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.