Bryan Benwitz Plays Words that are Worth More than His Opponents' Words

1st Bryan Benwitz, fueled by peanut butter granola bars, enjoyed his second undefeated club session in three tries, going 4-0 +401. He started off strong by beating Gail Salm 451-313, nailing the super-high-probability ARENITE to bolster his winning efforts (as well as the not-quite-as-high-probability STRAYING [anagram STINGRAY]). The large winning margins didn't stop there as Bryan downed Mary Becker 485-278; again, Bryan dipped into his knowledge of high-probability bingos with TENORITE and AIRSIDE. But those two wins, while impressive, weren't quite as impressive as defeating the two top players in the club back-to-back, a feat Bryan achieved in rounds three and four. The first victim was Charles Reinke, who lost by a score of 381-434. Bryan had SANDPIT, OVERSEE, and FUNCTORS (shades of last week's FUNCTOR by Bryan), easily trumping Charles' sole BATARDS. The next and final victim, Thomas Reinke, made the game considerably closer, losing by only three points, 442-445. Bryan again had a trio of bingos (GLOOPIER, PALTRIER, and STRANDS) to bring his total up to ten for the evening; Thomas had WEAKENS and ARBELEST (a medieval crossbow, also ARBALEST and ARBALIST).

2nd Charles Reinke finished with a 3-1 +317 record. Other than a disappointing round three loss to Bryan, he enjoyed relative success against a strong field of players. Michael David tried to make it personal with his bingo of UGLIEST, but Charles overcame adversity to win their match 420-367 (playing BRINIES and DINKIEST). Andy Bohnsack suffered the same fate as Michael before him, but wasn't even allowed the dignity of a bingo as he got shut out in a 316-538 loss. Charles, meanwhile, had DEAERATE, MACULES, and TENORITE, and has now won ten of eleven against "Mr. B". Such a bingo disparity was absent in a game against Aaron Bader (DERINGER and METAMER for Aaron, SINCERE and BIOGENIC for Charles), but it didn't matter as Charles emerged from the fray with a solid 485-390 win.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +117, winning three close-ish games before falling to Bryan in the final round. His largest win was by 67 points over Aaron Bader, 450-383, a game that saw Thomas play a Reinke-esque three bingos of ESTRAYED, ALGINATE, and TROILISM. Aaron exacted some small measure of revenge by getting away with a phony ODORISED. DEODORISED and ODORIZED are good, but there is no third category for "words that are similar to other, valid words", so a phony it must remain. After that came two closer games for Thomas, the first being a 381-355 win over Dave Gilligan where each player just had one bingo (Thomas' APERITIF vs. Dave's ROASTED). The second, against Richard Lauder, was higher-scoring, but just as close: 446-419 was the final. Richard utilized all ammunition available to him with INDUSIA, FRISKETS, and VARIANTS, but just couldn't break through after Thomas' find of ECCLESIA (missing FASCICLE, but who cares?).

Andy Bohnsack also went 3-1 but his +5 spread means that he only gets one little sentence here at the end rather than an entire paragraph.

Helen Flores' great find of VAGABOND was chosen as word of the week.