Thomas Reinke, Havoc-Wreaker

1st Thomas Reinke made short work of every opponent he faced, finishing a perfect 4-0 with a sizable +609 spread. He downed Gail Salm 475-335 thanks to a trio of high-probability sevens: AUNTIES, DIOXANE, and POETISE. Gail also got down a high-probably seven of her own, RETOTAL. A game against Peter Schmiedicke was somewhat closer, but still a solid win for Thomas, 420-341. In that one, both players had two bingos: FRONTAL and PONGIEST for Peter, THRONED and YPERITE for Thomas. Most of Thomas' damage was done in his game against Barb Besadny, which he dominated utterly from start to finish, 579-227. That one saw Thomas lay down four bingos, two of which scored over ninety points: NECTARY (97), SUBTILE (92), JIHADIS (86), and EARPHONE (66).

2nd Lynda Finn took the "defense first" route to the top three, finishing 3-1 +275 while allowing only 315 points per game for her opponents. This new strategy was exemplified in a 394-288 victory over Dennis Lloyd. Dennis got down FINESSE a decent score, but otherwise failed to gain any momentum at all; Lynda's INCENTS may have had something to do with that. Another one-bingo-apiece battle was fought against Susan Vergeront, with Lynda again winning in convincing fashion, 433-322. Some more high-probability bingos were played; Susan had AUSTERE, with Lynda contributing NEATEST. Her loss was a low-scoring match against Barb Besadny which ended 333-319 and was lost despite Lynda having played the only bingo on the board, SOOTIER.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +213, and, like his brother, scored above 400 in all of his games. Speaking of his brother, Thomas was the one responsible for Charles' sole loss; their game ended with a final score of 444-406. Thomas bingoed out with ANESTRI to steal the win, having played BARTERED and MODELERS earlier in the contest. Meanwhile, Charles had "just" two bingos of SHOVELS and HAVENED. He fared better against Aaron Bader in a game which he won 494-410, playing the double-double PARTIZAN (same as a PARTISAN) for 114 points as well as the lower-scoring LOWLIFE for 80 (unfortunately never extended to LOWLIFER). Aaron found bingos of RETITLE and PETITES in the losing effort. A 457-324 triumph over Peter Schmiedicke featured yet more high-probability bingos, with Peter getting down FORESIDE and TONEMES to Charles' IMAGOES and NITROSO.

There were a few new bingos to report on this week: JIHADIS (Thomas, also word of the week), LAIRAGE (Bryan), and PONGIEST (Peter).