1st Lynda Finn utterly reversed her record from last week, going from 0-4 -286 to 5-0 +186. She got her biggest win of the evening in round one, wiping out Dave Kinzer 403-286, thanks to bingos of EREMITE and DERATION. Held bingoless in the second game against Dennis Lloyd, Lynda still managed to pull out the win, 347-331, proving that bingos are totally optional (but probably still something to strive for). The winning streak continued as she dispatched Ed Nawrocki 396-360, getting down AUDITORS and STATURE to Ed's LATTICE. For the final game, Lynda had two chances to have her perfect night tarnished, but also the chance to achieve a rare 5-0 performance, and she chose the latter option, although it was a close call: she beat Richard Lauder by ten points, 388-378, and John Bialek by just seven points, 372-365.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 4-0 +298; this trend of undefeated players means we will probably have three such players next week (who wants to volunteer?). Bryan took Richard Lauder to the cleaners in the first game, 462-248, but none of his subsequent games would end up being nearly that comfortable. He managed to squeeze out a win over Charles Reinke, 414-406, thanks to BIRCHEN and ARIOSOS (one of two valid plurals of ARIOSO; ARIOSI is also valid, as well as the adjective form ARIOSE). A 426-392 win over John Bialek hinged on Bryan's phony of NOILIEST*; NOILY is valid, but doesn't compare, because of reasons. Bryan also got down the valid STRIVED, while John had IRONIES and PEWTERS. In the final game, Bryan matched up against the other Reinke, and used bingos of GAVOTTED, INTUBATE, and BALLSIER to take a high-scoring 487-445 victory.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +155. His recent subpar results vs. his brother were corrected in round one as he held Thomas bingoless en route to a 426-338 win. Charles' sole bingo there was AGELESS, subverting the expectation that Collins-lexicon games between experts will feature a lot of bingos. Charles' loss came in the next game, as he was felled by Bryan Benwitz 406-414, despite CENTALS and THERIANS (Ed also played THERIANS in one of his games, but somebody should have played INEARTHS because that hasn't been played yet). Charles fought off Helen Flores in round three, 456-387, withstanding her DIRTIEST and FLOATED with his own ENTREES and triple-triple GOATIEST (at 113 points, tying the club record for lowest-scoring triple-triple). His night concluded with a close 398-392 win against Steve Hartsman, responding to his nice finds of INTROFY and COSIGNER with his own PARASITE.

Steve's stylish EPISTYLE was word of the week.