Charles Reinke Reaches Twelve Straight, but Mary Becker Makes Sure it Doesn't Become Thirteen

1st Charles Reinke went 4-1 +559 and averaged 484 per game, but the real news was twofold: his winning streak was extended to twelve (or eleven, depending on how 2-on-1s are counted in the streak), and his winning streak came to an end. The disrupter was none other than Mary Becker, who took down the seemingly unstoppable twin by a score of 427-448. Mary's bingos were UNITIES and ENVIOUS while Charles got down SNARFING and RITUALS. Well before that game, Charles soundly defeated Bryan Benwitz 547-344 despite playing just one more bingo than his opponent (Bryan had ALATION and ANTEDATE; Charles, WAFTAGES, PACIFIER, and UNABUSED. Charles improved on that 203-point margin by demolishing Richard Lauder, his 497 easily eclipsing Richard's 268. IVORIEST, INDICTED, and word-of-the-week ENDOSMOS were Charles' bingos in that one.

2nd Thomas Reinke had a suitably identical win-loss record to his brother's, but his failure to find eighteen more points somewhere meant that he was put in second place. Like his brother, Thomas had a pair of devastating wins. The first was a 476-290 victory versus Dave Gilligan (playing LIGHTEN, CONFETTI, and EASIEST), and the second was a 560-337 romp over Dennis Lloyd (upping the bingo output to four with AUDILES, WOMANIST, OVARIOLE, and CENTAURS). As is frequently the case, one brother was the source of the other's only loss; Charles took the win 470-392, playing the exceedingly low-probability ERASION and GASEOUS to counter Thomas' SOLATIA and SIGHTSEE.

3rd Mary Becker finished at 3-2 +8, benefiting from a fifth game just like the other top-three finishers. Her highest-scoring game of the evening, a streak-busting win against Charles Reinke is already chronicled above, but in case you missed it, Mary triumphed 448-427. Her other 400-point game was a 409-365 victory against Dave Gilligan. The bingo situation in that game was exactly equivalent; both Mary's LINGERS and Dave's STONERS score 65 points. In the category of "close losses" was a 318-319 loss to Sue Goldstein which saw neither player get a bingo.

Only two new bingos were played, and they were actually the same word: both Charles and Gail played IVORIEST in the same round. In another bingo-related oddity, Bryan Benwitz had an opening rack of AAILNOT in two straight games, went second in both, and played ALATION in both once it was his turn. Creepy.