Lynda Finn Warning Issued For South-Central Wisconsin Starting at 6:00 PM CDT

1st Lynda Finn put together her second undefeated performance of the year, finishing with a 4-0 +295 record and scoring above 400 in all of her games. Along the way, she fearlessly took down some of the club's most feared players. A bout against Thomas Reinke ended in her favor by a score of 459-411; Lynda's 110-point MACHINED not only secured the victory, but also was the highest-scoring bingo of the night, and an 85-point RETSINA didn't hurt either. After that point, Lynda decided that two bingos wasn't enough for her, so she played three such plays (TAENIAS, ELEPHANT, and ENLISTER) while taking down Aaron Bader, 474-401. Aaron had DATEABLE as well as a late VIRELAIS to make the final tally somewhat respectable. In the final round, Lynda faced off against fellow undefeated player Charles Reinke, knowing that the outcome of their match would determined who attained the coveted "first paragraph" honor in the writeup. Even in the face of that immense pressure, Lynda kept it cool, and cruised to a 401-333 victory. Lynda's recipe for success? Bingo three times while preventing your opponent from bingoing even once. More people should try that strategy.

2nd Aaron Bader went 4-1 +524, just one Lynda loss away from a perfecter-than-perfect 5-0 finish. He came tantalizingly close to his third 600-point game at our club, but fell six points short in a 594-261 win over Helen Flores. No triple-triples were played, but four ordinary bingos of RISTRAS, ADULTERY, EROTICA, and LINEATE revealed themselves to Aaron. Presumably some additional high-scoring plays were sprinkled in there as well. Subsequent games failed to live up to that standard, but that's what you get when you selfishly score so many points in your first game. A game against Gail Salm saw only one bingo on the board, Gail's LARGEST, but it was still a 369-282 win for Aaron. A final-round encounter with Bryan Benwitz was more typical of Aaron's style; that game ended in an Aaron win, 488-394. He got down TENANTED, FADEOUTS, and SOOTHES, nearly making up for the game where he didn't get any bingos at all.

3rd Charles Reinke assembled a 3-1 +205 record, which seems pretty good until you look at the previous week's results. He was poised for another undefeated night until he was turned away by Lynda Finn in the final game. His first-round meeting with Bryan Benwitz saw both players show off their knowledge of high-probability bingos (TEOPANS, ARSENIDE, and PUERILE for Charles; EDITIONS and TUTELAGE for Bryan); since Charles had one more bingo than Bryan, it follows that the winning margin was roughly the size of an average bingo, 451-385. Another bingoey game was played against Dave Gilligan, a game which Charles also won, 454-387. Dave got down ROTATING and GREASIER, but Charles' 100-point OXALATE, along with OVARIAL and ICTERUS, proved to be just too many points. Charles' third and final victory was against Gail Salm, 475-335. To prepare for the upcoming bingo-less game against Lynda, Charles played four bingos against Gail: FORTUNED, RETINITE, REACTANT, and LOIASES.

Bryan's VENENOSE (adj. poisonous) was chosen as word of the week.