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1st Steve Hartsman unambiguously dominated a smaller-than-usual crowd of seven Scrabblers, finishing 4-0 +310 with a 452 average. His first game was also his best, as he took down Andy Bohnsack in a slugfest, 498-421. A wide selection of high-probability bingos was on display: Andy found EROSIONS and BERATING, but was overwhelmed by Steve's finds of OESTRIN, REVOTED, HIRSUTE, and GIRASOLE. Steve then went on to achieve the rare feat of beating both Reinke twins back-to-back, 426-398 vs. Charles and 409-377 vs. Thomas. The third Reinke twin was too busy playing Yu-Gi-Oh! to get in on the action. Undefeated going into the final game, Steve kept the bingos flowing with a 473-300 win against Dennis Lloyd, slapping down BOLETES, GRANOLAS, and WASTERS to take home a shiny trophy all the way back to Milwaukee. (Just kidding. The budget doesn't allow for weekly trophies.)

2nd Thomas went 3-2 +295, playing thirteen bingos, which is honestly a kind of normal number for him these days. A first-round Collins-lexicon brawl with Charles Reinke ended badly for Thomas; his brother bingoed the first five turns of the game (COURAGE, LOCAVORE, ENDORSE, FREEING, RETINAE) to take a lead that no amount of counter-bingos (EULOGIST, PATINED, RAILROAD) could hope to overcome. Thomas stormed back with a pair of wins in round two, felling Dennis Lloyd 494-308 and Andy Bohnsack 453-437 in a two-on-one. Of note was Thomas' bingo of SIXTEEN, which scored 100 points and was ripe for all kinds of jokes about the score of the play. After dropping a game to Steve Hartsman, 377-409, Thomas ended his night with a convincing win against Richard Lauder, playing JAROSITE, ORIOLES, and AROINTS for a 546-254 win.

1st Andy Bohnsack went 4-1 for the second time in three weeks (ignore the intervening 1-3 record), this time with a +418 spread, good for first place. He waltzed through a two-one-one match in the opening round, downing Helen Flores 466-305 (with APPENDS, GOATIER, and ARCSINE) while simultaneously defeating Dave Kinzer 416-303 (GAOLERS, STRIDERS). This success was rewarded with a chance at Thomas Reinke, but things didn't go according to plan (unless the plan was to lose, which would be a nonsensical plan), and Andy suffered his only loss, 424-504. Andy was back to his old self in short order, proved out by a strong 508-398 win against Richard Lauder where he managed MANAGED, BREAKOUT, SEAPIECE, and ENATIONS. The bingoing continued unabated with YOUNGEST, ORIENTAL, and RETRIALS in a 469-355 victory over John Bialek.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished at 4-1 +315, continuing his streak of .500-or-better club sessions that extends all the way back to October of last year. In round one, he defeated Ed Nawrocki 435-321, despite Ed's tricky find of SORORATE (Thomas had RATANIES, which has four anagrams if you feel like tormenting your brain rather than continuing to read this writeup). For round two, Thomas played Mark Kenas and Andy Bohnsack at the same time; undaunted by the challenge, he won both, 388-384 vs. Mark and 504-424 vs. Andy. Sparks flew in a clash of twins in round three, but Charles was able to hold on and give Thomas his only loss, 452-529. Typical for their Collins-lexicon punchouts, both players bingoed frequently: REPANDLY, LISTENER, and MULTIAGE for Thomas, while Charles had EPISTLER, REINSURE, and STOLONIC. The ten-letter REEDIFYING also hit the board. Thomas recovered nicely from that loss by wiping the floor with Mark in a rematch, 538-344, getting SLIOTAR#, DESERTIC, PHAETON, and SEVENTY (the latter for 85, not 70 points).

3rd Charles Reinke used the unholy power of odd numbers to get two separate two-on-one matches, thus finishing with six total games and a 4-2 +155 record. Both losses were to Mark Kenas, and both of them were quite lopsided, 308-474 and 365-481. The latter loss could almost be considered "worth it" given that Charles got down word of the week with VAGOTOMY (a word that perhaps doesn't have the definition one would assume - it means "surgical division of the vagus nerve"). Charles did well to recover lost spread by beating John Bialek 462-282, bingoing with ROTATES, HEALINGS, and ARMONICA (apparently the same thing as a HARMONICA). The aforementioned 529-452 victory against Thomas Reinke also helped. For the final game (actually final games, plural), Charles felled Helen Flores 553-401 and Richard Lauder 433-405. A 158-point ROAMINGS was key against Helen, while the uncommon VASEFULS did some damage to Richard.

1st Dennis Lloyd far exceed his typical scoring numbers with a 428 per-game average on his way to a flawless 4-0 +456 record. He started off with a solid 385-305 win over Helen Flores, getting down a single bingo of RECALLED. That was followed up with a 399-342 victory against Steve Hartsman, where finds of ASSURED and the triple-O SONOROUS were crucial to Dennis' winning chances. Marching ever onward, Dennis made quick work of Dora Kilburn, winning 471-243 and upping his bingo count to three: DISASTER, GHOULIES, and ATTENDS. Up to this point of the night, Dennis' opponents had not played even one bingo against him; that changed in round four, but Dennis still pulled out the win against Thomas Reinke, 456-365. Thomas got RADIANCY and RADISHES, while Dennis had DEARIES and ORALIST. Moral of the story: don't let your opponents bingo. Steal tiles from their rack if you have to.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +389, holding steadfast at the top of the yearly standings. He suffered a scare in round one as he made out with a single-digit win against Mark Kenas, 412-403, countering Mark's nice LOLLOPED with GONENESS and NITERIE. Their rematch two rounds later was more comfortable for Thomas, 455-377. In between, Thomas displayed the full extent of his bingo knowledge by playing five of them in a 554-317 drubbing of Lynda Finn. The illustrative bingos in question: AUDITORY, ELOINED, MOVINGLY, ALIGNER, and AVENSES (AVENS is a type of plant, pluralizing to AVENSES - don't play AVEN* or AVENSE*). Thomas wrapped things up with a two-on-one match, but was barred from a perfect record when Dennis Lloyd beat him 365-456. Luckily for Thomas' morale, he did not have to suffer two losses at once, as he was able to vanquish Steve Hartsman 491-335, getting SINOPIE, TENTERS, and OILIEST.

3rd Charles Reinke finished 3-1 +362, forever trying to catch his brother in the standings but not making as much progress as he would like. Charles walked all over Andy Bohnsack in the first game with a 507-295; Andy's famously bingo-oriented playstyle yielded no such bonus plays, while Charles found HAULIERS, PANGOLIN, SIENITES, and the nine-letter PICOMETER (PICOMETRE is also good despite its audaciously British construction [but don't even think about trying FEMTOMETRE# - that's only FEMTOMETER (who can even keep track of this stuff?)]). In the second game, Charles got a low-scoring win against Mark Kenas, 369-340, thanks to AFFICHES. Facing off against John Bialek, Charles repeated the strategy he had employed against Andy, holding John to zero bingos while getting four of his own (CAVEMEN, CAUDATES, SOUNDER, EPILATED); the result was a 519-324 win. Perfection was denied by Mark Kenas, who won their rematch 481-407; Mark's NOCUOUS (like INNOCUOUS but...not...) was the highlight among a batch of cool bingos played by both players.