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1st Charles Reinke withstood a first-round defeat to finish at 4-1 +199. That initial setback was courtesy of Lynda Finn, who easily turned him away, 481-377. Charles was left with just one bingo of ROOTLET, while Lynda got DETECTED, STOURIE, and a late 92-point SONGLIKE to put the game away. The agony of defeat (or at least the 'mild displeasure' of defeat) was quickly forgotten as Charles won both games of a two-on-one against Barb Pratzel and Mary Becker. The game against Barb was relatively close at 423-371; Barb played RATINGS to Charles' URANIUMS and ALTERITY. Against Mary, Charles use a trio of bingos (BISTORT, NEUROID, and TAGLESS) to comfortably reach a 488-323 victory (Mary did get CRAVINGS down to avert complete catastrophe). In round three, Charles encountered Thomas Reinke (a suspicious confluence of last names) and came away with a 444-435 win, thanks to bingos of ATHETOID and BARGUEST. A similar fate befell Bryan Benwitz as he faced off against Charles in round four and lost 401-478. Charles' pulverizing double-double of CERVEZAS for 122 may have been the deciding factor. Either that or his icy demeanor which disquiets any who dare to sit across the board from him.

2nd James Frankki also withstood a first-round defeat to place second with a 3-1 +87 record. Barb Pratzel was the one who marred his otherwise perfect record, defeating him 423-362 and outbingoing him two to nothing (with CODINGS and ENQUIRED). In the next game, James barely came away with the victory against Bryan Benwitz, 353-345. He displayed flagrant mercilessness by phonying with RHYMIST* and then challenging off Bryan's attempt to pluralize the word, but sometimes, flagrant mercilessness is what's necessary to win a board game. James continued his merciless ways by shutting down Helen Flores in a low-scoring 359-245 win where James' late REEARNED was just icing in the cake of triumph. A solid night of Scrabble was capped by a 402-376 win against the fearsome Thomas Reinke, who couldn't overcome James' steady scoring output despite surpassing him in the bingo column (James had MASTERS, while Thomas had PERIGEE and TODDLERS).

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +225, and, contrary to the two players who finished above him, started strong before petering out at the end. His first-round matchup against two players was fruitful; he defeated Helen Flores 452-356 and Dave Gilligan 429-331. In the former game, his play of WATERLO? could have been either WATERLOG or WATERLOO, and the inscrutable scrawlings on his scoresheet do little to illuminate the issue, so it is decreed that he played WATERLOG. Thomas' third and final win of the session was in round two against Lynda Finn, 407-341. In a tale as old as time, two bingos (UPRAISED and SOLVATE) prevailed over a single bingo (CINEMAS). Thomas' fortunes took a downward trend in the next game, as a 435-444 loss was only that close thanks to an out-bingo of CARPETED (in addition to earlier bingos of LITOTES and IRONIST). The aforementioned 376-402 loss to James Frankki in round four was a continuation of that trend, but Thomas still came away with third place, so how downward could it possibly have been anyway?

1st Charles Reinke somewhat made up for a disappointing showing at last weekend's tournament, going 4-0 +522 and averaging a cool 505 points per game. His first game was a 539-318 win against James, where his first two bingos were the somewhat clunky DISEUSE and AUREOLAE. The grand finale was his triple-triple word-of-the-week out-play of CIRRIPED (n. any of an order of crustaceans, including barnacles, and don't forget that it takes an E for CIRRIPEDE) for 149 points. He then faced Bryan and won with a "mere" 496 points, 496-379. His big play in that game was TORQUES for 100. That rack also makes the words QUESTOR, QUOTERS, and ROQUETS. Against Helen in the third round, his scoring went down even more, with the final being 463-346. Helen bingoed with STRIDENT (the conclusion of the fun DENT/IDENT/RIDENT/TRIDENT/STRIDENT series), while Charles had EINSTEIN and VERTIAS. After that, he went up against Thomas, and it was an exciting match, with 7 bingos being played. Charles had COWHANDS, NAPHTOLS, DEFLATES, and the phony DEPUTISER* (DISREPUTE is the real word with those letters). Thomas, for his part, had CONOIDAL, MEGABIT, and PEDALING, but he still lost 455-522.

2nd Bryan Bewntiz followed up on his second-place showing at last weekend's tournament with a 3-1 +215 record. He started off with a 465-373 win verus Betty, playing MORTARS and the newly-added-to-the-dictionary WORDIES (n. WORDIE, a word lover). Although he beat him in the tournament, he fell to Charles 379-496 in the next game, his sole bingo of AWAITERS not enough to stop Charles' devious machinations of revenge. Despite going over time a little bit (a normal dilemma for him, but you can't argue with his recent results, so his slow-and-steady method must be working) in the third round, he won big against Dennis 452-273. He played MONASTIC for 94 to aid his cause; no word on whether it was extended to SEMIMONASTIC. In the last game, he played Helen, and won 429-368. Helen hogged all the blanks for her play of DIQUATS for 87, while Bryan had to be content with a blank-less SOCIETY.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +235, coming in third place. He faced two in the first round, Helen and Dennis. Helen saw the most success against him, winning 357-341 while playing CABANAS. Against Dennis, Thomas won 492-418 and bingoed with TINHORNS, OVERNEAT, and GURGLETS (n. GURGLET, a long-necked jar), while Dennis had CADGERS and the invalid GRATINES*. GRATINE is an adjective meaning "covered with a crust". Following that was a slog of a game against Mary, ending in a 388-305 win. Seven tiles went unplayed that game due to some annoyingly-placed Z's, Q's, and V's. Thomas did manage to squeeze in a bingo, BEAUTIES, before things got totally shut down. Against Gail in the third round, he won 484-323. Gail had parity in bingo-count, playing INERTIA and OUTRAISE compared to Thomas' CANTERED and LOESSAL (adj. pertaining to LOESS, a soil deposit), but Thomas had the advantage in the power-tile plays. And in the final game, he lost to Charles 455-522. 455 is a good score, but in Scrabble, if you're not first, you're last.

1st Charles Reinke came in first with a 4-1 record, although his paltry +46 spread was low compared to a normal four-win performance. The main reason for that was that he started off way in the hole as he lost to Thomas 336-595 in the first game. Thomas opened with BRUITER and didn't let up, playing STONIER, GLACEING, and TAPETUMS (n. TAPETUM a layer of cells in some plants) as well. Charles' sole bingo was ENURESIS (not to be confused with ANURESIS). Luckily, after that drubbing, things got a lot better for him, starting with a two-on-one pair of wins over Bryan and Helen. He beat Bryan 449-393 with bingos of SNORTED and SAURIAN, and simultaneously beat Helen as well, 424-332. His big play against Helen was SPIREME for 106; presumably he chose the best of the seven bingos made with the letters of EEIMPRS. In the third round, he faced Thomas again. This time, things were a lot closer, and he eventually pulled out a 425-424 win. Thomas had a rare double-X bingo, XEROXES, while Charles had UNSLING, CALIPEES, and INLACES. Charles' biggest win came in the finale, a 495-339 win against James. James was seemingly cursed with endless draws of vowels (sound familiar to anyone?), while Charles bingoed four times with PANDECTS, UNAKITES, FERRELS, and ALANINE.

2nd Bryan Benwitz faced a tough lineup and still came in second with a 3-1 +51 record. He, like Charles, faced Thomas in the first round, but unlike Charles, won. The final score was 422-410, with Bryan's final play of SUBSTATE for 83 points being enough to win even without the letters left on Thomas' rack. His only loss of the night came against Charles, 393-449 in the second round. But since this is supposed to be a positive paragraph about Bryan's accomplishments, we're going to move right past that into his 420-369 win against James in the third game. James bingoed with CLITORAL (a handy extension of LITORAL) and UNMOVED, while Bryan only had SEEDING. Despite the bingo deficit, he won with a decent margin; perhaps this indicates that there is more to Scrabble then just playing as many bingos as possible? In the final game, he faced Thomas again, and built up a huge lead with bingos of DIRECTLY, SENSATE, and GUERDON. The reason that you build up huge leads is so that you can withstand any disasters that happen; in this case, Thomas then triple-tripled with PLEDGERS for 167 but still remained behind, and Bryan ended up winning 485-441.

3rd Betty Hasselkus overcame a shaky start to come in third at 2-2 -171. She lost big against James in her opener, partially because she let his phony of OLDTOWN* go by unchallenged. For reference, the three-letter front extensions for TOWN are COWTOWN, MIDTOWN, and TOYTOWN. In the second game, she faced Sue, who, with a score of 461 came one point short of her highest score since the club started keeping track. Revenge was swift and merciless in the next round, as there was an immediate rematch where Betty won 381-292 with a bingo of FAIRIES. Her game against Helen got off to a good start when she opened with RELYING for 70. She later added DIARIES and ended up winning 416-290.