Charles Reinke Excels at Board Game

1st Charles Reinke uncorked a business-as-usual 3-1 +260 record to achieve the coveted "first paragraph in writeup" award. The lowest scoring of his wins also saw him get his largest winning margin in a 453-325 win over Lynda Finn. Lynda had HEISTER for 85 but Charles' SIGHLESS and NONACTOR were a plenty powerful counterpunch. The bingos truly began to flow during a game between Charles and his brother; an out-bingo of PROTOZOA resulted in a 534-448 win for the C-Twin, but Charles had three other bingos in addition to the three that Thomas contributed. Among Charles' list of bingos was the oddly high-probability phony BOTTIES. Fourth-place finisher and paragraph non-receiver Bryan Benwitz handed Charles his only loss, 457-404. Bryan's high-scoring QUARRIES, the only Q-bingo of the evening, was the third nail in the coffin for Charles: the other two nails were DIALECTS and BRAUNITE.

2nd Aaron Bader finished at 3-1 with a somewhat lesser spread of +239, a number that would undoubtedly be higher if he were allowed to use all of the fancy Collins words that inhabit his brain. Aaron's evening started off with a whimper when Charles Reinke took him down 388-487 thanks in part to a 110-point double-double of SLEAZIER. Fortune then decided to smile on Aaron, and he pummeled Gail Salm with four bingos (EPITAXY, ELUSION, LEGONGS, and DEPOSERS) en route to a massive 556-374 victory. Simultaneous to that game, Aaron was a little more restrained in his win over Andy Bohnsack, a game which ended with a subdued 414-357 final score. A 102-point BROACHED for Aaron was apparently enough points to make up for the fact that he failed to get an additional bingo.

3rd Thomas Reinke faced a murderer's row of opponents and emerged from the struggle with an impressive 3-1 +157 record, not to mention eleven bingos. Three of those eleven (PECORINO, AREOLATE, and RESITING) were unleashed in a 447-410 opening-round win against Andy Bohnsack, but at that point, nobody had any idea that Thomas' bingo output would pretty much stay constant throughout the night. Even a loss against Charles saw Thomas get down OUTSAIL, LINEAGE, and PARAMENT (sadly never hooked to make PARAMENTA). Thomas finished up his strong performance by easily cruising past Lynda Finn, 497-361. NETTIEST, NIELLOED, and HOOPSTER comprised a trio of bingos from which a victory could not be snatched away.

Charles' PROTOZOA was selected as word of the week. No bingos from the new dictionary were played, but there was a confirmed sighting of PO, so the new words aren't totally useless.