1st Charles Reinke had his first undefeated session in over four months, going 5-0 +375. He started off witha two-on-one, playing Mary and Dennis. His game with Dennis was pretty close, 426-386, with Charles playing SANGERS and DASYURE (n. a flesh-eating mammal, so a human?) and Dennis playing OPTIMAL (definitely the optimal play) and TREADING. His game with Mary was a little more lopsided, with Charles bingoing 5 times and notching the highest score of the session with a 578. His bingos were LINECUT, BICKERS, DEAERATE, WEIRDOS, and NOODLED. In the second game, he faced the seemingly unbeatable Bryan, who was on an 11-game winning streak (18 if you count the tournament he went undefeated in over the weekend). I say "seemingly" unbeatable because I'm looking at the scorecards now and they both indicate that he was beaten 357-400. He then faced Thomas, against whom he had only won 2 out of the last 10. He was in a trend-busting mood, I guess, because he won a nailbiter, 403-397. His bingos that game were REDTAIL and a snugly-fitting INCLOSER on a tight board. To cap off his perfect night, he deftly navigated clunky racks to beat Dave, 353-305. Dave's play of VARIATE was the sole bingo on that board.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +567, bingoing twice in every game. He faced Lynda in the first round and won 414-344, playing HERIOTS and INVOLUTE (v. to roll or curl up). Neither player thought that INVOLUTE had any extension, so the D and the S hooks that would have provided great riches went unused the entire game. He then faced two in the second round, Dave and Helen. His star play against Dave was the nine-letter EXCELLING, played off of EX which was on the board. There are 274 other seven-letter extensions for EX, including EXTENSION. In his game against Helen, she opened with a bingo-bango of OUT words, OUTLINE and the word-of-the-week WHITEOUT, but he perservered to win 488-384. He played GUILTING and NONCRIME (n. something which is not a crime, like playing Scrabble) to win that one. After a 6-point loss to Charles in the third round, he faced James and won 477-314. James played DELUGING, while Thomas played OUTRAVED and TOONIES.

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-2 +36, edging out a couple 2-2 players for third place. Her opening round match with Thomas was marked with a sad face ":(" in the bingos area on the scorecard, a commentary on how that 344-414 loss went for her. But things improved for her in the second round, as she beat Dennis 438-394. I heard talk of her phonying multiple times in that game, but at least her bingos were fine: GUARDING, SKITTER, and AUSTERE. In the third round, just like the other two people who attempted the same feat, she won both games of a two-on-one, against Helen and James. Her 440-314 victory over Helen was made easier by her 108-point phony of TOXIMES*. TOXINES is a word, and so is TOXEMIA, but there is no provision in the rules for arbitrarily combining two words to make a new won. Against James, she won 395-329, using an out-bingo of SORITES (n. a type of argument used in logic, and it needs the S on the end) to snatch victory from her disbelieving opponent. In the final round, maybe it turned out that Bryan is unbeatable after all, because she lost 301-431, this time indicating extreme distress on her scorecard with TWO sad faces ":( :(".

[Editor's note: after publication, it was revealed that James defeated Lynda instead of the other way around, and that Bryan Benwitz should have been in third place at 2-2 +109. Madisonscrabble.com regrets the error.]