1st Thomas Reinke came in first place at 3-0 +468, slicing through the assembled Scrabblers like so many pieces of pumpkin pie. He started off by winning 527-291 against Helen, with the bingos coming in bunches: ARTSIER, IONOMER, SATIRISE, PREUNITE, and SALUTER. He had just gotten done giving thanks for the bingo cornucopia when he sat down to face Charles. He barely slowed down from his previous match, winning this one 516-306. Charles was held uncharacteristically bingoless, while Thomas had bingos of TANRECS (n. alternate spelling of TENREC, a mammal that looks kind of like a hedgehog), METALIZE, GRADATE, and TEASELED. In the third round, tragedy struck as Thomas was bingoed on for the first time of the night, with Bryan playing ANISEED. Thomas bingoed as well in that game, with FAINTING, and won a close one, 360-339.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-0 +224 in his Collins series against Mark, coming in second place. In the first game, he won 521-338, kindly playing nothing but regular American-dictionary bingoes so that us plebeians don't have to get confused: ANTIARS, POETESS, and FORKIER (adj. FORKY, resembling a fork, as opposed to SPOONY, which means "overly sentimental"). The second round was a lot closer, with Aaron pulling it out 475-449. Mark bingoed with NOOKIER* and SOWBREAD (n. a type of CYCLAMEN, a flowering plant), and Aaron played PHORETIC, GERMINAL, and the fancy nine-letter VERSELETS. In their final match, neither Mark nor Aaron played a bingo, a very rare occurence for the Collins dictionary. Aaron "won" 355-340, but without a bingo, can we really say that he won at all?