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1st Charles Reinke showed no love for any of his opponents in a pre-Valentine's Day Scrabble onslaught, going 4-0 +403. Neither did he offer any of his opponents a box of chocolates. In fact, all he did to celebrate the occasion was to gorge on heart-shaped cookies that were kindly provided by a fellow Scrabbler. In the first round, he made easy work of Gail Salm, winning 427-288 with the aid of his two bingos, BLONDINE and BESTOWAL. Another big win subsequently came against Helen Flores, 468-317, despite perfect parity in terms of bingos (CONSIST for Charles, TEASING for Helen). Charles' closest bout was in round three when he faced off against the suspiciously similar-looking Thomas Reinke and came away with just a three-point win, 430-427. His three bingos (TOLEWARE, ROSINOL, YEASTIER) were apparently much-needed in securing victory. The final jewel in Charles' crown of undefeatedness (a sapphire, in case you were wondering) was received from Bryan Benwitz, who fell to Charles by a score of 362-472. Bryan had bingos of UNIFIERS and the rarely-played BAILIFF, while Charles had the more pedestrian NITROUS and TAWPIES.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a club-best 454 points per game en route to a 3-1 +251 record. His first-round matchup turned out to be a high-scoring contest against Michael David, a contest which Thomas won, 458-432. Michael played just one bingo, APRICOT, but made it close in the face of Thomas' trio of bingos: AGONISTS, HASTIER, and FREEDMAN. The same bingo discrepancy was once again apprent against Bryan Benwitz, against whom Thomas won 457-361 (getting down bonus plays of DECEASE, LOONIEST, and the non-self-descriptive PHONIES while Bryan got SERFAGE). A three-point loss to Charles Reinke followed where Thomas bingoed just once (GASALIER), but order was restored to Thomas' universe in round four when he got a big win against Helen Flores, 473-341. The axiom "two bingos are better than one" had its truth affirmed as Thomas got two bingos (IRONWARE, AUBADES) to Helen's one (COURTING). It's science.

3rd Aaron Bader got his revenge after two losing sessions against fellow Collins expert Mark Kenas by going 3-1 +160. Round one was the most lopsided of the four games they played, with Aaron winning 476-344. TATTLING, NETHEADS#, and MISTERY# (which anagrams to SMYTRIE# in case you want to punish yourself by learning words that aren't in the American dictionary) were Aaron's bingos. Their round two game was a bit closer, but still a convincing win for Aaron, 435-369. It shouldn't be possible for a Collins game to end with just two bingos on the board, but Aaron (OUTROWS) and Mark (PARADISE) managed it against all odds. Their next game saw Mark narrow the gap even further, but it was still Aaron's win, 432-414, thanks to RABATOES#, DECILES, and ULEXITE. Mark finally got a win in the fourth round, 480-424, and this time he was the one who got three bingos: NIDUSES, FETERITA, and SNARERS.

Second-time player Steve Buechner played the word of the week, MAJORITY for 110 points!

1st Mark Kenas went 3-1 +272, easily beating out the meager spreads of the other three-and-oners to come in first place. His night got off to a great start as he opened with the Collins-only-but-totally-definable UNALIVE* against Aaron. He later added ETESIAN and TARDIES, and won big, 523-396. He beat Aaron again in the second round, 426-401. Aaron bingoed with OUTPLOT (not to be confused with OUTPLOD) and ARAISED*, while Mark played NEUTERED and CALORIC. CALORIC seems like a hard word to fit on a board, given that it starts and ends with a C, but the Collins dictionary has CH*, so maybe that explains it. His only loss of the night came at the hands of his old nemesis, the clock, as he went over by several minutes and ended up losing by 4, 387-391. He did bingo out with BRANSLE*, but it was not quite enough. To add insult to injury, his "high S" play of INSWATHE for 101 was snatched from his grasp by Aaron's ZYDECOS (n. ZYDECO, a music style of southern Louisiana) for 113. In the final game, he faced a new opponent, Thomas, and beat him 533-409. Thomas opened with two bingoes, TANKERS and ADORNED, after which Mark smiled and thought to himself "I've got him right where I want him". Mark bingoed four times after that, with METEORIC, PALEWISE (adj. vertical, also PALEWAYS), VEINLESS, and IODISER* to win.

2nd Bryan Benwitz came in second with a 3-1 +70 record. He got his loss out of the way quickly, setting him up for maximum enjoyment of the rest of the evening, falling 322-461 to Charles. Even his sole bingo was out of a not-so-good rack, as he played AUREOLA. Charles had EVINCES, EARSHOTS, and GAMEPLAY (n. the way a video game is played) as his bingoes. Bryan's fortunes took a pendular swing in the other direction in the next match, where he won 529-344 against Dennis. He bingoed with THORITE, DECIARE, and TOERAGS (n. TOERAG, a contemptible person, and here I was thinking of calling socks "toerags" from now on), while Dennis played EVASION. In the third round, he barely eked out a win against Betty, 394-377. Betty played DEFINES, and Bryan got down GIRDLING, a word that has too many G's and I's and not enough of the good vowels for my liking. He saw a familiar face in the fourth round, facing Charles again and coming out on top this time, 387-380. Charles' vowel-less final rack doomed him, while Bryan had flexibility, playing a late NIQABS while hooking IOTA to make BIOTA.

3rd Thomas Reinke had a negative spread but came in third anyway, going 3-1 -13 (palindrome alert!!!!!!). In the opener, he beat Dennis 434-425, with bingoes of DESPOIL and WEIRDED. Dennis made it close with CLEANEST and STAINED, but late power-tile plays sealed Thomas' win. After that, he had a low-scoring game with Helen, with him coming out ahead 340-318. His big play that game was ESPIEGLE (adj. playful, apparently lifted straight from French), not to be confused with SPIEGEL (n. a type of cast iron). Against Charles in the third round, he opened with AWAITED, and later added DROPHEAD and EPEEIST and won 486-406. Things were looking good for a 4-0 night as he opened with two bingoes against Mark, but things turned south and he lost 409-533. That'll teach him to dip his toes in the Collins ocean!

1st Michael David played an abbreviated schedule of just three games, but made the most of his limited opportunities with a perfect 3-0 +178 record! Accusations of leaving one game early in order to preserve an undefeated night will not be levied at this time. Michael had his best game of the evening in round one, where he took down Gail Salm 424-356, playing Word of the Week candidate FASTBALL in the process (Gail played STIRRED as her single bingo). In the second game, Michael defeated Dennis Lloyd 390-356, this time getting two bingos (RESINED and LIGHTERS) while again holding his opponent to just one bingo (DEAFENS). The stingy bingo defest continued in what would end up being Michael's final game as he easily toppled one of the club's top players, Thomas Reinke, by a score of 393-317. Michael played NESTING in that one, while Thomas got down SABULOSE.

2nd Charles Reinke put together a strong 3-1 +377 performance, but was punished in the standings by having played four games (oh wait, we weren't going to levy those accusations). He wasted no time in building up his spread total as he whomped Bryan Benwitz in the first game, 500-340, unleashing a trio of bingos: TOILERS, ENVELOPS, and NEBULAE. Round two saw Charles lose a close one to Thomas Reinke (no relation), 410-415. Again, Charles had three bingos (ROPIEST, OUTLIES, and OREODONT), while Thomas sole bingo of WISEACRE (for just sixty points) was combined with some damaging power tile plays to take the victory. Charles got back on track by cleanly defeating Gail Salm 510-332, playing three bingos for the third game in a row (GUENONS, GHERAOES, and RATTLIER). Gail, for her part, had LEARNING and REIFIES. The seemingly infinite well of bingos was depleted by round four, but Charles triumphed over Dennis Lloyd 409-365 despite getting out-bingoed two to nothing (Dennis played AUTHORS and ELASTINE*).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +204 for third place among a larger-than-usual crowd of fourteen players. After a disappointing first-game performance against Charles Reinke, where bingos of RESTRUCK and SEDITION were the only things to really go right for Bryan, he stormed back to win his next three. Against Helen Flores, Bryan played READIEST and TRISOMES on his way to a comfortable 428-291 win. Dennis Lloyd fared only slightly better against the Bryaniac, with the final tally in that one being 453-377. While the scores weren't equitable, the bingos were, as each player had two of them (FROWNED and RESURGE for Bryan, COPIERS and TEACHES for Dennis). Bryan completed his convincing comeback by trouncing Thomas Reinke 497-346. Alas, the win was despoiled by a phony GEARLIKE* to go with the valid PANTIES and EXILERS.

Aaron's EMBIGGEN was word of the week. Somebody's been watching too much of The Simpsons (or reading too much of the dictionary).