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1st Michael David braved the elements (a combination of snow and Scrabble players who don't like to lose) to come in first at 3-0 +168. A late arrival, his dominance had to wait until the second round, where he beat James 479-397. James bingoed with CLEARING, while Michael played TAUNTER and POLISHER. In the next round, he faced Charles and got off to a quick start, opening with RAYLIKE for 86. That kind of an early lead is hard to surmount, as Charles found out, with Michael winning a high-scoring affair 478-422 after adding bingoes of SPINIER and TOILETS. Points were harder to come by in the final game, but as they say, "a win is a win except when it's not", and this was definitely a win for Michael, 366-336 against Bryan.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +301, coming in second place. He won big against Gail in the opener, 469-320. Gail played DUNGIEST for 90 to win the "high-D" prize, while Thomas played UNHAIRS and PROWLING. His biggest game of the night was against Charles, where he scored an even 500 and played four bingoes: BEGLOOM, LITERALS, REXINES, and GUNNERAS. Against Bryan in the third round, the only thing preventing the game from being a total blowout was his late play of OMERTAS (n. OMERTA, a code of silence used by the Mafia). Despite that, he lost 368-465. In the final round, he faced Dave G., who bingoed first with OUTDOERS. Thomas outdid that play with AIRTRAM, and then added PENCHANT right at the end to put the win away, 451-337.

3rd Bryan Benwitz had a very Bryan-esque performance, going 3-1 +204 for third place. He won 471-354 against Dave K. for his first victory; Dave bingoed with MEETING, and Bryan played ANTIROLL (adj. designed to reduce roll, and here I was thinking it was the companion term to ANTIROCK) and GROCERS. Beating one Dave wasn't enough for Bryan, so in the second round he beat Dave G. in a close one, 379-359. Dave outbingoed Bryan 2-1, playing CANDLER and JEALOUS to Bryan's TARGETED, but Bryan still managed to come out on top. He was a bit more successful on the bingo front against Thomas, playing three of them: GUILING, ALMONER, and GOATIER. All those big plays led to a big 465-368 win. Sadly, his quest for a perfect night came to a tragic end against Michael, as he lost 336-366. That's the reality of going on quests; sometimes they don't work out as well as you hoped.

1st Charles Reinke took advantage of a shortened club session that allowed his 3-0 +130 performance to go unchallenged by any theoretical 4-0 finisher. His first game was a closely-fought 387-382 win over Bryan Benwitz, who played VARMENTS and EGOTISTS while the victor played BOURREES and MONERANS. That win was followed up with a more convincing 412-322 victory against James Frankki. Charles played FRICANDO as his only a bingo, a word which only pluralizes to FRICANDOES. However, this intricacy was not known to either player, and James hooked his bingo of CARRIES to make the phony FRICANDOS* without being punished for it. The final, and, as it turned out, deciding game was fought between Charles and his similarly-skilled brother Thomas. Charles prevailed, 406-371, playing UNTRIED and URINOSE to Thomas' CAVITIES and WRINGER. A late attempt of UNSHOES* by Thomas spelled doom for the losing side (only UNSHOD is good).

2nd Thomas Reinke went 2-1 +309, beating the other 2-1 player, Bryan Benwitz, by a sizable amount of spread for second place. Game one was Thomas' most successful, as he wiped the floor with Helen Flores, 508-312. The bingo disparity (three to nothing) seems to indicate, at least on the surface, that Thomas drew the lion's share of the so-called "good stuff". His bingos were SALTERS, OCTAVOS, and URIDINE. Thomas then defeated Dave Gilligan, again by a healthy margin, 438-290. Dave played PRAISES in that one; Thomas had CORSETED and LATRINES. The final game between undefeateds Thomas and Charles Reinke saw the conclusion of Thomas' mini-streak of dominance: Charles was the winner, 406-371.

Bryan's DIZZIES was word of the week, but it could have been word of the century if it had involved no blanks. Dave's COINFERS, which looks like a misspelling of CONIFERS but is acatually a word in its own right, was also in the running for word of the week honors.

1st Charles Reinke, for the second week in a row, won three games en route to a first-place finish, this time going 3-1 +241. His first game was a 422-365 win over James Frankki, but James came out ahead in the "stylistic supremacy" column thanks for a nine-letter bingo of ANALOGUES (Charles had RETAINER and QUAKIEST). That win was followed up with a 384-310 win against Dave Gilligan, who played FLAKIEST to counter Charles' AGONISES. Charles' big win was in round three against Betty Hasselkus, however, his crushing 491-265 victory was marred by a nine-letter phony of REATTENDS*. The shame of that phony was only partially washed away by his valid bingos of SNARFING and JANITORS. With a perfect 4-0 performance in his sight, Charles matched up against Bryan Benwitz in the final game only to get outbingoed 0-4 and consequently lose, 376-492. However, losing by 120 points is probably the best-case scenario when getting outbingoed so convincingly.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 for the third week running, but his +203 spread left him a little bit short of first place. Second place isn't bad, though! In round one, he faced off against Helen Flores and came away with the win, 400-367. Both players had one bingo: DECRIES for Bryan, SNORTER for Helen. Sadly, Bryan's winning ways were derailed in the second game as he fell to Betty Hasselkus 365-381. Notably, this was Betty's first win against Bryan in five years! His SCHIZOS for 96 was somehow not enough to secure victory, but it was at least enough to secure "highest-scoring bingo of the night" honors (the plaque is in the mail). Winning ways were resumed in round three when Bryan took down Dave Gilligan 406-336 despite challenging Dave's valid CHILLEST. Meanwhile, Bryan played ROAMERS, a word which Dave did not consider challenging for even the briefest of moments. In the final game of the night, Bryan smacked down Charles Reinke 492-376, playing RADIATES, CREASER, DIALIST, and TROLANDS while his opponent could only watch impotently.

3rd Betty Hasselkus went 2-1 -171 for a third place finish, wisely leaving after three games to secure her spot in thes tandings. Her first-round win was a bingoless affair against Barb Pratzel, 359-320. However, bingos aren't strictly necessary if you can play ZEKS for 80-some points, as Betty did in that game. Betty followed up that success by toppling Bryan Benwitz 381-365; the historical significance of this victory is noted above but can be repeated: this is Betty's first win against Bryan since 2014. Dreams of an undefeated evening were dashed, however, in round three, as Betty went up against Charles Reinke and lost 265-491.