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Charles Reinke Has Win Switch Stuck in "On" Position

1st Charles Reinke lengthened his current winning streak to nine, following up last week's perfect 5-0 record with a still perfect but slightly less perfect 4-0 +314 performance. Just one more win will see him awarded five bucks for winning ten games in a row. Interestingly, if irrelevantly, all four of his opponents ended up with 2-2 records. The first of those opponents was Bryan Benwitz, who lost by a clean hundred, 331-431. Charles landed INTONER and TITHABLE (anagram: HITTABLE) in that game, setting a two-bingos-a-game precedent that would not be deviated from or improved upon. He played ENATION and AVOIDED to fell his brother Thomas, who wielded weaponized words of ARSENOUS and TOOTLES but still lost, 441-434. Dave Gilligan would be the final victim of the night; despite total parity in the bingo count column (COINTERS and OUTRIDE for Dave, EVASION and a nine-letter UNMERITED for Charles), the score was a lopsided 459-321 in Charles' favor.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke, perfect through three games but feigning fatigue in order to avoid playing the fourth game, finished at 3-0 +364. He averaged a slightly-above-average 425 per game but was able to hold his opponents to a stifling 304 per. Both Joe Horowitz and Sue Goldstein were made to feel Peter's inextinguishable fury as he downed both of them with ease, 438-275 versus Joe and 459-264 versus Sue. Neither opponent bingoed, but Peter picked up the slack by bingoing four times in the two games, with ERUCTATE, PETALOID, ABRASIVE, and SNIGLET. A match against Dave Gilligan was significantly more competitive and ended with just a six-point margin, 378-372 for Peter. Dave managed to get down the only bingo played against Peter that night, IMPORTER for 76, but Peter again bingoed twice with SAGGIER and the useful TINWARE (anagram: TAWNIER).

3rd Andy Bohnsack was strangely (for a field of seventeen) the only 3-1 player, so his anemic +51 spread proved irrelevant. He squeaked by Gail Salm, 375-367, which didn't help the spread column much but definitely put a pleasing checkmark in the win column. It was a battle of high-probability bingos: CURATES for Andy, TONIEST and TRAINER for Gail. More bingos fitting that description were unleashed when Andy roughed up Thomas Reinke and got away with it, 439-384. Andy's OUTSEEN and TAENIAS didn't earn him any style points, but a win is a win even in the absence of style points. Meanwhile, Thomas' DONZELS earned a meager amount of style points which were quickly negated by a play of GENITOR. Dennis Lloyd can claim responsibility for Andy's solitary defeat, with a final score of 389-354 proving once again that the person who scores more points will usually win. Andy played MAESTRI and STRIATA to Dennis' ARENOSE and SHALIER. Guess what I have to say about those bingos?

Just one new bingo was played this week, Betty's FEEDINGS.

Charles Reinke: "4-0 isn't Good Enough"

1st Charles Reinke one-upped the theoretical "perfect" 4-0 record by going 5-0 +531. He also average 460 points per game, which somehow is not that much higher than his overall average this year. During a two-on-one matchup with him as the one, Charles paradoxically unleashed his two largest wins, 438-288 over Joe Horowitz and 552-355 over Gail Salm. He had five bingos across those two games: TEARILY, DEAFENS, RELAPSED, RANTINGS, and URANIDE. Perhaps the adversity of playing two games at once gave Charles anagramming powers beyond what his brain is normally capable of. In any case, Charles was enough on his game to resist a strong challenge from Andy Bohnsack, whom he defeated 474-411. Both players were able to play nine-letter bingos (RESTRAINS for Andy, VALERATES for Charles), a very rare occurrence considering how infrequently nine-letter bingos get played in the first place.

2nd Thomas Reinke failed to improve on his 4-0 record going into the "stoppage time" fifth round, finishing at 4-1 +298. His opponent in that final round? None other than his own brother. Their matchup progressed not in their usual high-scoring fashion, but instead, in a more somber way; Thomas was held bingoless in a 356-366 defeat. Charles, meanwhile, got down two high-probability bingos, ROSEATE and ANTLERED. Excluding that game, Thomas had a very productive night, including his own two-on-one against Dennis Lloyd and Helen Flores. Dennis fared quite well, losing 432-460 despite getting outbingoed four to one (the one being FINDINGS, the four being TWANGLE, LAVATION, REGRINDS, and RADULAS). Helen did not fare quite so well, but put up a fight in her 349-453 loss, playing REMOUNTS. Meanwhile, Thomas added three more bingos to his substantial collection: UNAKITE, ROBORANT, and CLAUSIVE (PLAUSIVE is valid).

3rd Aaron Bader scanned the horizon for any sign of Mark Kenas' return; finding nothing but blowing tumbleweeds, he reluctantly turned back to the playing room to play four games using the neutered dictionary. Despite his disappointment, he put together a solid 3-1 +273 record. Aaron started off strong, beating Barb Besadny 426-294. However, his win was tainted by a phony of EUPHROS, played in addition to the perfectly valid RUSTLED. UPHROES and EUPHROES are both acceptable spellings of that word, which is a part of a boat. Only valid bingos were played in the course of a 503-357 drubbing of Lynda Finn: CHORINE, PLACATER, FORESTS, and MODERNLY. The single blemish on Aaron's scoresheet (other than the miscalculated spreads [just kidding, Aaron didn't do that this week]) was a loss to Thomas Reinke, 349-423. Aaron got down the strange-looking EOBIONTS, but received no extra points for playing an uncommon word. In the same vein, Thomas was not deducted any points for his prosaic finds of REWAXES and DRIVELS. New rule proposal: if nobody in the room knows the definition of the word you just played, you get ten extra points.

New bingos played this week were RANTINGS (Charles), EENSIER (Gail), and DANCIER (Joe). Barb Besadny only played one bingo, but made it count, with a 122-point triple-triple of RETIREES against Susan Vergeront.

Bryan Benwitz Repeats

1st Bryan Benwitz followed up his victorious session last week with an even more dominating performance this week, going 4-0 +219. He flexed his bingo muscles early in his 396-297 win over Susan, wasting little time in playing the vowel-heavy Word of the Week, FILARIAE (n. FILARIA a parasitic worm). A close endgame in the second round resolved in his favor against Thomas, with him winning 411-406. His bingos of REPLETE and EPSILONS were helpful, but a late high-scoring J play sealed the deal. An abnormally low-scoring 345-333 over Aaron was aided by his dual phonies of CORDOBAN (an erroneous combination of CORDOBA (n.a monetary unit of Nicaragua) and CORDOVAN (n. a fine leather)) and SLOTHED. I figure that once one knows as many words as Bryan does, some are bound to get corrupted in the archives. Bryan's perfect night was on the line against Joe, but, showing supreme poise and confidence, he again came out the winner, 452-349. It is known amongst the club membership that losing to a Reinke constitutes getting "Reinked". Perhaps it is time to coin a new term, "Benwitzed"? Just something to think about.

2nd Thomas Reinke, after failing to place last week, returned to Attic Angels with vengeance on his mind, going 4-1 +673. His first-round matchup against Joe was marked by a 3-0 advantage in bingos, with him winning 440-342. (Joe had the same thing happen in his next game against Gail, but managed to win himself, so maybe bingos aren't everything? Nah, they're everything.) Enraged by his loss to Bryan, Thomas took out his frustrations on Lynda and Barb in the third round, winning the games of the two-on-one by a combined 504 points. On a night of prosaic bingos for Thomas, his play against Barb of ERRHINE (n. a substance that promotes nasal discharge, GROSS!!!!!) stands out. The traditional "fourth round brother battle" ended in his favor, 446-380. The most notable occurrence of that game was an early board configuration (apologies for formatting):

  A
AJEE
   I

I don't know, I thought it was neat. Or something.

3rd Charles Reinke followed up his 2rd place performance last week with a 3rd place performance this week, marking the start of a disturbing trend which clearly signals a deterioration of his game. Pulling double duty in the first game, he distributed his bingos unequally, playing 3 against Gail and none against Dave, resulting in a loss. Dave found the nice word APLOMBS to help ensure the win. A total of 6 bingos were played in his 519-370 win against Lynda, OUTRIDER (n. a mounted attendant who rides beside a carriage), STIMIED, ALIENATE, and MELTONS for Charles, BEPAINT and INTONING for Lynda. He then stimied David's chance at a perfect night, defeating him 488-268. Charles' play of ETIOLATE (v. to whiten) made a large difference; bingoing without having a "bingo rack" can swing games quickly.

No new bingos were played this week, but a whole bunch of old bingos were played, so no biggie.