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1st Charles Reinke extended his run of strong play, with a final record of 4-1 +279 and thirteen wins out of his last fifteen games. It was a bit of a slow start for him as he took a low-scoring 336-325 win over Lynda Finn in round one, with his two bingos of NORTENOS and PISSOIRS providing almost half of his point total. Round two saw Charles take his only L of the evening, falling to Mark Kenas 427-489 despite 106 points for MESTIZO (Mark found DECENTRE, NUANCES, and DIURESES). At the same time that game was slipping away from him, Charles took on his brother Thomas and whomped him severely, playing five bingos (CANALLER, UNRESTED, COPYCAT, SONDELI#, ABREAST) en route to a 588-370 win. The bingos continued flowing freely when Charles defeated Bryan Benwitz 472-382, adding EUSTACY, REPAIRED, OOMPAHED, and STORMING to his growing list of bonus plays. The cherry on top was a 498-476 shootout against Mark, where Charles' not-valid-in-any-lexicon GRUNGED* evaded detection and helped get him the win.

2nd Thomas Reinke also went 4-1, but lagged slightly behind in spread at +196. A 434-396 Collins-lexicon victory over Mark Kenas got Thomas going in the right trajectory, but that trajectory was momentarily diverted by a 370-588 defeat in the very next round. A repeat clash against Mark Kenas ended again in Thomas' favor, 466-412; Mark got down PLACOIDS, DINGIER, and TOUSIER#, while Thomas had LONGTIME and a nine-letter SAPIENTLY. Thomas finished his evening with a 2-on-1 set of games; since neither of his opponents scored over 300 points, the result was two comfortable wins for Thomas. The first of those two wins was a 538-288 victory over Dennis Lloyd, where Thomas unleashed a flood of high-probability bingos: BANTERED, GALORES, SOOTIER, and SINUATE. The other match in the 2-on-1, against Bryan Benwitz, featured far less in the way of bingoage (Thomas' TINTERS was the only bingo on the board at the end), but was still a clear win for Thomas, 372-294.

3rd Lynda Finn played just five bingos in five games, but was able to convert her games to wins despite that obstacle, finishing 3-2 +287. An inauspicious 325-336 loss to Charles Reinke at the start of the night put Lynda in the "loser's bracket" early, but she quickly equalized with a 448-321 win against Ron Malzer, thanks in part to a find of ERADIATE (no word on whether it was hooked to make RERADIATE). Her two-on-one match in the third round saw Lynda split the games, 338-363 vs. Dave Kinzer and 426-322 vs. Sara McLaughlin. In the latter game, bingos of TRAINED and TAMEINS helped considerably. Lynda finished her bronze medal performance by conquering Richard Lauder, 420-328, getting FALSIES and SEQUOIA to Richard's RAINIEST.

1st Charles Reinke once again took first place, this time with a 4-0 +344 final record. Two of wins were against Mark Kenas, 498-403 and 452-391. Charles' expansive bingo list contained words like DISTEND, BILANDER, ANTERIOR, FAINTERS, COURSES, and the Collins-only RINGMAN#. Charles' big game came against Richard Lauder, where Richard's bingo of NEPETAS fell short of Charles' DISCOLOR and FIERILY, resulting in a lopsided 518-345 tally when all was said and done. Bingo-prone tiles continued to find their way onto Charles' racks as he deployed three more bonus plays (SWOTTER, GELATINE, and PURIFIES) in a clinching fourth-round victory over Bryan Benwitz, 436-421.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +215, which seems good until you realize that this 75% winning percentage for the night actually lowered his yearly winning percentage, which had stood at 75.6%. He started things off in explosive fashion when he played a personal-best five bingos in a 465-383 win over Thomas Reinke. Those bingos were ROOTLIKE, TOASTIER, RAVENEST, AVIATORS, and PIROGUES. The bingo output dropped severely in his next game, but the result was the same as Bryan beat Dennis Lloyd 373-312. His single bingo of CLINCHES did score 98 points, so he got a lot of mileage out of not many bingos. The pattern repeated itself in round three as Bryan's sole DOWELLED scored a cool 92 points and delivered him a 419-332 win against Lynda Finn, who found TSARDOM (not a typo of STARDOM, although it could be). Bryan's night ended with a 421-436 loss to Charles Reinke, despite plays of ANAEMIAS and ODONATE.

3rd Mark Kenas went 2-2 +212. His typical Reinkes-only bloodbath was just as bloody as it always is, with Mark dropping two games to Charles but taking both games againast Thomas. The first of those wins was a gargantuan 607-377 beatdown, fueled by Mark's OARAGES#, SERIATE, PILEWORT, and DIACONAL. That 607 score became the 10th 600 game of the year. Mark almost had 600 a second time against Thomas, but fell a few points short, 589-451. In that one, Mark had ONEYERS#, AMBITION, DEVOTING, and RELIQUE (for 114!), while Thomas had DOORMATS, AIDANTS#, and FRAISING#.

Thomas, for his part, did add and 11th 600 game in round three by defeating Helen Flores 604-294, playing five bingos: SPIKIER, NICOTINE, UNHEROIC, STEARATE, and SAUTEING. Richard's PRECAVAE was word of the week.

1st Charles Reinke enjoyed his lofty view from the top of the heap with a 4-1 +361 record. Most of his damage, by far, was done against Mark Kenas, where their two-game series went strongly in Charles' favor, 502-372 in game one and 541-417 in game two. That second game saw Charles get down four bingos (BEDEMAN, HARVEST, CERESINS, OLOGOAN#) while Mark had two (STAMNOI#, COLUMNEA). Charles was held to somewhat lower scores in his other three games, but still saw success, beating Lynda Finn 445-380 (with VITIATES and OPTIONEE) as well as Sara McLaughlin 425-373 (getting SKINNERS and CERMETS). His single loss was a closely-fought 396-406 loss to Bryan Benwitz where a significant bingo advantage for Charles (RESMELT, EUPNOEAS, and OVERRATE vs. a single STAGGERY for Bryan) didn't quite convert into a win.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 +225 and had an impressive-but-somewhat-commonplace-at-this-point average of 469 points per game. Game one against Richard Lauder was a barnburner, but Bryan held on for a comfortable win, 515-422, thanks to CREOLIZE, TREENAIL, and HORNBEAM (this writer will not mention the phony he always sees when trying to unscramble ABEHMNOR, for fear of sowing more confusion with that difficult set of letters). Bryan's single loss came in round two as he lost a close one to Sara McLaughlin, 441-448. Sara had not won a game against Bryan for a few months, so this is surely the start of an extended period of revenge. Sara had ERASION and SINFULLY (helpfully anagrams to SULFINYL) in her win, while Bryan had ATROPINE, OUTRIDE, and SERMONIC. Bryan recovered in the next round by getting three more bingos (ATONIES, MISDOUBT, SEAMOUNT) to vanquish Lynda Finn 513-384, then wrapped things up with the aforementioned 406-396 win over Charles Reinke.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 2-2 +110 to prevail over the other 2-2 finishers. He lost two games against Mark Kenas, 378-439 and 423-442, which accounted for the entirety of his losses for the evening. In those two games he had "just" three bingos, which is rare in the Collins lexicon: AVENUES, MATINEE, and ALERIONS#. A 486-442 win against Richard Lauder was more Thomas' style, as he found three bingos there: CITHERN, ROSOLIO, and TURNABLE. A low-scoring 378-331 victory over Ron Malzer, with ORATORS and the high-probability IDEATES providing much-needed scoring, ensured that Thomas didn't slip into sub-.500 territory.