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1st Thomas Reinke repeated last week's first place finish, again going 4-1 with a +237 spread. A typical Collins-fueled bingo bonanza occurred in round two as Thomas played seven bingos across two games: TORQUING, ENISLED, URBANISE, ATTICIZE, FERMENTS, BRAWNIER, and REMUAGES#. However, only one of those games was a win, a 495-387 victory over lifelong adversary Charles Reinke. The other was a 422-540 loss to Mark Kenas, who had three bingos of his own: TRINARY, OTARINE# (the highest-probability seven letter word in the Collins dictionary), and PLEXUSES for 119. Thomas got his revenge in a rematch against Mark, 504-477, again with both players getting three bingos, which will be listed here even though that amount of bingos is somewhat tedious to type out: DENTILS, RORTIEST#, and SUDARIA for Thomas; EDICTAL, GRANTED, and HIPBONES for Mark. A 527-316 win over Richard Lauder saw Thomas get down a 140-point 3x3 of RELAPSED, after which the rest of the game became a formality. Helen Flores was significantly closer to beating Thomas, losing 370-379. While it is always unethical to "accidentally" make a math error to give yourself ten extra points, in this case Helen would have been justified in attempting such a strategy.

2nd Bryan Benwitz didn't score below 400 in any of his games as he finished at 3-1 +445. Squaring off against John Bialek in round one, Bryan won handily, 484-297, assisted by a valid bingo of ESERINES and an invalid bingo of MUTATERS* (MUTATORS was the word he was going for). Similar success was found against Dennis Lloyd, although this time, both of Bryan's bingos were valid (TRIODES and YEANLING) in his 492-315 win. Another hefty, but not quite as hefty, victory was scored against Dave Kinzer, 437-335. Bryan celebrated Valentine's Day a couple months early with his single bingo of ROMANCE, while Dave got down SPOILING. Sitting at 3-0, Bryan seemed poised to put another 4-0 trophy on his trophy shelf (note: both the trophy and the trophy shelf are metaphorical), but it was not to be; Charles defeated him 427-406 thanks to finds of LINEAGES, RHEOSTAT, and the phony-but-plausible WOKENESS*. WOKER and WOKEST were recent additions to the dictionary, but apparently not WOKENESS.

3rd Dennis Lloyd recovered from his "perfect" 0-5 record last week to go 3-1 +175 this week. It was quickly apparent that his fortunes had changed on this night, as his first game was a 531-338 beatdown administered to Beth Amos, good for Dennis' second-highest scoring game this year. His bingos were HOVERED, SEXTANT, GINGERS, and BETRAYED, and that bingo total of four matches a personal best for Dennis at our club. As punishment for his success against Beth, Dennis lost to Bryan Benwitz 315-492 in the next round, but he got back on track quickly with a win over Wendy Bialek, 428-306. Wendy got down STONERS, while Dennis played ATOMISED and the phony OUTLEAN*, a word which brings to mind another phony that has been attempted out of that set of letters, TOLUANE* (please don't commit that one to memory). Dennis finished up his third-place effort with a bingoless 352-315 win against Richard Lauder.

Mark's nine-letter CANONICAL was word of the week. A valuable learning experience was had by all when an S was hooked on it and a challenge was unsuccessful. CANONICALS is a noun meaning "the official dress of the clergy".

1st Thomas Reinke averaged an obscene 517 points per game while finishing 4-1 +721. He pulled out all the stops right from the start, defeating Richard Lauder 574-343 in the first game. Richard found the high-probability BORNITE and NIDGETS, but was turned away by Thomas' ENDOSARC, MINNEOLA, CORBIES, and APPOSES. Thomas would go on to score above 500 in each of his next three games, only scoring below 500 in a final-round 458-363 win against Sara McLaughlin. A set of games against Mark Kenas yielded a high-scoring win (509-334) as well as a high-scoring loss (507-511). In the loss, Thomas was able to play MELINITE and TAURINE, but Mark bested him with THIOUREA, GENETICS, and GLOTTIC. In the most eagerly anticipated matchup of the night, Thomas faced off against Bryan Benwitz in the battle between the #1 and #2 players in the yearly standings, and the result was heavily in Thomas' favor as he won convincingly, 539-315. Bryan did get a bingo of VANISHED to drag his score above 300, while Thomas had STIBINE, DAGGLES, and word of the week PERIPETY.

2nd Charles Reinke averaged a comparatively wimpy 482 points per game en route to a 4-1 +359 final record. The session started well for him when he played two games at once and took both of them, 488-437 against Mark Kenas and 514-339 against Dennis Lloyd. His six total bingos in those games were GLEAMED, ROGUIEST#, REALTIE#, YULETIDE, EULOGIAE, and ORGIASTS. Sadly, his momentum was extinguished by Bryan Benwitz, who played four bingos (WATERLOO, SCREAMS, EINSTEIN, ATRIUMS) and, as one usually does when one plays four bingos, won the game, 496-437. Charles snagged a well-fought win from Richard Lauder, 465-443, before finishing off his second-place performance with a 505-335 rematch win over Mark Kenas, thanks to finds of GUARDED, SOUGHING, and ARTEFACT.

1st Bryan Benwitz took over the top spot in the yearly club standings with his 4-0 +373 record, thanks to a 3-2 outing from his primary competitor, Thomas Reinke. Could the Reinke streak of dominance which has been ongoing since 2007 finally be at an end? We'll find out over the course of the next month. Bryan established his primacy in round one with a decisive 517-389 win over Charles Reinke, getting down four bingos: EROTIZES, LIFETIME, PALSIED, and LECTORS. Charles, meanwhile, was held bingoless. The bingo situation reversed for Bryan when he faced off against the other twin, but it was still a win for Bryan, 427-404. Thomas had BULIMIC and SALTERN while Bryan was forced to find high-scoring non-bingo plays (such as ZEINS for 91) to stay in the game. Bryan had another 500-point game against Lynda Finn, and as usually is the case when a player scores above 500, he cruised to victory, 503-311. Lynda did find the nice SPICATED, but was drowned (figuratively) by Bryan's FOAMIER, LEGALISE, and MARSHALS. The undefeated night was capped by a lower-scoring 399-369 win over Richard Lauder.

2nd Charles Reinke played six games (thanks to a combination of Thanksgiving-induced low turnout and an odd number of players), and while the stats algorithm had him in first place (given that he had more wins than Bryan), this writer is assigning him to second place with a 5-1 +373 record. After a loss to Bryan early in the night, Charles did not lose another game. In fact, at the same time he was losing big to Bryan, Charles was winning big against Mark Kenas, the final score being 572-377. Charles unleashed four bingos in that one: TOONIES, JIGGIEST, SHIFTER, and ACTURES#. Their rematch in round three was also a big score for Charles, 518-501, and again the bingos were plentiful as he found plays of PLENTIES, SEALERY, and word-of-the-week SYNANON. Synanon was a religious movement/cult for recovering drug addicts, popular in the 1960s, and why it's in the dictionary is anybody's guess. Charles finished his night with another two-on-one where he beat Lynda Finn by a comfortable margin, 447-393, but barely escaped against Ron Malzer, 366-359.