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Somebody has to Stop Thomas Reinke but Nobody Can

1st Thomas Reinke extended his latest winning streak to nine in a row with another impressive showing, this time going 4-0 +424 and averaging 499 (so close!) per game. His lowest score output of the night came in a 482-389 victory over Andy Bohnsack, which by itself describes what kind of night he was having. That game saw Andy get down two bingos of MISHEARD and STUTTER, but Thomas one-upped him with three bingos of his own: NONCRIME, NUTCASE, and almost-word-of-the-week TALLITIM (n. TALLIT, a Jewish prayer shawl). A game against Charles Reinke (no relation) ended with a slightly larger margin as Thomas took that one 511-405. A 158-point play (in this case, SICKENED) is always tough to claw back from, as Charles found out: his relatively high-scoring bingos of MARCATO and IRONISTS scored a combined 168, but weren't nearly enough. Thomas wrapped up his undefeated record with his highest score of the evening (and his sixth-highest this year), 521 against Dennis Lloyd's resilient 410. Thomas had EARLAPS, HARVESTS, and SEDATED (against Dennis' DECOYING and LOANINGS) to secure the victory for the forces of good.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 4-1 +293. The single loss against his brother is described above; the rest of his games had a much happier outcome (for him, anyway). Charles opened up with a 399-322 win over the temporarily-returned Joe Horowitz (don't get too excited; he has to go back to Philadelphia soon!). The two bingos on the board at the end of that game were both Charles': DASHING and DOBLONES (plural of DOBLON - don't play DOBLONE!). Simultaneously with that game, Charles took on Dave Gilligan as part of a two-on-one, and won that game as well, 481-332. Charles' fine outing culminated with a 502-376 match versus Lynda Finn; a single bingo of COURTIER by Lynda could not hold up to Charles' three bingos of SWANNED, SEPTICAL, and word of the week MOVIEDOM.

3rd Andy Bohnsack went 3-2 +131, but averaged just 384 points per game, well below his average of 427 on the year. His average score took the biggest hit when he lost 313-416 against Dennis Lloyd. In the course of his win, Dennis discovered the second most important secret to beating Andy (the first being to place tiles on the board for lots of points): try to bingo more often than he does. It worked: Andy managed a lowly ETALONS, while Dennis got down SCRUMMED and SNITCHED. Andy redeemed his record in the fourth round when he was the "one" in a two-on-one matchup against Helen Flores and Dave Gilligan. Neither opponent of Andy's managed to get a bingo down or score over 300 as he won both, 412-275 against Dave and 385-293 against Helen. Andy showed off his high-probability bingo knowledge with finds of TAENIAE, PTERINS, VARIATE, and RANGERS in the two games.

Is Winter Over Yet?

1st Thomas Reinke overcame the coldness of the night to go undeafeated, 4-0 +251. Against Andy in the first round, the game hinged on the validity of Andy's BARGERS*. If it was good, it would be a 50-point win for Andy, if not, a 100-point win for Thomas. Given Thomas' final record and the little asterisk next to the word, you can figure out how that one turned out. Defense was the name of the game against Gail in round two, with Thomas getting down a pair of bingos but doing little else, while Gail managed to get DEVOICES as an outplay to cut the spread a bit, the final result being 366-330. Thomas then tried out both ends of the bingo-score continuum against Aaron, playing TERATOMA for 57 and the triple-triple CASEATES for 140 in his 433-350 win. While facing eternal foe Charles in the battle for first place, they started out the game with three straight bingos, then failed to bingo again for the rest of the game. Talk about disappointment! I'm pretty sure they were thinking they were going to bingo every turn until the tiles ran out. Thomas won that game, 389-359.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +246, averaging a session-high 445 points. His AGONIZES and WANDERED again Charles in the first match were met with ORDINAL, CANITIES (n. the greying of the hair, singular and plural, so no CANITY*), and an un-overcome-able QUAERES, and Bryan came up short 407-446. His fortunes changed somewhat against Andy, as he won 473-369. Sadly, his fancy play of BEKNIGHT through an E was blocked, but, to his credit, he showed admirable restraint by not immediately punching Andy in the face, instead waiting until after the game to dole out the required physical punishment. Physical punishment was not needed in his game against Dennis, where he won 415-357 using only Scrabble-based punishment. He saved his best for last against Lynda, winning 483-360, playing ENEMIES and PEONIES.

3rd Charles Reinke avoided second place by a mere 6 spread points, going 3-1 +240. Remember to recount your plays! Every point counts! After beating Bryan in the opener, he turned his attention towards Helen, winning 414-310. Helen erred by challenging the odd-looking DUGS (n. DUG, a teat or udder), but who can blame her? Charles pushed his winning-streak to 3 against Lynda, where he won 467-340, playing LABIATES and WACKIEST, before falling to his brother. The club will, sadly, have to wait another three weeks before paying out his next 10-game streak.

Andy played the word-of-the-week, DRUNKARD, a common term that is very uncommon on a Scrabble board.

Don't Pass Up 200-Point Triple-Triples Unless You Have a Very Good Strategic Reason

1st Charles Reinke came out on top with a 4-1 +671 record. A large portion of his spread came from his opening 2-on-1 match against Helen and Sue, where he won by a combined 485 points. He then faced Andy and Andy's invisible friend, winning 464-411. Charles played COLLETED, PERVADE, and SPIERING that game, but passed up the 200+ point triple-triple BRIQUETS (next time you see BRIQUET on the board, remember that you can extend it to SOBRIQUET). Lynda was the only person to get the best of the bingo machine, winning their matchup in the third round 382-431. She played EPIGENE and ENDITES against Charles' RARITIES and ROSTELLA. In the last game, Charles handily defeated Bryan, 497-315, playing the word-of-the-week PIASAVA (also spelled PIASABA or PIASSAVA, a coarse fiber). Sometimes drawing three A's to go along with your blank isn't so bad!

2nd Aaron Bader came in second with his undeafeated 3-0 +263, failing to come in first because the website orders the results by wins first (don't want someone going 1-0 to win, do we?). He outbingoed Thomas 3-0 in the first game, playing DUSTRAG, OUTTHROB (v. to surpass in throbbing, duh), and EQUITES (plural of EQUES). His bingoing cooled off in the second game, playing only GRATERS against Betty's SHAKIER in a 425-357 win. Against Bryan, he played the nifty nine-letter PYRIDINES, but phonied with the Collins-only DAMASKIN*, an alternate spelling of the acceptable verbs DAMASKEEN and DAMASCENE.

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +183, good for third place. She lost a close one against Bryan to open the night, 394-404, with Bryan's TOXINES for 115 being the deciding factor. Done with losing for the session, she rattled off three straight wins after that, the first against Gail, 475-393, where she played BARNIEST, TRANSOM, and YEASTIER. You already heard about her win against Charles, so following that she dropped 5 Benjamins and a Washington on Andy, winning 501-439. She played KNEEPAD and the always-appropriate WORDAGE, but phonied with UNDRIES* (valid anagram INSURED).

4th Helen Flores went 3-1 +15, proving that it's sometimes worth it to not curl up in a little ball and cry after one of the Reinkes beats you by 200 points.

Two triple-triples were played and paid, RETURNER for Helen and MERCHANT for Andy, both against Thomas.