1st Bryan Benwitz celebrated the new year not by winning all his games, but by winning all but one of them, which seems like the better strategy. How boring would it be to win all your games for the whole year? He finished 3-1 +270, coming in first place. He got his yearly loss out of the way quickly, losing to Thomas 448-463 in the first round. He bingoed with REASONED, and almost came back from a large deficit with a flurry of high-scoring non-bingos. One or two more turns would've done it, but the tile bag emptied before he could complete the comeback. No such heroics were needed against Dave in the second round, where he won 438-317, with bingoes of ASTONIES (v. ASTONY, to astonish) and GAROTTES. Remember, GAROTTE can also be spelled GAROTE, GARROTE, and GARROTTE. Bryan's biggest game of the night came against Charles, a high scoring affair for both players, and he won 515-470. Both players bingoed thrice, Charles with TETANAL, CRAMPIER, and MAINTAIN, while Bryan had TORCHED, GRADUATE, and TOTALISE. He also played SEIZE for 78, proving once again that you don't need to play bingo-like amounts of tiles to score bingo-like amounts of points. In the final round, he faced Michael and won 393-274. He managed to bingo twice on a closed board, with BAGGIEST and BROADEST.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +184, coming in second just behind Bryan. He won a close won against Bryan in the first round, 463-448. He bingoed four times early, with INTONED, ORBITERS, TRITEST, and REIMAGED, but his luck dried up and he barely held on for the win. Against Dennis in the second round, he won 489-309. Dennis bingoed with SORTING, and Thomas played VAPOURED, SEALERS, and a double-double BEEFIEST for nearly 100 points. In the next game, he faced Michael, who struck first with a fancy double-double of FAMILIAL. He also played the always-reliable STONIER. Thomas bingoed with only BANSHIE (an alternate spelling of BANSHEE), but despite being out-bingoed, won 439-388. After that, Thomas' hopes for a perfect night were ruined by Charles, who beat him 442-380. Thomas bingoed with WINTERER (n. one who winters), which prompted Charles to grouchily mumble "that shouldn't be a word". Thomas, for his part, didn't mumble anything at all while Charles played his bingos of ELLIPTIC and VETOING.

3rd Dave Kinzer enjoyed a successful night after a club-mandated Scrabble break (sometimes called a "Scrabbatical"), going 2-1 +91 and coming in third place. He beat Gail 395-295 in the first round, without playing a bingo. Gail got down OUTLAST, but Dave decided that scoring a bunch of points most turns was the way to go with his particular tiles. Cruelly, he did get down a bingo against Bryan in the next game, CURRANTS, but lost anyway, 317-438. In his the third round, his final round, he beat Helen handily, 401-289. Dave got down the fancy REFINERY, and stymied Helen at every turn. She did eventually play the phony VENNATES*, which stayed on the board. VENENATES would be the closest real word to that play.

Helen won word-of-the-week for her triple-triple AGGRIEVE, which scored 167 points and won her 9 total dollars, probably a better prize than the word-of-the-week award. She used that play (among others), to beat Charles 519-416.