1st Charles Reinke somewhat made up for a disappointing showing at last weekend's tournament, going 4-0 +522 and averaging a cool 505 points per game. His first game was a 539-318 win against James, where his first two bingos were the somewhat clunky DISEUSE and AUREOLAE. The grand finale was his triple-triple word-of-the-week out-play of CIRRIPED (n. any of an order of crustaceans, including barnacles, and don't forget that it takes an E for CIRRIPEDE) for 149 points. He then faced Bryan and won with a "mere" 496 points, 496-379. His big play in that game was TORQUES for 100. That rack also makes the words QUESTOR, QUOTERS, and ROQUETS. Against Helen in the third round, his scoring went down even more, with the final being 463-346. Helen bingoed with STRIDENT (the conclusion of the fun DENT/IDENT/RIDENT/TRIDENT/STRIDENT series), while Charles had EINSTEIN and VERTIAS. After that, he went up against Thomas, and it was an exciting match, with 7 bingos being played. Charles had COWHANDS, NAPHTOLS, DEFLATES, and the phony DEPUTISER* (DISREPUTE is the real word with those letters). Thomas, for his part, had CONOIDAL, MEGABIT, and PEDALING, but he still lost 455-522.

2nd Bryan Bewntiz followed up on his second-place showing at last weekend's tournament with a 3-1 +215 record. He started off with a 465-373 win verus Betty, playing MORTARS and the newly-added-to-the-dictionary WORDIES (n. WORDIE, a word lover). Although he beat him in the tournament, he fell to Charles 379-496 in the next game, his sole bingo of AWAITERS not enough to stop Charles' devious machinations of revenge. Despite going over time a little bit (a normal dilemma for him, but you can't argue with his recent results, so his slow-and-steady method must be working) in the third round, he won big against Dennis 452-273. He played MONASTIC for 94 to aid his cause; no word on whether it was extended to SEMIMONASTIC. In the last game, he played Helen, and won 429-368. Helen hogged all the blanks for her play of DIQUATS for 87, while Bryan had to be content with a blank-less SOCIETY.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +235, coming in third place. He faced two in the first round, Helen and Dennis. Helen saw the most success against him, winning 357-341 while playing CABANAS. Against Dennis, Thomas won 492-418 and bingoed with TINHORNS, OVERNEAT, and GURGLETS (n. GURGLET, a long-necked jar), while Dennis had CADGERS and the invalid GRATINES*. GRATINE is an adjective meaning "covered with a crust". Following that was a slog of a game against Mary, ending in a 388-305 win. Seven tiles went unplayed that game due to some annoyingly-placed Z's, Q's, and V's. Thomas did manage to squeeze in a bingo, BEAUTIES, before things got totally shut down. Against Gail in the third round, he won 484-323. Gail had parity in bingo-count, playing INERTIA and OUTRAISE compared to Thomas' CANTERED and LOESSAL (adj. pertaining to LOESS, a soil deposit), but Thomas had the advantage in the power-tile plays. And in the final game, he lost to Charles 455-522. 455 is a good score, but in Scrabble, if you're not first, you're last.