1st Thomas Reinke demolished his competition, going 4-0 +545 and averaging 442 points per game to his opponents' lowly 306. He made easy work of Bryan Benwitz in round 2, winning their encounter 459-327 and playing three bingos: ELEGANCE, FIREMEN, and the phony-but-plausible MOLLUSCAE*, played through two letters already on the board. MOLLUSCA is valid by itself, but the only hook it takes is an N to make MOLLUSCAN. Thomas also defeated Mark Kenas in a pair of games, and in neither of them did Mark breach the 300-point barrier, perhaps indicating that Thomas' defensive board-control skills were on more prominent display than usual. The first of those wins ended with a 419-279 final tally in Thomas' favor, and the second was 435-283. Despite his commanding performance in those two games, Thomas played just three bingos total against Mark: TROUBLE, PERKIEST, and UNTAILED#.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +54, finishing in second in a reduced group of six players. In round one, he defeated veteran tile-slinger Richard Lauder by a scored of 425-308, getting down bingos of PINTOES and TURMOIL in the process. Richard got SABERED to help him crawl over the psychologically important 300-point threshold. Against Peter Schmiedicke, Bryan won again, 421-370, although the pair's usual bingoing acumen was not fully apparent, as each player got just one bingo onto the board: WEIRDEST for Bryan, TERNATE for Peter. In the final round of the night, Bryan squared off against Charles Reinke and won a quite high-scoring contest, 484-466. This time, both players bingoed early and often. Bryan played MURKIER, FITNESS, and NOBLEST, but was countered each step of the way by Charles' bonus plays of TRAILED, TUNICATE, and ANSATED. Only a previously-mentioned loss to Thomas Reinke, 327-459, stood in the way of Bryan and an undefeated evening of Scrabble.