1st Steve Hartsman made good on his (assumed) New Year's Resolution to not lose any more games of Scrabble, as he went 4-0 +794 and averaged a perfect 500 points per game. When taken in combination with his 4-0 record to end 2025, he now has an eight-game winning streak. He started with a 480-329 win against Charles Reinke, playing the nine-letter OVERCOUNT in addition to the two-U UPROUSED. Charles' score of 329 ended up being the most that any of Steve's opponents would score. Steve dominated his second game as he prevailed 552-288 over Andy Bohnsack; a phony triple-triple of STRIVENT* for 140 points was an apt homage to a beloved financial services company, but was unfortunately not an actual word. In round three, Steve again held his opponent under 300 points in a 467-286 win against Richard Lauder; LIRIOPE, ANTIWEED, and AEROGEL were Steve's bingos there. A 502-304 win over Sara McLaughlin, with bingo finds of WEDGIES, INHOLDER, and ASSAILED, completed Steve's strivent quest for perfection (is that how we're using that word?).

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +384, demonstrating the level of Scrabble proficiency that gave him the 2025 club championship. He tried to start off on the right foot, but unfortunately chose the wrong foot as his first game was a loss to Mark Kenas, 401-414, getting GETTING (heh)and ARRANGES to Mark's ELOIGNER and URAEUSES (URAEUS and AUREUS are both good, and both pluralize with -EI [URAEI, AUREI], but only URAEUS pluralizes with -ES). Thomas recovered with a pair of wins in a two-on-one set, beating Lynda Finn 421-293 and Carol Ormand 489-316. A rematch against Mark was an improvement over the first go-round as Thomas prevailed 488-431, hitting on NIGELLA and ETALONS. The evening ended with Thomas defeating rival Bryan Benwitz 395-356, overcoming Bryan's nice find of JACINTHE with his own bingos of RELOANS and SKILLET.

3rd Sara McLaughlin went 3-1 +163 and averaged a nice 410 points per game, considerably exceeding last year's average of 356. She took down Ed Nawrocki in game one, finding PULPITS and COSIGNER (to Ed's EIDOLON) for a 431-359 win. A 442-229 win over Dora Kilburn in the next game allowed Sara to continue racking up spread. Facing Lynda Finn in the third round, Sara got a double-double of QUACKING for 142 points for a 461-385 win. 142 points for a non-triple-triple isn't quite a record, but is pretty close; Bryan's 150 for ZEMSTVO back in 2016 seems to be the best we've been able to do while not hitting two TWS's simultaneously. Sara was sadly not able to turn her 3-0 record into a 4-0 record as she was flattened by Steve Hartsman in the final  round, 304-502.

Charles played the word of the week when he found the nine-letter TROPAEOLA, which is the plural of TROPAEOLUM, a type of plant. He evidently forgot to cash in his 100,000 style points for 62 real points (at current conversion rates), and lost the game to Dave Kinzer, 465-404.

Two players played the word ANTERIOR, which gives it a head start on the most-played bingo of 2026, and also puts it ahead of its own position in 2025, where it was only played once.