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1st Thomas Reinke stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field with a 4-0 +509 record. He started with a solid 462-460 win against Ron Malzer, getting down the appropriate WORDAGE as well as PRETENDS. Against Mark Kenas, Thomas again scored 462 and again prevailed, as the precepts of mathematics inform us that Mark's 354 points was the lower of the two totals. Thomas had THEELINS, DOVECOTE, and LEGLENS#, while Mark had DROPSIED and ENSOULED. Thomas' closest game came in round three when he came away with the win against Andy Bohnsack, 407-387. Both players reached into the list of new words, as Thomas got NAMASTE, while Andy got CRINGER (CRINGEST is also a word in addition to CRINGERS). But those initial three wins were impotent when compared to the monster win Thomas had in round four, when he rematched against Mark Kenas and completely blew him out, 651-372. Thomas' six bingos didn't really fit in the box on the scorecard, but they definitely fit here where there is effectively unlimited space to type them: NIOBITE, PORTIERE, SOLVING, SCERNED#, COTIJAS (another new one, as previously COTIJA did not take an S), and MOULAGE. That 651 is the highest game score yet this year, beating Mark Kenas' previous 650 by one point.

2nd Richard Lauder bingoed exactly twice in all of his games and ended up at 3-1 +42. In round one, a 92-point TEAZLES (in addition to the much lower-scoring DETAINER for 59) was instrumental in squeaking past Bryan Benwitz, 360-353. His defensive abilities were on display again when he tamped down the high-scoring habits of one Andy Bohnsack, winning their match 428-307 thanks to bingo finds of BIFORATE and TARDIES. Richard's opponents continued to have little luck in the scoring department as Richard casually defeated Lynda Finn by a score of 410-303, this time finding GLORIAS and SALTILY. Unfortunately, Richard's good fortune ran out right at the cusp of a 4-0 record, as Charles Reinke handily beat him in the final round, 474-281. Richard's MURIATES and phony NEOGENIC* (NEOTENIC is a word) were exceeded by Charles' AERATION and DRAWEES, the latter for 104 points.

3rd Charles Reinke bingoed fourteen times en route to a 3-2 +367 finish. His first game against Mark Kenas was a 451-496 loss despite three bingos of PLENISH, INERTIA, and SIDEMAN; Mark had STODGED, SALARIED, and HETEROS to neutralize Charles' presumed bingo advantage. A rematch later in the evening contributed another checkmark to the loss column, as Charles lost to Mark again, 462-466. Again, Charles had three bingos (ALDERMEN, VANADIUM, and RESPROUT) but couldn't pull out the win. Charles made up for those two losses with a pair of wins in the second round, when he took on Dave Kinzer and Bryan Benwitz simultaneously. The game against Dave was somewhat close, 407-373, but the game against Bryan was not close at all, ending 569-380 in Charles' favor. Charles phonied with the reasonable TRIAXAL* (TRIAXIAL, BIAXAL, and BIAXIAL are all good), in addition to OVERNICE, PLEASANT, and REDBONE (Bryan had ALEHOUSE and POSITIVE). Charles' 474-281 win in the final round secured his third-place finish.

Thomas may have stolen the show with his 651-point game, but Bryan wanted to put another entry into the leger of the 600-point club, this time with a 610-338 win over Lynda Finn. Sadly, his 600-pointer was marred by the phony BOOGIERS, and was not only marred but desecrated by the 212-point phony triple-triple MARZAPAN* (correctly spelled MARZIPAN). This takes away "highest scoring phony" honors from Charles Reinke, who played the phony triple-triple REACCESS* for 185 points back in 2015. Also notable was Dennis Lloyd's phony nine-letter word TWEENAGER, which should totally be a word.

1st Bryan Benwitz returned to 2023 form with a spotless 4-0 +291 record. He scored above 400 in each of his four games, starting with a win over Ron Malzer, 407-339. PROTRUDE and TOILETS were his bingos there, while Ron had BRIEFED. Bryan went on to hand Andy Bohnsack his only loss of the evening, 466-364, getting down STILLMAN, BITTERNS, and GREENIE in the process. The bingo spigot continued to flow bountifully as Bryan found three more bingos (HAIRPINS, PIXELATE, AREOLAS) to defeat Thomas Reinke 470-420. If Strength of Schedule was a stat we kept track of, Bryan's final opponent ensured that he had the toughest schedule of all competitors; however, Bryan's scoring prowess remained indomitable as he defeated Charles Reinke 423-352 and cemented his undefeated record. This was despite getting outbingoed two to one (SMARTEN vs. ASTHENIA and IMPLIED).

2nd Andy Bohnsack maintained his top spot in the yearly standings with a not-quite-spotless 4-1 +235 record. His first-round matchup was actually two matchups when he took on Dennis Lloyd and Richard Lauder at the same time. The game against Richard was somewhat of a struggle, but Andy came away with the victory, 353-324. Against Dennis, Andy fared considerably better and took the win comfortably, 448-313, bingoing with SCARVES and RAGOUTED. This success was rewarded with a second-round pairing against Bryan Benwitz, but Andy's luck ran out as he was outbingoed 1-3 and lost 364-466. W's were back on the menu in the final two games as Andy took down Charles Reinke 479-395 (bingoing with KINGLETS, PREORDER, and LAZIEST, the latter scoring an impressive 120 points) and then immediately vanquished Thomas Reinke 535-446. The game against Thomas saw Andy return to his bingo-happy playing style of yore, as he played OUTRATES, VOLATILE, EIRENIC, and DITCHER. If Bryan can be Bingowitz, why can't Andy be Bingohnsack? Hmm, doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

3rd Thomas Reinke rounded out the top three with a 3-2 +136 record. A 459-413 win over Charles Reinke started things off right, although Thomas' bingos of ISATINE and ISOTONES were similar enough in consonant placement so as to be somewhat suspicious (Charles' bingos of ANTLERED, MARVIER#, and ANODISE aroused no such suspicion). Thomas failed to bingo in a game against Sara McLaughlin, but Sara was also starved of bingos and the result was a 409-281 win for Thomas. Suspicious occurrences kept piling up in around three as Thomas played two at once and scored 420 in both of them. One game was a loss (420-470 vs. Bryan Benwitz), while the other was a win (420-319 vs. Dennis Lloyd). Thomas scored well in the final game, and bingoed twice with STRINGED and TEXASES but his 446 points were not enough as Andy Bohnsack bingoed four times (as described above) en route to 535 points.

Sara's SURPRIZE was bingo of the week as she correctly inferred the alternate spelling of the more common SURPRISE.

1st Charles Reinke was the only undefeated with a 4-0 record and a smaller-than-usual +118 spread. He started off with a close 403-387 win over Lynda Finn, getting down ALLUSION while Lynda got PLUNGER and VOYAGERS. In round two, a brotherly brawl against Thomas Reinke was adorned exclusively with Collins-only bingos: Charles had FILANDER# vs. Thomas' THULITES# and GRAINES#. It was a low-scoring game by Collins standards, but still a win for Charles, 396-365. The brotherly brawl part 2 was also close, but much higher scoring, with Charles winning 514-480. Charles' triple-triple of PINACOID# for 149 supplemented his non triple-triples of ENCORED and SEMIOVAL. A 444-407 win versus Bryan Benwitz rounded out Charles' healthy collection of victories.

2nd Richard Lauder showed true grit in coming back from a rough patch of games (2-10 combined in the three sessions previous) to finish 3-1 +206. The night started on a sour note with a 311-460 walloping at the hands of Dave Kinzer. Dave got down BATTENS and SCURRIED, while Richard has UNDERLAP to drag himself above 300. Happily, Richard's fortunes abruptly changed in round two, as he wiped the floor with Helen Flores, playing HOARILY and SAVINES in a 466-306 win. Against Thomas Reinke, Richard found DERIDING and FURRIEST to secure a nailbiting one-point victory, 422-421. Richard was steadfastly unimpressed by Thomas' ultra-high-probability seven-letter plays of SIENITE and ATONIES. Richard finished his strong performance with a lopsided 488-294 win over Francesca Lazio. Richard's four decades of accumulated Scrabble wisdom probably helped, but bingos of BETHELS, OMERTAS, and OFTENER didn't hurt either.

3rd Sara McLaughlin went 3-1 for the third time in five sessions, this time with a +157 spread and a solid 390 average. She played an ever-coveted Q bingo, QUARTILE for 71, in her first round matchup against Sue Goldstein, and won 370-323. Facing off against Francesca Lazio, Sara found PIONEERS and FAINTLY to take a comfortable 424-331 win (Francesca got REMAINS in the losing effort). But true dominance was reserved for round three, where Sara smacked down John Bialek by a score of 477-293, playing another two bingos in the process (DONATED and SHIFTER). Perfection in the form of a 4-0 record was cruelly snatched away when Bryan Benwitz beat her in the last round, 289-456.

Also of note was David Kinzers, 2-1 +224 record, which should have been 3-0 had it not been for a scoring error in round two which was not noticed until the final scores had been tabulated and agreed upon. This writer supposes that some sort of precedent was set by ruling that the scores written down on the players' scorecards were indeed the final scores of the game.