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Charles Reinke Returns From Nationals in No Mood to Lose Any More Games

1st Charles Reinke put together a perfect 4-0 +302 performance and is now has been the winner in fourteen of his last fifteen games. Helen Flores was the first victim of Charles' rage, losing 387-493; she got down DEVIOUS and OUTAGES, but Charles exceeded her bingo output with NOYADES, NATATION, and perhaps the most difficult and astounding triple-triple find of his storied Scrabble career, SNOOTIER for 131 points. Lynda Finn was treated to roughly the same amount of rage as Helen before her, with the Lynda-Charles match ending at 492-350. Again, Charles had three bingos: BIDENTAL, IONONES, and TORULAE. Three bingos per game would then prove to be untenable, and Charles could only play INANEST and CASEOSE (mistakenly thought not to take an S, it's a peptide produced in the digestion of casein) when defeating Mary Becker 444-395.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged a rather insane 502 points per game, even taking into consideration a loss which left him at 3-1 +620. He utterly squished Thomas Reinke by a score of 496-302, playing a whopping four bingos in the rout: SPHEROID, GRIMACES, UINTAITE, and WONDERS. Bryan's ability to dominate in Scrabble contests would only intensify; he got his second-highest game ever when he pummeled Aaron Bader in the third round, 578-371. Rumors are currently circulating that this over-the-top defeat is the reason for Aaron's only playing three games. In fairness, it would be reasonable to quit Scrabble forever after witnessing the amount of bingos that Aaron had to witness: FATTIER, RECHOOSE, FLOATELS, CAROMING, and INBOUNDS was Bryan's impressive bingo list. Unfortunately, Bryan's night of total domination was ruined by a 421-416 loss to the guy in the first paragraph.

3rd Dave Gilligan finished at 3-1 +104, not quite having the gaudy bingo list of Bryan, but attaining the same amount of wins, which is all that matters in the end. He snuck away with a close win against Gail Salm, 406-396, successfully countering Gail's COTERIE and HAULERS with two of his own bingos, ROOMIES and WASTRAL (WASTREL is good). Dave's primal urge to play phonies was kept in check against Mary Becker, where his two valid bingos (EMOTIONS and HOLIDAYS) led to a comfortable 421-298 victory. However, Dave's night was spoiled from the get-go by a first-round loss, 322-437, to Richard Lauder. Richard also temporarily put a hold on his phonying tendencies by playing UNFORMED, REGISTER, and BEETLES, while Dave was forced to leave the "bingo" section of his scoresheet blank for that round.

Aaron Dominates the Collins Field

It was a hotly contested night in the church basement where Scrabble scores consistently exceeded room temperature despite how it felt at times. The Brothers Reinke were absent as they were returning from the North American Scrabble Championships. As a result there was a palpable energy in the air from the excitement of the numerous players who thought they might actually have a chance to finish in the top two for a change.

1st Aaron Bader had an unbeatable 4-0 +475 showing against arch Collins Rival Mark Kenas. Aaron averaged 480 points and 11 bingos, 7 of which are good in TWL as well. The other 4 were Collins valid for sure, even though they are marked here as TWL phonies. Aaron not only had the high average, but the high game score of the week with a 480. 

2nd Andy Bohnsack led the TWL pack with a 4-1 +215. Andy's only loss was to Lynda, during which he noted it was the third time tonight that his opponent opened with a blank bingo. Andy fired back with plentiful bingos of his own, including the lovely 5 vowel 8, ETIOLATE.

3rd Lynda Finn with 4-1 -88, showed the 3-1 finishers that if you plan on losing one game and still placing in the top three, you better play 2 at a time, like Andy and Lynda did. Despite her huge loss to Bryan Benwitz, where she was outbingoed 3 to 0 and outscored by 149 points, she mananged to claw out very close wins against all her other opponents. The closest was in the final game against Richard Lauder, where she won by the narrowest of narrow margins. It was a bit of a comedy of errors. Early in the game Richard passed on the valid UNDREST, and late in the game Lynda inadvertently emptied the bag, allowing Richard to bingo out and catch her with a large rack. Memo to scrabblers, count the bag before you play late in the game when only a bingo out could catch you.

Shout outs to Bryan Benwitz for his 150 pt. word of the week ZEMSTVO and his high TWL average of 464 and his 11 bingo bonuses tying Aaron for bingo kingo. Honorable metions to Gail Salm for her lovely ZOISITES, Richard Lauder for his lovely CATTLEYA and Helen Flores for the ever so lovely 158 point triple-triple of BLINDERS. 

This just in from Ft. Wayne IN. CONGRATS go to Thomas Reinke for his 18th place finish in a field of over 400. He finished 17.5 - 13.5 +758. To be reminded of how great a player Thomas is, follow along with his two tight losses here, and see if you can find all the superior moves that he does:

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2016/9;turn=0

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2016/12;turn=0

CONGRATS go to Charles Reinke for his 30th place finish. He finished 16 - 15 +442.

CONGRATS to Buffy Hogan for her 15-16 showing in a tough division D. 

Charles Reinke Excels on Small Stage Before (Hopefully) Excelling on Slightly Larger Stage

1st Charles Reinke assembled a dominant 4-0 +717 performance, a good omen for possible success at the National Scrabble Championship in Fort Wayne, IN, which starts on Saturday. Charles averaged a splendid 478 points per game (to his opponents 298!) and played three bingos in each of his four games. His highest-scoring game was a 505-283 drubbing of Bryan Benwitz, who, like all of Charles' opponents, got significantly out-bingoed, 3-1. Charles' three bingos were AIRGLOWS, EROTIZES, and DESTINE. That margin of 222 was Charles' best; his second best margin was also the game in which he scored the least, 455-260 against Dave Gilligan. Charles played SHEITEL (new anagram of SHELTIE), SENOPIA, and EMOCORE. EMOCORE (a type of rock music) would have been word of the week except for Dave's later triple-triple of INVEIGHS for 194 points, played against Andy Bohnsack.

2nd Gail Salm continued her recent trend of strong play with a 3-1 +341 record, averaging 434 points per game. Her scores in her wins were 441, 448, and 465. The 465 was unkindly unleashed against Betty Hasselkus, who scored 259. Gail's bingos were HAIRIEST and ATONIES, the latter of which is now tied with AIRIEST for most-played bingo at the club with 24 occurrences each. Gail's sole loss came against Bryan Benwitz, whose 102-point FIERCER was able to withstand Gail's TERTIANS and HINTERS.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +232, which, while not exactly being a "good" omen for Nationals, is still a "pretty good" omen. The real good omen was getting five, count-em-five bingos against Andy Bohnsack (TEASELED, SQUIRTED, BANISHES, AUTOMAN, and POTENCES) while cruising to a 521-393 victory. The one black mark on his scorecard was supplied by none other than second-place finisher Gail Salm, who took Thomas down by a score of 448-400 thanks to an out-bingo of WHITENED. Thomas did get to play CONTROLS, LEISURE, and ELEMENT, so he had his fun despite the loss.

Good luck to Thomas, Charles, and Buffy, who will be playing at Nationals. Live coverage can be found here starting Saturday: http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/2016/nasc/build/index.html . Congratulations to Helen Flores and Lynda Finn for their performances at the Word Cup in Phoenix!