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1st Charles Reinke reeled off four straight victories to end up at 4-0 +602. His first game was his lowest-scoring of the night, but it was still a sizable win for him as he took down Dave Gilligan 425-330, playing EGLATERE and NEITHER in the process. In the next round, he faced off against Dennis Lloyd and again won comfortably, 434-308. Dennis got down a bingo of ACUTEST (anagram SCUTATE), but Charles had NEEDIEST, BOTCHIER, and NOSEDIVE. Those first two rounds saw much good fortune for Charles, but his fortunes saw a large uptick in round three, where he crushed Aaron Bader, 564-368. Aaron's single bingo of ASTEROID was no match for Charles' trio of bingos: SEVERED, GENITURE, and NAPOLEON. Charles completed the perfect night with yet another large margin of victory, this time triumphing over Betty Hasselkus, 494-309. Three bingos (SUTURED, CLUMPED, and FRONTAL) sealed the deal for him.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished with a 3-1 record and a +82 point spread which was just barely enough to edge out Betty Hasselkus for second place. His first two games were a pair of Collins-dictionary games against resident Collins enthusiast Aaron Bader. The first one was his only loss of the evening, but it was quite a close game, 426-437. Thomas had bingos of RECLINES and PARADES; Aaron got TERMINAL, PLECTRON, and POTHEADS. The second game of the series saw Thomas get his revenge and prevail, 461-420. Bingo equality was achieved as both players had two such plays: UNARMING and FORGETS for Thomas, WRITEOFF and DECALOGS for Aaron. The Collins experiment having conluded, Thomas then played James Frankki in the next round, and won a tough one, 418-393. His out-bingo of CLERKED for 97, plus some junk off James' final rack, was enough to secure the win. Thomas completed the comeback from a first-round loss by beating Bryan Benwitz 443-415. Again, he needed an out-bingo (this time HEMATIN) to snatch victory out of Bryan's greedy grasp.

3rd Betty Hasselkus bounced back from a winless outing last week to go 3-1 +72 this week, snagging a coveted spot in the top three. Her first game was against newcomer Wade Neitzel, a game which she won 341-244 (largely due in part to her bingo of STRAFED for 77 points). Round two provided a more tightly-contested game as Betty squared off against Dave Kinzer and prevailed 346-341, playing AGONIES herself while not allowing her opponent to bingo. Having decided that it's more fun to win big than to win small, Betty unleashed her fury in round three, demolishing Sue Goldstein by a score of 424-269. This time, Betty had two bingos, BAITERS and ENSNARE. All good things must come to an end however; Betty found this out when good things were decidedly not present during a 309-494 loss to an undefeated Charles Reinke in the fourth round.

1st Thomas Reinke ran roughshod through a field of 14 Scrabblers, ending the night with five wins, zero losses, and 800 points of spread. He got off to a quick start in the first round, facing both Gail and Betty in a two-on-one and winning both games by large margins. Against Gail, he played bingos of CERATES, ABSEILER, NABBERS, and CRAVENER. Semi-fun fact: he had played the then-phony CRAVENEST in a game a few years ago, before it was added to the dictionary. Against Betty, he was held to only a single bingo, VOYAGED. That game would prove to have his lowest bingo total of the night, as he eventually ended up with 15 rack-clearers, an average of three per game. Against Mary, he opened with BLADERS, then added EATERIES, INERRANT, and VIRAGOES (n. VIRAGO, a domineering woman) on his way to a 517-point game. In the third round, he faced Bryan, who saw as his first two tiles two W's. Not a good omen, because even though he opened with WOWING, Thomas underlaid it with ANEMONE making five overlaps. He then quickly added a double-double SPIELED (SPIELED and SPEILED are both good, but only SPIELER) for 90 and in the end won 495-322. In the final game he faced a familiar (literally) opponent, and bear Charles 428-350. It would have been a bigger win, but Charles went out with AREOLES to cut a large amount of spread.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went his usual 3-1, coming in second as he was the only person to finish with that record on the night. In the first game he faced Dave K., winning 444-292. His bingos in that game were EARSTONE (a fancy way of saying OTOLITH), GUANINE, and NUPTIALS. Against James in the next round, he won 438-334 with bingos of HOLARDS and FAIREST. James played NUTTIEST and PENDANT, the second of those right in front of a triple-word score. An extension to DEPENDANT or APPENDANT would have scored a fair amount, but neither were played, probably because DEPENDENT is the more usual spelling and APPENDANT isn't a very common word. Also, no word on whether an extension to PEANUTTIEST was considered. He slogged though a tough game against Thomas as detailed above, eventually getting down RASSLED but losing 332-495. In the final game, he beat Barb 451-382. After a slow start for both players, they both played two bingos, SEQUOIA (one of 39 seven-letter words with five vowels) and GREEDIER for Barb, and INOSITE and PURLINS for Bryan.

3rd Helen Flores returned from a fun (remember, fun can be had at tournaments in ways other than winning games) Phoenix tournament to play yet more Scrabble and had a successful night, ending with a 2-1 +361 record. Her first game (which was in the second round due to her tardiness which has been noted) was a close 387-392 loss to Barb; both players played OUT- bingos, OUTWEAR for Barb and OUTRATES for Helen. That part was equal, but Barb also played ZESTIEST which helped tilted the game in her favor. She got one of her highest scores ever in the next game against Dave, as she scored 527 in a big win. She only played two bingos, BOOMIER and STARTING, so I'm assuming that she also had some big power-tile plays. In the last round she held Gail uncharacteristically bingo-less and won 497-309. For her part she bingoed with VIOLINS and UGLIEST.

1st Charles Reinke found himself on the top of the proverbial heap with a perfect 4-0 +334 record. His first game was, unsurprisingly, a victory, with Charles triumphing 418-334 over James Frankki. Charles had SNEERED and PANIERS as his bingos, while James had SERENADE (which is SNEERED + A). A match against Dave Gilligan ended with Charles' out-bingo of GURGLING, which took a relatively close game into "drubbing" territory, 452-267. The upward trajectory for Charles continued as he faced off against Bryan Benwitz and won 516-389. Bryan played CRISPIER and URETHANS, but Charles proved once again that three bingos is better than two by playing DETENTS, DEBATING, and EMENDERS. That previously-mentioned upward trajectory, which seemed poised to unceasingly continue upward for all eternity, did drop down a little bit in the final game as Charles squeaked out a close game against newcomer Barb Pratzel, 398-376. Barb's SQUAREST for 100 was the highest-scoring bingo of the night, but it fell just short of securing her the victory.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +224, but his 80% winning percentage was barely higher than his 79.2% winning percentage for the club season, meaning he should have tried harder to go 5-0. His first game was a two-on-one with mixed results; he beat Dennis Lloyd in a tightly-fought 385-369 contest, but fell to Bryan Benwitz 397-440 in the other game. Interestingly, Thomas phonied Dennis with the plausible-sounding misscore, a word which all Scrabble players have used at least one time while correcting an incorrectly-counted play. In the second round, Thomas had another close game, but used bingos of DIVORCEE and DRONERS to take out James Frankki 408-392. James played CHOLERA, which is good in Scrabble but not good in real life. After a solid 405-324 win against Betty Hasselkus, Thomas went up against Mark Kenas in a game using the Collins dictionary. That one was a blowout in Thomas' favor, 493-339, and he had a trio of nice bingos: ACACIAS, FURANES, and word-of-the-week NAPROXEN.

3rd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 +147, taking third by just a few spread points over Barb Pratzel. He started strongly and fearlessly by taking down Thomas Reinke 440-397, playing bingos of ALEURONE, ENDORSEE, and ARRAIGNS to great effect. A game against Gail Salm in the next round was slightly less comfortable for Bryan, but he still got the win, 398-375. Gail did outbingo him by getting UNSEATS and BETAINES to Bryan's sole SUNTANS. In the third round, Bryan suffered his only loss, the 389-516 final score wiping out all of his spread and leaving him in the negatives. However, all that spread was gained back and more with a 524-316 win over James Frankki. His three bingos of MENTION, REVILER, and TORSADE were nice, but even nicer were his non-bingo plays of FUNPLEX and QAJAQ, the latter of which might not get played for another two decades.

4th Barb Pratzel, in her first-ever experience with competitive Scrabble, went 3-1 +130 (with a 406 average!) and just barely missed out on the top three. Her best game was a 458-378 win against Gail Salm where she played UNEARTHS and STRIVEN. With six bingos in four games, she found herself right at home with the club's collection of bingo-prone players!