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Andy Bohnsack Proves Versatility by Not Bingoing That Much but Still Winning Them All

1st Andy Bohnsack "only" bingoed seven times en route to an undefeated 4-0 +263 performance. He handed Mary Becker her only loss, 445-374 despite only getting one bingo (TOPLINE) to Mary's two (ENLARGE and WRENCHES). A subsequent game against Gail Salm was higher-scoring still, ending at 494-365. Andy got down HEARTILY and SOPRANI to counter Gail's WACKIER and SOOTIER. Then, the bingo drought returned in a compelling matchup between the two remaining 3-0 players. Andy ended up prevailing over Thomas Reinke by a score of 401-382 and made the most out of his singular bingo, a 140-point 3x3 of UPRAISES. Thomas was able to play GOATIEST and SOLATED in his losing effort. After enduring somewhat of a slump recently, Andy has bounced back to win thirteen of his last fifteen games.

2nd Richard Lauder got down an impressive thirteen bingos and averaged 448 points per game (70 points above his yearly mark) to finish 4-1 +467. He did not start off his night quietly, dismantling Leslie Seltzer 463-293 with words like INSPIRED, GLOSSIER, and DREARIER. They weren't many points by themselves, but those bingos will add up fast. Richard got a taste of his own medicine when he was soundly defeated by Thomas Reinke, 332-519. Watching helplessly as his opponent pulled DUOTONE, AEROGELS, CERATINS, VIOLATER, and ANDESITE out of the bag, Richard could only muster SPARKED from his own rack because somebody else was hogging all the bingo tiles. Thankfully, the spread lost in that game was gained back and then some in a last-round matchup between Richard and Dave Gilligan. Richard found TARRIES, RESONATE, BATTLES, and FRIGGED in a 566-223 victory which is his largest this year, both by score and point margin.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +400, finishing ahead of three players who had identical records but smaller spreads. A large chunk of that spread came against the ever-gracious Sue Goldstein in a contest that ended with a final score of 516-257. Charles cruised with CANTEENS, TREATED, and DREARIER being his bingos for the game. Three more bingos were on tap for a throwdown against Peter Schmiedicke, and the outcome was similarly positive for Charles: 489-349 was what the scoresheets read after the fists stopped flying. EPOXIES was Peter's lone bingo and it was easily surpassed by Charles' CRUNODAL, GREISEN, and TARDIVE. A matchup against Thomas Reinke was as ill-fated as the previous four had been, with Thomas clearly coming out ahead, 432-374. For two players who average over two bingos per game, there weren't many bingos played: Thomas had CLARIES and OUTDRANK while Charles only had FIGTREE.

Mark Kenas, Thomas Reinke, and Mary Becker also had 3-1 records. Mark Kenas should be commended for hitting the 600-point mark in a 617-334 Collins-dictionary win against Aaron Bader. Mark played DATEDLY, STABLES, NONHERO, EROTISE#, and ERINITES#.

Lynda Finn ended up playing the Word of the Week, VLOGGERS, in a loss against Richard. VLOGGERS was only recently added to the dictionary and means "One that blogs video material". The other new words played were GOATIEST (Thomas), FIGTREE (Charles), and COLORISE (Peter).

Charles Reinke Leads Diminished Group of Diehards

1st Charles Reinke, cooped up inside and watching the beautiful day elapse right in front of his eyes, finished 3-1 +374 for first place among a group of just ten players. He scored the only 500-point game of the evening when he stomped Dave Gilligan by a score of 553-266. His three bingos in that game were AMNESIAC (don't remember the definition), FIRELIT, and BOASTER. Dave was unfortunately held bingoless. A contest against Peter Schmiedicke was much closer at 457-395; again, Charles had three bingos: EROTICS, UNIDEAED (adj. lacking ideas), and RINGSTER. This time, however, Charles had to contend with some bingos from his opponent, namely NEATEST and DIATRON. Only Thomas Reinke could muster the firepower to defeat the eventual first-place finisher, winning that game 448-426. In a turning of fate, Thomas was the one to get three bingos: EMULSOID, MEWLING, and PROTEAN. Charles got down PANIERS and TRYSTER. Thomas has now won fifteen of the last twenty contests between these two.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +246, easily outdoing the other 3-1 finisher for second place. He played a low-scoring game against Peter Schmiedicke which finally ended in Thomas' favor, 366-319. Peter played INDORSE to Thomas' nice find of SAYONARA. The thirty bonus "style points" really came in handy on that one. Thomas recovered from the sting of that low score by roundly defeating Helen Flores 499-257. ANTHESIS for 94 points inflicted most of the damage, but AINSELL (Scottish dialect for "one's own self") wasn't bad either. Thomas' singular loss came at the ruthless tile-drawing hand of Andy Bohnsack, 387-452. The bingo count was even at two apiece: SNAILED and DIVULSED for Andy, UNDELETE and ELOIGNS for Thomas. With the win, Andy pulled closer to evening up the lifetime series: it stands now at 37 wins for Thomas, 36 for Andy. Of course, by "lifetime", we mean "since 2011". For all we know, Andy won fifty straight before that.

3rd Andy Bohnsack had a self-described "sad" 3-1 performance with only a +57 cumulative. Things started off badly with a 444-377 game against Dave Gilligan, a game only made respectable by Andy's 70-point out-bingo of LEARNER. Dave, meanwhile, bingoed consistently throughout the game with ERASION, WETSUIT, and SADDENS (an appropriate word to describe Andy's mental state at the time the word was played). Things began to look up for Andy in the next game as he defeated Gail Salm 411-353. Gail played DRIVELS and WILIEST; Andy countered with RONDELS and RAINIER. Fingernails everywhere were bitten and bloodied during Andy's next game against Bryan Benwitz, which ended up with just a one-point difference in scores, 422-421. Bryan got down TAGLINE early, but Andy clawed his way back with GRANTORS, POINTES, and DEAMEANS. A win is a win, but it certainly didn't help Andy's spread very much.

Peter Schmiedicke played the nine-letter DEBUTANTE (off of DE on the board) for Word of the Week. Two bingos from the new dictionary were played: Charles' RINGSTER (a member of a price-fixing ring) and Thomas' UNDELETE (v. to cancel the deletion of).

Andy Bohnsack Discovers the Joys of Winning

1st Andy Bohnsack finished atop the weekly standings thanks to his 4-0 +157 performance, beating some very formidable opponents along the way. He got his biggest game out of the way quickly, a 478-321 first-round drubbing of Charles Reinke. Charles's sole bingo was also a phony, SARIOUS (this is the second time Charles has gotten away with this "word"; SOUARIS is the word in that rack), but Andy had no reason to challenge as he had built up a comfortable advantage with his bingos of RECLINER, TIERCES, and REUSING. Continuing the theme of repeat phonies, Andy played the phony JADEITIC in the course of his 436-359 victory over Peter Schmiedicke, the second time that Andy has slipped that particular misspelling past his opponent (JADITIC is the true adjectival form of JADEITE). Andy was able to take part in a game with no phony bingos when he beat Gail Salm in a high-scoring contest, 431-411. Gail's WAISTED and PIROGEN, along with Andy's CITTERNS, AERIEST, and TRENDIER were all perfectly valid words.

2nd Aaron Bader averaged a session-leading 443 points per game and ended his night at 3-1 +420 [marijuana joke goes here]. He, too, was a phonying phonier, playing UNSLOWED to contribute unjustly to his win against Thomas Reinke, 419-334. To atone, Aaron also played the Word of the Week ANORTHITE in the same game. Thomas played EMOTION for not nearly as many style points. Against Barb Besadny, Aaron pulled out all the stops, resulting in a 552-268 final score that didn't even qualify as the highest score of the night (Peter Schmiedicke scored 558 in one of his games). Aaron's bingos (DISPOSER, ENDPLATE, and RUCOLAS) were supplemented by a generous helping of power-tile bombs that combined to create his ridiculous final total. First-place finisher Andy Bohnsack was the proud supplier of Aaron's only loss, with their game ending at an oddly low score of 348-389.

3rd Thomas Reinke also went 3-1, but his miniscule spread of +36 was much lower than Aaron's; thus, he is relegated to the bottom of the writeup. In the clash of the brothers, Thomas defeated his twin Charles by just one point, 404-403. Thomas played DEHISCE for nearly 100 points (actually just 99); Charles got down BERIMES and LEOTARD. Outbingoed again by Bryan Benwitz, Thomas managed to win again, 442-414. Bryan's JOINDERS, CHORTENS, and SCARRING could not prevail against Thomas' RELOCATE and GROSSING. Abiding by the old adage "save the best for last", Thomas' highest-scoring game came in the last round when he defeated Richard Lauder 482-390. Richard scored himself some triple-triple money with his play of HOARIEST for 122 points, but Thomas was not undone by this high-scoring play, and ended up with three bingos of his own: RESTART, LASERING, and SAPIENCE.

We also welcomed back Steve Busalacchi after a decade-long (or more) hiatus. He did win one game in his return, 401-285 against Helen Flores.

Just two bingos from the new dictionary were played this week: RUCOLAS (Aaron) and LASERING (Thomas).