1st Dennis Lloyd far exceed his typical scoring numbers with a 428 per-game average on his way to a flawless 4-0 +456 record. He started off with a solid 385-305 win over Helen Flores, getting down a single bingo of RECALLED. That was followed up with a 399-342 victory against Steve Hartsman, where finds of ASSURED and the triple-O SONOROUS were crucial to Dennis' winning chances. Marching ever onward, Dennis made quick work of Dora Kilburn, winning 471-243 and upping his bingo count to three: DISASTER, GHOULIES, and ATTENDS. Up to this point of the night, Dennis' opponents had not played even one bingo against him; that changed in round four, but Dennis still pulled out the win against Thomas Reinke, 456-365. Thomas got RADIANCY and RADISHES, while Dennis had DEARIES and ORALIST. Moral of the story: don't let your opponents bingo. Steal tiles from their rack if you have to.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +389, holding steadfast at the top of the yearly standings. He suffered a scare in round one as he made out with a single-digit win against Mark Kenas, 412-403, countering Mark's nice LOLLOPED with GONENESS and NITERIE. Their rematch two rounds later was more comfortable for Thomas, 455-377. In between, Thomas displayed the full extent of his bingo knowledge by playing five of them in a 554-317 drubbing of Lynda Finn. The illustrative bingos in question: AUDITORY, ELOINED, MOVINGLY, ALIGNER, and AVENSES (AVENS is a type of plant, pluralizing to AVENSES - don't play AVEN* or AVENSE*). Thomas wrapped things up with a two-on-one match, but was barred from a perfect record when Dennis Lloyd beat him 365-456. Luckily for Thomas' morale, he did not have to suffer two losses at once, as he was able to vanquish Steve Hartsman 491-335, getting SINOPIE, TENTERS, and OILIEST.

3rd Charles Reinke finished 3-1 +362, forever trying to catch his brother in the standings but not making as much progress as he would like. Charles walked all over Andy Bohnsack in the first game with a 507-295; Andy's famously bingo-oriented playstyle yielded no such bonus plays, while Charles found HAULIERS, PANGOLIN, SIENITES, and the nine-letter PICOMETER (PICOMETRE is also good despite its audaciously British construction [but don't even think about trying FEMTOMETRE# - that's only FEMTOMETER (who can even keep track of this stuff?)]). In the second game, Charles got a low-scoring win against Mark Kenas, 369-340, thanks to AFFICHES. Facing off against John Bialek, Charles repeated the strategy he had employed against Andy, holding John to zero bingos while getting four of his own (CAVEMEN, CAUDATES, SOUNDER, EPILATED); the result was a 519-324 win. Perfection was denied by Mark Kenas, who won their rematch 481-407; Mark's NOCUOUS (like INNOCUOUS but...not...) was the highlight among a batch of cool bingos played by both players.