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1st Bryan Benwitz romped in the absence of a certain pair of high-scoring experts, going 4-0 +320. His first game was also his lowest-scoring, a 389-308 win against Gail Salm where he played the nice find of NITCHIE (its anagram, ICHNITE, also would have been a nice find). Gail had LIMNERS to even up the bingo count despite the loss. Bryan moved on to win a tough game against Dave Gilligan 436-394, again persevering through a game where his opponent got the same amount of bingos as he did (FISTULAE and DEXTERS for Bryan, AROINTS and STRIVED for Dave). Those skills of perseverence were put to the ultimate test in the next game against Betty Hasselkus, where Bryan was out-bingoed two (ORANGES, DEVOTION) to one (UNFRAMED) yet prevailed 413-385. This hardly shatters the conventional "bingoing is good" wisdom, but it does make one think, doesn't it? Bryan put a cap on his undefeated club session with a much larger margin of victory than his previous three games, beating Helen Flores 438-309 and playing DIPTERON and ENFORCE in the process.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-1 +92 and scored above 400 in all his games, bringing his streak of consecutive 400-point games to...seven. He started off with a tight 441-436 victory over Mark Kenas. The fact that the played in the Collins dictionary was not apparent from their bingo lists, which contained only "conventional" words: ENIGMAS and WOORALI for Aaron vs. LENTOID and STOWAGE for Mark. Aaron then went up against Mark Kenas in round two, defeating him 487-375 thanks to bingos of ENTRANT and STOCCATI (which is not good in any dictionary except for "the dictionary of phonies that Aaron has played"). After that big win, Aaron squared off against Mark Kenas and again scored in the upper 400's, winning 477-452. However, this game was again marred by a total phony of FORECAT, to go with LOURIEST# (LOURY doesn't compare in our dictionary) and SQUALENE. Aaron went into the last round looking for the perfect 4-0, but was turned away from this goal by a rust-free Mark Kenas, 416-466. All this despite getting three bingos (NEUTRAL, RESPRANG, and TATSOIS) to Mark's single BEWHORING#.

Betty's TUTORAGE was picked as word of the week.

1st Charles Reinke enjoyed a second-straight undefeated evening with a 4-0 +290 record. What better way to build momentum for Nationals than to win eight club games in a row? He started things off with a handy victory over Dave Gilligan, 441-314. Charles played SENECIO and IMPALES (the latter for 94 points, the highest-scoring bingo of the night since there were no triple-triples), while Dave got down TRICKLED. That win was followed up with a low-scoring contest against Thomas Reinke which ended 366-341 in Charles' favor. While both involved players averaged over two bingos per game, each played just one, WAVELETS for Charles and BROODERS for Thomas. Charles returned to form in the very next game by defeating Bryan Benwitz 459-390, playing BILGIEST and the low-probability find of BLACKFIN (also chosen as word of the week). Somewhat surprisingly, there are nineteen other eight-letter words containing the (apparently synergistic) BCFK combo, including BEEFCAKE and PUFFBACK. The perfect club session was completed with a 414-345 win against Helen Flores, which was closely-fought despite Charles outbingoing Helen two to nothing (HATTERIA [a reptile] and OLDSTER).

2nd Aaron Bader did some switch-hitting between two dictionaries, but wasn't phased by the task, and finished at 3-1 +206. His opening-round game against Mark Kenas was his only loss, as Mark took him down 440-353. The two players squandered the extra opportunities that the Collins dictionary gives them by only playing TWL bingos: PUTTIERS and ALMONER for Mark, POCOSENS for Aaron. Aaron then switched to TWL in a contest against Lynda Finn, which he won 432-371. COURANTE and LENDABLE were his bingos in that one. In the third round, Aaron was given the rare chance to play a Collins player who wasn't Mark and took full advantage of it, beating the visiting Mike Johnson 498-368. The margin of victory is even more impressive when you consider that Mike jumped out to a 100-point lead with three bingos in his first four turns: ARGENTAL, NEONATES, and DOUANIER# (Collins-only). Aaron would also end up getting three bingos: MISFARE#, LOAVING#, and RESHINES. Aaron wrapped up his second-place finish with a re-encounter with Mark that ended up better for him than the first encounter; he won 472-364. Again, only TWL bingos were played: Aaron's SNOOTED and UNROBING to Mark's ANELING and SAGUARO.

3rd Mary Becker grabbed third place with a 3-1 record, although the joy of third place may be slightly tempered by her -76 spread. Her first-round matchup against Gail Salm was also her highest-scoring, as she scored 439 (to Gail's 398) and had two bingos (ADVISES and GRANTED). Gail, for her part, also got down two bingos: WIRIEST and RECEDING. Things then went off the rails a little bit as Mary didn't bingo in a 292-510 loss to Bryan Benwitz, who had ANSATED, TELNETS, and RETUNING to help him run away with it. Mary returned to form in her next game as she defeated the visiting Vicki Holmes 405-346, playing CARDING along the way. The trend of not showing any hospitality to visitors whatsoever continued in her final game when she took down Mike Johnson 380-338. Her one bingo that game, SURRIES, turned out to be phony, and everybody knows that the least hospitable thing you can do to visiting Scrabble players is phony them. For reference, SURREYS, SERRIES and DURRIES are all acceptable.

1st Charles Reinke played some Scrabble well enough to win all of his games, his 4-0 +373 record good for first place. His closest game of the night came in the first round, where he beat Gail 444-412. Gail played REMISING and RESTORE, while Charles played the nine-letter RENDITION as well as DISCANTS. He then proceeded to drop a 500-burger on Bryan, winning 511-314. His bingos in that game were typical Charles fare: FETERITA (n. a kind of sorghum), ONEIRIC, and CASITAS. Would it hurt for him to play some normal -ERS or -ING bingos once in a while? After that, he came out ahead in a relatively low-scoring 412-340 contest against Thomas. Wins against that familiar opponent have been in short supply lately for him (except, it should be noted, in tournament settings), so this had to feel good, or at least slightly better than neutral. In the final game, the game for all the marbles, the game to see who would earn the prestigious first paragraph in the writeup, he faced Dennis and won 431-359. Charles' defense near the end of the game ensured that Dennis' bingo-prone racks didn't fit on the board.

2nd Bryan Benwitz returned to his usual 3-1 record after a two-week absence, earning second place as the only person with that exact amount of wins and losses. He started off strongly by ending Thomas' 12-game winning streak, 437-347. His play of ORTHICON (n. a type of television tube) for 97 big points near the end of the game was the key in that victory. Things took a dramatic turn south against the other twin, but the good news is that things took a re-turn back north against Gail in the third round, where he won 440-379. He played MANDATED and QUARRIES, while Gail got ACERATED (adj. needle-shaped, also ACERATE, ACEROSE, and ACEROUS in case you ever find yourself short on adjectives to describe your needle collection), SPEERING, and ENSERFS. Bryan held on one of those (not sure which) for a long time, but eventually made the right decision to let it go, since all of them are acceptable, and it doesn't usually pay to challenge Gail anyway. Bryan concluded his night with a 405-308 win over Betty, countering her WARMEST with VERSION. No word on whether the A, E, IN, RE, SUB, PER, AMBI, RETRO, CARDIO, or SEROCON extensions were put on the front of that last one. No, I don't know what SEROCONVERSION means.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +511, sneaking into third ahead of Dennis. His dreams of yet another undefeated session were quickly thwarted by Bryan, as he lost 347-437. He played WARINESS and AREOLATE (adj. just absolutely covered in areolas) in that game. He got right to work on another streak, because in the second round, he faced both Helen and Betty, and held them both bingoless as he won both contests. His new streak came to a much quicker end than his last one when he lost 340-412 to Charles. The biggest game of the night, and of the club year so far, came in the last round, as he scored 691 against Gail. PANTOFLE (n. a slipper), ELATERID, EPIDOTE, BEDIZENS, and VENULOSE were his bingos.

Aaron played the word-of-the-week, QUEASILY, as a triple-triple worth 239 points. That's the second highest scoring bingo played since we started keeping track, and it helped him beat Mark 509-469.