1st Thomas Reinke took top honors with his 3-1 +460 performance. In defiance of the old idiom, he saved his best for first, scoring an impressive 554 in a first-round matchup against James Frankki (who scored 381). Thomas had five bingos: FLAVORY, CLEAVING, ROUTEING, DETERGED, and TOUPIES. James had just one, CENTRIST, but the combined total of six bingos looked impressive nonetheless. In the second round, against Betty Hasselkus, the bingoability of Thomas' letters dropped significantly (he only played OLESTRA), but he still won handily, 438-298. Another big win was in store for round three as Thomas faced off against Charles Reinke (are they related?) and dominated to the tune of a 525-339 final score. Thomas' big play in that one was a double-double DEGLAZE for 130, but he also added TAVERNA and GOONIES to his bingo list (Charles had MATELOTS to salvage the game in some minimal way). At that point, given the overwhelming dominance displayed in his previous three games, a perfect 4-0 night seemed assured, but Bryan Benwitz had other ideas, winning their matchup 415-376.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 but was well short of first place with his +207 point spread. There was a distinct lack of bingo mojo happening in his first game, a 432-379 victory over Helen Flores, as both players were limited to just a single bingo worth 59 points each: Bryan had ASTERNAL and Helen had RETAILER. Bryan then lost a close game against Charles Reinke (the latest in a series of close games between the two of them), 416-411. DUNGAREE and CAIRNED were Bryan's bingos in that one, but they were offset by Charles' INSETTER and CATTIER. In the third round, Bryan was matched against Dave Kinzer, and, as the rest of the club looked on with searing jealousy, was afforded the opportunity to play on Dave's expertly hand-crafted new board. Bryan was not a kind guest on the new equipment, however, and won big, 445-325. Dave did get to play a bingo on his new board (SHINING), but Bryan had two of them (VIADUCT and MELODIC). To finish up the night, Bryan spoiled Thomas Reinke's hopes of an undefeated record by defeating his 3-0 foe by a score of 415-376. Bryan had a nice find of CROWBARS (along with OZONATE) to counter Thomas' nice find of VESUVIAN and not-as-nice find of SERENATE. Let this be a lesson to all those who scoff at the concept of bingoing while holding to V's and a U.

3rd Mark Kenas went 3-1 +53, his anemic spread beating out the even more anemic spread of Charles Reinke (-44). As usual, all of his games were Collins contests against his less-bearded opponent, Aaron Bader. He took game one 446-345 thanks to bingos of STOUTER and MORGAYS#; Aaron had word-of-the-week SLIMLINE. Aaron got his revenge in the second game, crushing Mark 522-344 and bingoing four times: LUTENIST, GRILLADE, DAINTIES, and RATOONER (Mark had WOODIEST). Mark didn't take too kindly to that, and won the next two games in order to ensure that Aaron deservedly fell to the bottom of the weekly standings. Game three was a high-scoring affair, 478-447, which saw Mark stick to high-probability TWL bingos (RENATURE, ACONITE, and REGULOSE), while the final round ended in a score of 472-373 and just two bingos on the board (Mark's SORAGES#, Aaron's TOELESS). I thought the Collins dictionary had more words to bingo with?