1st Richard Lauder walked in, sat down, won three games, said "see you losers later", and walked out, coming in first with a 3-0 +267 record. In the first round, he won 458-343 against, according to his scorecard, "Helen (1 Phony)". I'm guessing the "1 Phony" part was him leaving himself a note about how many phonies he thought he could get away with before Helen would start challenging them. In any case, both his bingoes were decidedly non-phony, INSOLENT and AIRBAGS. After that, he faced Dennis and won 401-303. It was a close game until he played TONNERS followed up with a big X play, while Dennis drew clunkers to go with his blank. His quest to go undefeated seemed to hit a snag when he was paired up with Thomas for the third game, but he showed no fear and won 385-331. Thomas was held bingoless, while Richard got in his phony with PRESIZED* as well as a valid LANNERET (n. a male lanner). He then took his ill-gotten "High-I" prize of four dollars (we really should stop giving those out for phonies) and departed an unchallenged victor.

2nd Dennis Lloyd finished four points ahead of third place with a final record of 3-1 +128, meaning that if this writeup mysteriously stopped two-thirds of the way through, Dennis would get a paragraph and the unknown third-place finisher wouldn't. Dennis racked up a good amount of spread in the first round, winning against Dave 499-349. He bingoed three times, with LUSTIER, ANNELID, and ROPINGS, while Dave wrote in the bingo section of his scorecard "None to be spoken of". But the winds of fortune shifted dramatically in the second game as he was held bingoless against Richard, and he lost 303-401. Then the winds of fortune re-shifted back in the "fortunate" direction, just in time for his game against Charles. He ended up bingoing three times, with HEADMAN, REINDUCE, and a game-deciding INQUIRE for 123 points, and won 447-398. In the final round, he faced Bryan, and they ground out a low-scoring contest, with Dennis eventually winning 321-294. That's what happens sometimes, when neither player wants to open things up for their opponent.

3rd Thomas Reinke is mercifully being granted a paragraph for coming in third with a 3-1 +124 record. He faced James in the first round, and got off to a quick start with RAILHEAD. He later played UNEROTIC (anagram of NEUROTIC, hmmmm....) and won 427-358. Against Betty in the second round, his BECARPET (v. to cover with carpet) was met with DROPPING. The game was close until he phonied with SILESIAN* (only SILESIA is good), a phony that propelled him to a 454-350 win. After that, his only loss of the night came at the hands of Richard, 331-385. In the final game, Dave put up a good fight, bingoing three times (the third game in a row he performed that feat, by the way), with STERILE, MUNDANE, and IDEATIVE, but Thomas was able to eke out enough points in the endgame to win 412-407.

Bryan played the word of the week, OUGUIYA. An OUGUIYA (also spelled OUGIYA) is a monetary unit of Mauritania, divisible into five KHOUM, making it one of two currencies not divided into a multiple of ten. The other, of course, being the Madagascar ARIARY, divisible into five IRAIMBILANJA.