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Thomas Reinke Halts Brother's Streak in Furious Fashion

1st Thomas Reinke put together a rather dominating performance, going 4-0 +634 and averaging 485 points per game. The best was certainly not saved for last when he devastated Dennis Lloyd in their first-round matchup, 549-310. Dennis got down BERATING, but a flood of bingos from his opponent (DEODARS, INSANER, PRERADIO, and SESTINE) swept away any changes of winning. Thomas then applied similar amounts of rage on Andy Bohnsack, just squeaking over the 500-point barrier with a 501-303 victory. Andy did attain Word of the Week honors with GHERKINS, but it was no consolation at the time as Thomas was able to play SAUCIEST, VIRELAY (n. a medieval French verse used in poetry, also VIRELAI), TRENDOID, and TROPICS. The 500-point barrier was just out of reach when Thomas met up against his brother Charles, but it didn't matter; a 499-349 final score is decisive enough as it is. Both combatants got down two bingos: SILTIER and PRAEDIAL for Charles, PACIFIER and FAINTER for Thomas.

2nd Charles Reinke won his first three games to build up an 11-game winning streak, but his luckless encounter with his brother in the fourth game put an end to that. for displaying the heroism necessary to end the streak, Thomas now has a fat wad of five one-dollar bills taking up space in his pocket, while Charles was awarded $6 for his efforts (10 wins = $5, each win after 10 = $1). Helen Flores might also be deserving of some money after losing a high-scoring game against Charles, 433-462. In a change of pace, she out-bingoed Charles, playing AUREOLE, ATONIES, and GELATIN to Charles' SUNBELTS and RETRACE. Charles' bingo mojo was restored, however, when he faced off against Andy Bohnsack and unleashed a firestorm of bingos upon him, winning 569-362 thanks to WAITERED, ISATINE, LOGGIAS, RIBANDS, and FLEECING. Andy contributed to the abundance of bingos by playing OUTEARNS and RELOANED.

3rd Gail Salm departed early due to work obligations, but made the most of her three games, going 2-1 -100. Things did not start of well for Gail, with a 275-477 loss to Andy Bohnsack putting her in a 200-point hole. However, she bounced back with a convincing 500-433 victory over Dennis Lloyd. A trio of bingos (FANTAIL, DEVOUTER, and SPONGER) was vital to securing the win, while Dennis' UNLEASED helped him snag one of his two losing scores over 400. Gail's second win came against Richard Lauder, 374-339. A pair of mid-game bingos (WINTRIER and TEENIEST) gave her a lead that would turn out to be insurmountable, even after Richard's LANCERS.

Two new bingos were played this week: HALIOTES (Thomas) and GATCHED (Charles). It is also worth noting that there were no phony bingos played for the entire session. It's easier to do with only 10 people, but still not very easy.

Charles Reinke Pulls Further Ahead in Club Standings, but within His Mind, the Phrase "Eleven Months to Go" Echoes with a Terrible Clamour

1st Charles Reinke went 4-0 +460, clearly deserving of first place on a night where every other player had at least two losses. He couldn't have asked for a better start when he opened up the evening with a 544-364 victory over Richard Lauder, playing MOIDORE (n. a former Portuguese coin), ORGANIC, and ATTAINED to Richard's PENISES and CINDERS. Later, he would defeat a seemingly-unstoppable Dave Gilligan (fresh off wins against Thomas and Andy) by a convincing margin, 454-289. Both players were limited to just one high-probability bingo apiece; BOILERS for Dave, SATINET for Charles. The clean sweep was finally swept cleanly as Charles took down his brother in the fourth and final game, 436-418. Some elite word knowledge was on display for that one, with Charles playing ENVIOUS and CARDING against Thomas' NARROWS and DESTAIN.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a low (for him) 399 per game in going 3-2 +88. As alluded to in the above paragraph, Dave Gilligan was able to score an upset win against the high-powered scoring fiend, 396-353, thanks to bingos of DICIEST and REPRISE (Thomas had COARSER and ATROPINS). Thomas' best game was undoubtedly his encounter with Bryan Benwitz, an encounter that ended with Thomas proudly placing a checkmark in the winners' column and scores of 427 and 353 in the appointed boxes. Bryan got just one bingo, LOAMIEST, but just one bingo isn't usually enough against Thomas, who had three of them, FASTING, PARTNERS, and URBANIZE. A game versus Peter Schmiedicke was a more closely-contested affair, with Thomas prevailing in the end, 408-391. It is interesting to note that all of the bingos played in that game (DELAINE for Thomas, HARVEST and TINWARE for Peter) all have exactly one anagram: ALIENED, THRAVES, and TAWNIER.

3rd Richard Lauder may have had the lowest spread ever to appear in the top three, as he finished with a 3-2 -330 record. His 180-point loss against Charles Reinke is documented above, but even worse than that was a 243-525 drubbing at the callous hands of one Andy Bohnsack. Andy unblinkingly hogged (or stole???) all the bingo tiles, winning the bingo battle 3-0 with finds of ORGIAST, CIGARET, and INANEST. The rest of Richard's games were wins, but not of sufficient magnitude to crawl out of the huge point spread deficit. He downed Gail Salm 398-367 despite again being outbingoed, getting just TOLLERS to Gail's SKULKER and STANINE (anagram of Andy's earlier INANEST). Richard also was victorious against Peter Schmiedicke, 420-389, playing OUTSPED and KNOTTED to counter Peter's SUNDIAL and OVERATE. Their lifetime series now stands at 40-34 in Richard's favor.

No bingos from the new dictionary were played; in fact, very few bingos that could be described as "cool" were played either. Mark Kenas' CRUCIBLE was chosen as word of the week in absence of any other suitable candidates, other than perhaps Gail Salm's low-probability, double-K SKULKER.

Charles Reinke Snags First Place Despite Not Playing Twelve Bingos in Three Games

1st Charles Reinke finished 4-1 with a sizable spread of +524. One look at his opponent's average score of 323 makes it clear how he was able to rack up so much spread. Charles cleverly tanked his first game against Peter Schmiedicke, losing 368-394, in order to play easier competition in the rest of his games. He even went so far as to allow Peter's phony DRYINGS to stay on the board so as to supplement his losing chances. Of course, in the real world, Charles has perfect knowledge of which -ING words take an S. Simultaneous to that game, Charles defeated Betty Hasselkus 490-285, playing the high-probability EULOGIST and ATONIES against Betty's DEITIES. Another 200-point margin was attained against Gail Salm, who fell 307-517. Gail managed to play INCITERS, but Charles ran away with it, playing PLIMSOLE, AREOLES, and the word of the week, OXTONGUE (n. a European herb).

2nd Aaron Bader played just three games, but thoroughly dominated in all of them, playing four bingos and scoring over 500 in each one. Thus, his record of 3-0 +619 might be the best three-game performance in club history. The massacre commenced when Aaron matched up against Barb Besadny and won easily, 531-234, playing GREEDIER (appropriate), EASIEST (also appropriate), GASEITY, and UNPAIRED. His second game, he was matched against an opponent who was also coming off a 200-point win, Gail Salm, but this fact did not cause his resolve to falter, and he cleaned up with a 512-349 victory. His four bingos in that one were GAOLERS, FLEETING, EREMITES, and TRENDERS, the last of which is not good in any human dictionary. Aaron ended his night prematurely with a 527-368 drubbing of top expert Thomas Reinke. The bearded twin got EGESTION and PUNISHES, but lost momentum with a phony BESEIGER (although he will be quick to point out that the correct spelling didn't fit). Meanwhile, Aaron's inability to draw bad tiles continued unchecked, as he played CANDELA, DROOPIER, BRUITERS, and TANTIVY.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 +120 and improved his yearly record to an even 6-6. He got off to a good start by defeating Helen Flores on her home turf, 408-348. PRETEND and MILIEUS (MILIEUX also being acceptable) were his bingos; Helen played ROMANCE and lamented at the fact that it never got extended to the new word, BROMANCE. Against Richard Lauder, Dennis won cleanly, 403-309. Richard had an early two-blank CARRIES, but Dennis pulled ahead for good with his play of ROUSING. Richard was also punished for playing DOLMA thinking that it didn't take an S, as he only knew the "real" plural of the word, which is DOLMADES. Peter Schmiedicke was the only one to hand Dennis a loss, and he did it in convincing fashion, winning 489-356. Despite the gulf between their scores, the two players matched each other bingo-for-bingo: Peter had DRONGOS and TOWERED to Dennis' AILERON and DEVIATE.

Two new bingos were played this week, both by Charles: IONISER and BLEAREST. The club also reached a milestone, having played its 10,000th unique bingo. However, there are still some 46,000 left to be played, and most of the low-hanging fruit (in the form of high-probability words) has been plucked off the tree and consumed, so even 20,000 is probably a decade off.

After a period of inactivity, the club's Facebook page is being resurrected: https://www.facebook.com/Madison-Scrabble-Club-388301582736 . We will try to feature photos of cool plays or other notable things, so if a cool or notable thing happens in your game, snap a picture of it or get one of the twins to do it.