, he beat Charles 470-406 with his bingos of IDEALISM, UNFORGED, and TENTERS. Charles was held bingoless until the very last play, when he played VIOLATES. As they say, if you can't bingo early, bingo late, and if you can't bingo late, bingo early. In the third game, Aaron attemped to put that adage to use against Thomas, seeing a blank as his first tile, but was stymied by his remaining draw of IIRRUU. Aaron did end up striking first, with the fancy DEIFORM, but lost 387-430. Thomas' dreams of an undefeated season ended when he faced Bryan in the final game, where he lost 393-434. He played SOOTIER and RETINULA versus Bryan's ADAPTION and CONFUSED, but Bryan's late flurry of non-bingo scoring put the game away.

2nd Charles Reinke bingoed only 5 times in 4 his games, a low total for him, but still went 3-1 +228, good for second place. In the first round, he overcame an early 100-point deficit against Mary to win 414-325. His find of TAPIOCA (n. a disgusting "food" concoction) for 84 points seemed to make the difference. After falling to his brother in the second game, he faced Bryan, who he dispatched without the aid of any bingos, 373-335. Details are scarce, but it seems safe to assume that he scored points in other ways. Perhaps power tiles? Let's go with power tiles on this one. Things picked up a bit for him against Gail, where he won 487-322. He played the oddly-spelled COLISEUM as well as PROVISO in that contest.

3rd Bryan Benwitz also went 3-1, his spread of +144 putting him in third place. I haven't looked at the full standings yet, but I'm just going to assume that everyone went 3-1. Anyway, Bryan got the best of of Helen in the first game, 393-352, playing BRAINED (adj. what Bryan is) and TIPTOED against Helen's BOOGIED. Following that, he won the "most reasonable nonword of the week" prize (0 dollars) with LATCHERS* in his 444-344 win versus Mary. If you are ever tempted to play that almost-word, play TRACHLE instead. In the interest of full disclosure, Bryan also played INDIGOS and MULATTOS in that game. Just so you don't think he plays nothing but phonies. As stated in the previous paragraph, Bryan outbingoed Charles 2-0 in their third-round matchup, with NITROUS and word-of-the-week PANORAMA, but somehow lost. Luckily, he got some measure of revenge against Thomas.