Yet Another Successful Session for Bryan

1st Bryan Benwitz clearly outwitzed his opponents, going 4-0 +577. His ambitious goal of "average 568 while beating Dave every game" looked easily attainable after the first round, where he scored 568 against Dave and won. His bingos of ADROITER, RETAILOR, COLUMNAR, and SKIDDED for 101 easily overpowered Dave's singular REGRESS. However, Bryan's goal went off the rails in round two, as he was matched up against Charles and only scored 402. He did win the game, though, 402-347 as he held Charles bingoless. His third-round win over Gail was highlighted (highlit?) by a nice find of GAPEWORM (n. parasitic nematode worm that infects the tracheas of certain birds). In the final round, as everyone else became overwhelmed by sleepiness, he maintained his laser focus, beating the similarly undefeated Richard 472-331. Richard struck first with RAFTERED and later added EXPLORES, but Bryan's LENTANDO (adj. becoming slower, used as a musical direction), MENDIGO, and HETAIRA was enough to win.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +332, a 75% win rate that would be even more impressive if we were playing rock-paper-scissors. He secured a 435-333 victory over Helen by playing ADENOSES and ETHANOLS in the first round, a win that led him straight into the ravenous jaws of Bryan, who stymied him at every turn and held him to 347 points, well below his average. Things picked up for him against Sue, where he scored 531 and slapped down ANECTODE, OUTPREEN, and ESTIVAL (adj. pertaining to Summer, also AESTIVAL). A final-round match against Thomas was a scorcher, with the final score being 479-452. Thomas played ANEROID and SWORDMAN and was looking to win until Charles got down REDOUBT right at the end, adding to his already-played FLEABAG, TAILSPIN, and TELECINE.

3rd Richard Lauder came in third with a 3-1 +91 record. He played the word-of-the-week KERCHIEF (no word on if it was extended to HANDKERCHIEF) against Aaron in the first round, the 84 points it scored leading directly to the 398-368 win. He toughed out a close 351-343 win against Sue in the second round, where he played the phony CAROOMS*, a sort of combination of VAROOMS and CARROMS. The winning continued against Dave, 503-309, marked by his opening play of VOMITOS. He later got down OUTRAGES and STINGER, while Dave managed ALIGHTS. As detailed above, he fell to Bryan during his final obstacle on the way to undefeated-dom, but 3-1 is still pretty good.