Thomas Reinke 23 of last 24...Everybody Go Home

1st Thomas Reinke went 4-0 +399, an almost routine performance for Thomas by this point. He ruined the lossless aspirations of two players who finished 3-1, Charles Reinke and Bryan Benwitz. Against the similarly-last-named Charles, Thomas faced his most tenacious opposition, only winning by twenty points, 378-358. Charles was held to a singular bingo of EXISTING; Thomas had RANCORS and SOBERLY. The game against Bryan was significantly less contested, with the T-Twin getting four bingos (TIMEOUT, DENTALIA, BASINET, SERIATE) en route to a 511-374 victory. Bryan had BREADING, which was later extended to the surprisingly-phony BREADINGS. Another phony snuck onto the board when Thomas faced Helen Flores; BATEAUS can only be spelled BATEAUX or BATTEAUX. The word stayed, however, and Thomas cruised to a 488-314 win.

2nd Mark Kenas faced fellow Collinser Aaron Bader in all four games, coming out ahead, 3-1 +201. Their lifetime series is now slightly in favor of Mark, 15-14. He played four bingos in a first-round 505-420 victory: WATCHET#, BECRIMED, HEREUNTO, and OSMIATE# (which has three TWL anagrams, ATOMIES, ATOMISE, and AMOSITE). Later, he would put forth a dominating 491-337 performance despite getting just one bingo of DERIDERS. Aaron had two in that game, but still couldn't make it close: OOGAMIES and word-of-the-week MOROCCOS, a word which approaches ZYZZYVAS in terms of probability.

3rd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +163. In a matchup against Lynda Finn, the C-Twin prevailed 441-385 despite getting outbingoed two to three. Lynda had NINNIES, ARGENTS, and RAINOUTS; Charles found REMELTED and the second-highest-scoring bingo of the night, SANCTIFY for 99 points (Peter Schmiedicke's 167-point 3x3 STABBING was easily first). Gail Salm also put up a good fight, with both players knotted at two bingos apiece as the final score went Charles' way, 440-396. Gail played TENSION and COATERS, with Charles getting JINGLES and FIELDING.

June Scott Takes Best-Of-Three Series

1st June Scott went 2-1 against Sue Goldstein but still ended up with a -69 cumulative. Both of her wins featured a bingo; NEARING in a 322-301 win and TRAILER in a very close 339-335 victory. However, three times was not the charm for June as she lost the last game 294-388 thanks to Sue's find of BLISTER.