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1st Mark Kenas enjoyed a rare 4-0 performance, the only undefeated player from a full contingent of 16 competitors. As Mark is limited, by choice, to competing only in the Collins lexicon, his only opponents are an endless cascade of Reinkes, whose combined skill means that Mark never has an "easy" game. However, it was only a matter of time until the stars aligned for an undefeated night, and Wednesday night was the night. Mark began with a 454-400 win over Thomas Reinke, getting bingos of GLADIOLE#, OWLIEST, and SATURATE. A rematch went down to the wire, but Mark prevailed again, 451-448, with bingos of FAIRIER and HORNITOS. This loss was made more painful for Thomas by virtue of the fact that he had given Mark five extra points earlier in the game by challenging a valid word - in the Collins lexicon, the penalty for a lost challenge is not losing a turn, but instead giving one's opponent five free points. Given Mark's propensity for fake words, one can understand why Thomas was so flippant with his challenges. Against Charles Reinke, Mark also did well, winning their first game 500-396 (playing SPINNEY, LIONESS, and TOUZIEST# for 131) and their second 452-415 (playing BARFLIES and ESCROLS#).

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 with a monster spread of +632 and a dizzying per-game average of 489. A first-round loss to Charles Reinke, 404-477, put him in the "losers' bracket" immediately - his bingos of SAUTERNE and DROWSIER couldn't overcome Charles' CENTARE, DARKING, RETORTS, and nine-letter UREOTELIC. UREOTELIC is an adjective meaning "eliminating unneeded nitrogen in the form of urea" and was chosen as word of the week by a unanimous vote of one. Bryan recovered from defeat in violent fashion, unelashing a hellish 631 points against Dave Kinzer, who scored decently at 318 but still lost by over 300. Bryan played SUPINATE, PELTERS, RECOINED, and DANCERS in his winning effort, although, with 631 total points scored, I think we all expected Bryan to have five or six bingos in the game, not just four. It's also worth nothing that 631 seems like it would be a record for highest score this year, but that title belongs to Mark Kenas and his 650, a mark which will be hard for anybody to top. Bryan's 421-348 win over John Bialek was more in the realm of normalcy, but then he pulled out all the stops once again to defeat Sara McLaughlin 501-182 for his second 300-point win of the night. Bryan found ZOYSIAS, COLDEST, and BATSMEN to secure victory.

3rd Richard Lauder continued his efforts to average two bingos per game, as he played 10 of them en route to a 3-1 +255 finish. His night started with a three-bingo effort against Helen Flores, playing INSOLES, MADDEST, and OGREISH en route to a 418-336 win. The bingo spigot continued to flow abundantly when Richard faced off against Ron Malzer; Richard propelled himself to a 440-338 win with finds of NOSTRILS, ERGATES, and OUTLINER. Ron, for his part, got down DETAINEE to ensure that Richard didn't have ALL the fun. A match against Charles Reinke proved to be Richard's only loss, 364-401, with his single bingo of CITREOUS not being quite enough. But order was restored when Richard plopped down another trio of bingos (NEUTRON, OUTWILE, ORIENTS) while dispatching Wendy Bialek, 431-323.

1st Bryan Benwitz enjoyed a second straight 4-0 performance, and with those four additional wins, has now reached ten wins in a row. His +446 spread was by far the best of all players, although his average of 471 was not (we'll get to that later). His night was also notable for a multitude of obscure bingos each deserving of word-of-the-week status. Bryan started off strong by deploying three bingos (PERINEAL, OLDSTYLE, DIEBACKS) against Helen Flores in a 472-291 win. He then faced a considerable challenger in Sara McLaughlin, but escaped with a 435-412 win, despite Sara's funereal finds of MOURNED and WEEPING (Bryan had AVIATED and GLUEPOTS, which do not seem to be related thematically). A 442-418 win over Thomas Reinke, who must be getting pretty sick of losing to Bryan (three wins in the last sixteen attempts), saw Bryan get word-of-the-week HELLHOLE in addition to GENOISE and AGITATO. HELLHOLE is notable for being in the bottom 1,000 of eight letter words by probability, right between BUZZARDS and UNCHANCY (ZYZZYVAS is, of course, the lowest-probability eight letter word). Bryan's best was saved for last when he whomped Richard Lauder, 535-317, getting DETAINEE, CORSETRY, PRIVETS, and the odd-looking BAUHINIA.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged 481 points per game despite suffering two losses in a 3-2 +351 effort. His high-scoring ways ensured a finish ahead of two other players who also had 3-2 records. Richard Lauder was again the target of some misplaced wrath as Thomas used four bingos (NIDATED, ATOMISTS, VIRTUOSA, HOLLERS) to beat him 551-311. Thomas followed that up with a two-on-one match where a 483-407 win over the other Reinke was offset by a 433-490 loss to Mark Kenas. Thomas' round two bingos were ESTATED, ANTICKE#, MESSING, TRICLADS, SPLUTTER, and BESTIRS. The aforementioned loss to Bryan Benwitz put Thomas out of contention for first place, but he nonetheless rallied for second with a big 520-404 rematch win against Mark Kenas, this time bingoing with STILETTO, ANILINE, and AXONEME.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +140, well back of Thomas but well ahead of Richard Lauder's identical 3-2 record with a -209 spread. Charles took a big loss early when he was handily swept aside by Mark Kenas, 385-501. While that loss was in progress, Charles managed a 397-345 victory over Francesca Lazio, overcoming a 2-1 bingo deficit where Francesca played INGRATE and SHUSHES against Charles' ESTRIOL. Charles later got his revenge (and then some) against Mark Kenas with a devastating 594 score (to Mark's 359) - a bingo frenzy of CODRIVE, SULFURET, TAPERING, and INTERIOR got Charles to his highest game of the year up to this point, although it is well short of Mark's own 650 as the club's highest score this year. Charles finished the evening with a fireworks-filled 473-428 against the latecoming Dennis Lloyd. Dennis fought valiantly with finds of RANGIEST and BARRIERS, but was turned back by Charles' MIAOUING, ANODISES, and INVEIGLE.

1st Bryan Benwitz prevailed mightily over a contested field of ten players with his pristine 4-0 +268 record. He scored over 400 in each of his games, a good strategy if one wishes to go undefeated. He vanquished Richard Lauder in the first round by a score of 433-398, getting down bingos of BOODIES and ANERGIES vs. Richard's ELECTIVE and PASSERS. The high-water mark came against Sara Mclaughlin when Bryan romped to a 466-309 win, getting down SAMISEN and EROTICAL (Sara had INDOORS to stem the bleeding). Bryan's closest victory was a 434-426 match against Lynda Finn, but Bryan's three bingos (CARMINE, CLARIONS, and SHOUTED) delivered him the win in the end. Sitting at 3-0, with visions of a headlining paragraph tantalizing his eyes like an oasis in the desert, Bryan went up against Thomas Reinke and comfortably prevailed, 429-361, thanks to finds of COGITATE and BORANES. And so the prestige of having his feats described first, before all others, in the writeup was rightfully grasped.

2nd Mark Kenas made a rare entry into the top three with a 3-1 +391 record and a wild 489 per-game average. His strict adherence to the international Collins lexicon guarantees that he faces nothing but Reinkes in all of his games; however, he is never disgruntled by the strength of his only two opponents, and the frightening depths of his word knowledge were fully on display as he unleashed thirteen bingos in total across four games. Mark took both games off Thomas Reinke, both by staggering margins, 493-353 and 537-357. Thomas had just one bingo total in the two games, STINTED, while Mark had seven: SQUARED, INTERNED, IODISERS#, ADROITER, SEDITION, AVULSION, and WANTAGES. He got another 500-point game against Charles Reinke, winning 549-381 with bingos of HAFFETS, STENCIL, MEDITATES, and CUITERS#. That game also marked the end of Charles' 13-game winning streak. Charles did manage to prevent Mark from going 4-0 and finishing ahead of Bryan, winning their rematch 474-378. Mark's bingos there were GELIDEST# and SERPENTS, while Charles had SITHENS and LANDMINE. SITHENS is a Shakespearean word which means "since" (also spelled SITHENCE), and woe betide anyone who attempts to play SITHEN*, which is not a word.

3rd Lynda Finn, fresh off a strong showing in Arizona where she won division 2 of the Van Rand Phoenix Tournament, continued her run of strong play with a 3-1 +282 record. It was a bit of a slow start for Lynda as she barely beat her first-round opponent, Helen Flores - Lynda was bingoless but held on for a 323-313 win. The rest of her games were much better, starting with a 448-394 win over Richard Lauder. Lynda's single bingo of SEEPIER was outdone by Richard's IOLITES and CATTIES, but Lynda was happy to learn that there is nothing in the rule book which says that the player who bingos more often has to be the winner. A 426-434 loss to Bryan Benwitz, with bingos of INTEGER and LUSTIER, kept her momentum going despite the loss, and she turned it on in the final round to beat Sara McLaughlin 477-251.

Thomas Reinke's FLATWAYS was word of the week. FLATWAYS, like SITHENS above, cannot have the S taken off, as it is an adverb meaning "on the flat side" (also spelled FLATWISE, which is higher-probability and more helpful to know).