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1st Charles Reinke sat loftily upon his throne of victory, savoring his unblemished 4-0 +305 record in much the same way that a king savoring the ever-present sensation of immense power that one feels when one is king. He reeled off a pair of victories against Thomas Reinke that were eerily similar in their final scores: 418-361 in the first round, then 418-365 in the fourth round. Both games were played with the Collins dictionary, but all bingos played might be familiar to players of the American dictionary: SAWFLIES, RAISONNE, SOLATES, and MOSSIER for Charles, TRANGAM, PEISING, and MENSTRUA for Thomas. In just one game was Charles held to a single bingo, but that game turned out to be his most successful of the evening as he took down last week's champion Helen Flores by a score of 459-329. Helen had nice finds of VAMPIRES and TUTELAGE in that one, thus leaving the battlefield with her dignity full intact.

2nd Sara McLaughlin took advantage of a 2-on-1 opportunity in the final round to vault herself to second place with a 3-2 -86 record. In that 2-on-1 she turned away both Dennis Lloyd (415-345) and Helen Flores (358-314). An 80-point PAINTERS in her game against Dennis was a major boon to her victory chances. Sara also had a nice find of GIAOURS (n. GIAOUR, a non-Muslim) in a 374-269 win over Sue Goldstein. However, her hopes at a positive point spread were severely diminished when she ran headlong into the brick wall that is Thomas Reinke: the 311-551 loss did 240 points of damage to her cumulative point total.

1st Helen Flores made some type of history by finishing 4-1 +178, her first four-win outing since way back in February of 2013. It was also her first eight-bingo excursion since that same date. Helen's fruitful evening of Scrabble success started off with a masterful 452-411 win over last year's club champion, Thomas Reinke, thanks in no small part to two bingos of LOANING and BIPLANES. Thomas fought back with HATTERIA and ASYNDETA, but his efforts were, in the end, futile. Helen later improved on that heady 452 score with an even more dominant 469-280 win against Sara McLaughlin. In that game, Helen added three bingos (DETOXED, SHADIER, and SNIGGLED) to her ever-lengthening list of bonus plays. Unfortunately, a 303-430 loss against Charles Reinke prevented Helen from achieving a more-perfect-than-perfect 5-0 record.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 with a barely-there spread of +6 to finish well back of Helen Flores for second place. Most of his spread total was obliterated in a crushing 569-402 loss against Thomas Reinke, who had four bingos: BAREGINE#, ENSWATHE, CHITOSAN, DELUSIVE. However, it was Charles' first official foray into the Collins lexicon, so it could have been worse. Besides, Charles got his revenge in a later rematch, winning 431-420 thanks to bingos of FORESAID, TIDELINE, and MATRICS.

3rd Dennis Lloyd powered his way to a 3-1 +257 record after missing the first game due to a work obligation (which is never a valid excuse for missing a game of Scrabble). He came out on top in both games of a two-on-one, beating Sue Goldstein 390-240 (despite her bingo of REFRIES) and Dave Kinzer 415-371. A closely fought 363-367 loss against Charles Reinke, where his bingo of RATTLED for 72 cleanly countered Charles' CRATERS for 70, proved to be the only blemish on an otherwise flawless performance from Mr. Jeopardy.

1st Charles Reinke started off the new year (and the new Scrabble club season) right with a solid 3-1 +308 record. If his new years' resolution was to average two bingos per game, he's off to a good start, having played eight bonus plays in his first four games of the year. However, his theoretical new years' resolution of winning every game of Scrabble that he plays is already a failure, as he lost his round two matchup against Thomas Reinke by a tight score of 426-432. Thomas had a pair of uncommon bingos, CUTOUTS and FOGEYISM (the latter for 118 points), while Charles punched back with INBREEDS and ALGORISM. The loss was avenged in the following round, where Charles came out victorious in both of his two-on-one battles. He took out Sara McLaughlin by a score of 491-258, but barely clawed his way to a 371-368 win against Dennis Lloyd.

2nd Thomas Reinke likewise started his club season off with a 3-1 record, but his +250 spread relegated him to second place. His best game was a 473-274 affair with Dennis Lloyd. A 134-point DAIDZEIN was a nice find for Thomas in that one, and also one of the highest-scoring non-triple-triple plays in this writer's memory. Thomas seemed poised for an undefeated evening, but ran up against Bryan Benwitz in the third and final round, losing 407-410 despite outbingoing Bryan two to one (PINIONS and STYLISE for Thomas, BARRELED for Bryan). Also of note was Thomas' nine-letter BRUNETTES, played against Sara McLaughlin, which brings his lifetime total of 9-letter-plus bingos up to 48.