It Seems Like Thomas Reinke's Winning Streak Just Ended, And Here He is at Eight Again

1st Thomas Reinke won all four of his games for the second week in a row.  He made quick work of Dave Gilligan, 448-318, despite just one bingo of MORGENS for 94 points.  Dave played BOULDER for a fair share of his own point total.  He put together a similar performance against Andy Bohnsack, again playing fewer bingos than we are accustomed to seeing from him (just REBOOTS), but snagging the win anyway, 439-337.  The bingo train got back on the rails when he unleashed four of them against Charles Reinke (no relation), easily walking away with victory in hand, 471-372.  Those four bingos were NOISOME, DANEWORT, VALETING and NONWORD (is that irony?); Charles played ALGICIDE for a helpful 94 points.  With this undefeated performance and Aaron Bader's absence, Thomas is now in first place in the yearly standings.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +339, amassing plenty of spread points even after a near-100 point loss to his similarly-named nemesis.  He started off his evening with back-to-back 500-point games, guaranteeing a successful outing.  Against Bryan Benwitz, he pulled out all the stops, delivering a sizable walloping with a final score of 566-308.  Bryan got NERVOUS in his losing effort; Charles played STAIDER, GAUFFERS (anagram SUFFRAGE), and the highest-scoring bingo of the evening, METALIZE for 108 points.  Then, versus Peter Schmiedicke, the score was a slightly less dominant 502-342.  Peter got fancy with REALIZER and DEVIANTS, but it was no use: Charles played ADEEMING, TRIHEDRA, and ISOLATE.

3rd Bryan Benwitz took the anguish from his first-round loss and used it as fuel for his future Scrabble conquests, ending at 3-1 +145.  Helen Flores was not spared, and suffered a 467-304 loss brought about by Bryan's SENARII, BLINDER, and MANIFEST.  Bryan's cumulative, which remained negative through the first three games, was finally pushed back into positive territory following a severe whupping brought down on Peter Schmiedicke, 560-354.  Peter played STEARIN (one of the less-popular of the nine words in AEINRST), but it hardly mattered as Bryan coolly laid down four bingos of his own: FANCIES, RETCHING, URANITES, and word-of-the-week YEOMANRY.  Bryan and Charles were tied for Bingo King with ten each.

Sue Goldstein: Undefeated, Perhaps Undefeatable

1st Sue Goldstein easily swept her three games, finishing 3-0 +272, her highest spread total since a +397 in 2012.  Sharlie Miura came closest to defeating Sue, but the nature of the word "undefeated" indicates that it wasn't meant to happen, with Sue pevailing 310-293.  A much bigger score was needed after that low-scoring affair, and the tile gods agreed, with Sue defeating June Scott 422-267.  A bingo of TRAINERS for 74 points certainly helped in that regard.

2nd Aki Miura went 1-1 -22.  Sue Goldstein beat him by an even hundred, 264-364, but redemption was partially achieved in his defeat of June Scott, 313-235.