1st Thomas Reinke stood head and shoulders above the competition with a 4-1 +492 record where he averaged 470 points per game. The night started inauspiciously for Thomas when he fell to the returning Mark Kenas, 421-434. That game, played using the international Collins dictionary, was riddled with words that you probably don't want to learn: Thomas played ENNUIED# and ENGUARDS#, while Mark had TUTTIES (which is odd but fully playable in the American dictionary) and the normal-looking INSTATE. A rematch in round three was more fruitful for Thomas as he came away with a 489-414 win, thanks to bingos of PELAGICS, FAULTING, and SEVENTY. Thomas wrapped things up with a comfortable 495-372 win over Bryan Benwitz. Bryan played two bingos of RETINUED and ATTORNED, but still fell well short of victory when faced with four bingos from his opponent: OPERATOR, TZAREVNA, ANGSTIER, and GENISTAS.

2nd Helen Flores continued her success from last week's Word Cup tournament in Chicagoland by going 3-1 +86. While caressing the conspicuously large piles of cash money that were her reward for a strong tournament performance, she downed the fearsome Charles Reinke by a score of 365 to 342. She immediately followed that up by defeating Bryan Benwitz 394-333, getting bingos of GRIEVES and AROUSES in the process. That win ended Helen's three-year winless streak against the Bryaniac. At that point, Helen seemed utterly unstoppable, but Dennis Lloyd was not intimidated by the quality of her wins up to that point, and took a close one off her, 402-397. Helen secured her spot in the top two with a closing 367-360 win over Sara McLaughlin, who got down WRENCHED while Helen countered with SETTING.