Somebody has to Stop Thomas Reinke but Nobody Can

1st Thomas Reinke extended his latest winning streak to nine in a row with another impressive showing, this time going 4-0 +424 and averaging 499 (so close!) per game. His lowest score output of the night came in a 482-389 victory over Andy Bohnsack, which by itself describes what kind of night he was having. That game saw Andy get down two bingos of MISHEARD and STUTTER, but Thomas one-upped him with three bingos of his own: NONCRIME, NUTCASE, and almost-word-of-the-week TALLITIM (n. TALLIT, a Jewish prayer shawl). A game against Charles Reinke (no relation) ended with a slightly larger margin as Thomas took that one 511-405. A 158-point play (in this case, SICKENED) is always tough to claw back from, as Charles found out: his relatively high-scoring bingos of MARCATO and IRONISTS scored a combined 168, but weren't nearly enough. Thomas wrapped up his undefeated record with his highest score of the evening (and his sixth-highest this year), 521 against Dennis Lloyd's resilient 410. Thomas had EARLAPS, HARVESTS, and SEDATED (against Dennis' DECOYING and LOANINGS) to secure the victory for the forces of good.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 4-1 +293. The single loss against his brother is described above; the rest of his games had a much happier outcome (for him, anyway). Charles opened up with a 399-322 win over the temporarily-returned Joe Horowitz (don't get too excited; he has to go back to Philadelphia soon!). The two bingos on the board at the end of that game were both Charles': DASHING and DOBLONES (plural of DOBLON - don't play DOBLONE!). Simultaneously with that game, Charles took on Dave Gilligan as part of a two-on-one, and won that game as well, 481-332. Charles' fine outing culminated with a 502-376 match versus Lynda Finn; a single bingo of COURTIER by Lynda could not hold up to Charles' three bingos of SWANNED, SEPTICAL, and word of the week MOVIEDOM.

3rd Andy Bohnsack went 3-2 +131, but averaged just 384 points per game, well below his average of 427 on the year. His average score took the biggest hit when he lost 313-416 against Dennis Lloyd. In the course of his win, Dennis discovered the second most important secret to beating Andy (the first being to place tiles on the board for lots of points): try to bingo more often than he does. It worked: Andy managed a lowly ETALONS, while Dennis got down SCRUMMED and SNITCHED. Andy redeemed his record in the fourth round when he was the "one" in a two-on-one matchup against Helen Flores and Dave Gilligan. Neither opponent of Andy's managed to get a bingo down or score over 300 as he won both, 412-275 against Dave and 385-293 against Helen. Andy showed off his high-probability bingo knowledge with finds of TAENIAE, PTERINS, VARIATE, and RANGERS in the two games.