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1st Thomas Reinke dropped thirteen bingos upon his opponents en route to a 4-1 +301 record. Being that Thomas' primary motivation is regaining and keeping the top spot in the yearly standings, he defeated both of his closest competitors, Bryan Benwitz and Charles Reinke. His game against Bryan was quite lopsided at 488-379. The bingo situation was also quite lopsided with Bryan playing MOUSIER vs. Thomas' AMPERAGE, FUTURIST, and ONLIEST. His game against his brother was a bit closer, but still a convincing win, 500-456. In that one, both belligerents had three bingos: SURFIEST, CITATOR, and TENSIBLE for Thomas, READIEST, ANTIMERE, and the unlikely ANYBODY for Charles. Sadly, a 366-407 loss to Richard Lauder in the second round quickly snuffed out Thomas' dreams of a perfect record. And for the second straight week, Thomas' scorecard was marred by a phony; last week it was BOARLIKE* played against Lynda Finn, this week it was TANTRAL* played against...Lynda Finn. All would do well to be more suspicious of Thomas' bingos going forward.

2nd Richard Lauder rebounded from a tough outing last week to go 3-1 +178 this week. His 424 per-game average is over 100 points higher than his average from last week. His best game by far was a 508-339 drubbing of Dennis Lloyd, thanks to four bingos, of which only 50% were phony: BORACITE, FORECAST, PLENTUM*, and EXSPIRE*. EXSPIRE* may have just been a brain fart given the availability of EXPIRES, while PLENTUM may have been a creative re-imagining of PLENUM. Nevertheless, the phony words stayed on the board, and contributed significantly to Richard's impressive final score. His phonying tendencies were successfully kept in check when he defeated Sara Mclaughlin 399-365, playing two perfectly valid bingos, CANDIES and RATIONAL (Sara found LEGATOS). The only stumbling block Richard faced was the worrisome word knowledge of Charles Reinke: their game ended 448-382 in Charles' favor.

Dennis' PEMMICAN, played in a victory over Bryan Benwitz, was chosen as word of the week from many worthy candidates. Among the other bingos under consideration were Dennis' NONHARDY, Helen's VLOGGER, Thomas' QUORUMS and FUTURIST (both with multiple U's!), and Charles' ANYBODY (one wonders if he had a D available to play the even lower-probability BAYNODDY).

1st Lynda Finn dethroned the long-reigning Reinke tyranny by finishing 4-1 +491, averaging 451 points per game and playing thirteen total bingos in the process. Her best game was her first one, as she methodically dismantled Richard Lauder, winning by a score of 548-231. A phony DEMEANER* (one who demeans?) stayed on the board, in addition to her three valid bonus plays of TARDIER, ISATINE, and AVIATOR. Another large margin was achieved against Charles Reinke, whom she beat 464-352. Charles had the nine-letter find of INDENTORS in that game, but was stymied by Lynda's INEXACT, OLDNESS, and ADOPTING. Sadly, a perfect 5-0 record was disrupted by the other Reinke; Lynda lost to Thomas 441-466, and it could very well have been a victory for Lynda were it not for Thomas' 106-point phony of BOARLIKE* (OARLIKE, BEARLIKE, and BOATLIKE are all good, and this writer can think of no good reason why we shouldn't just add all animal-related -LIKE words to the dictionary).

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +422, falling slightly behind first place on spread, but nonetheless averaging an impressive 481 per game. In round one, he asserted his brotherly dominance over Charles Reinke with a comfortable 514-356 win, fueled by bingos of JACINTHS and SORDIDLY. Thomas also easily prevailed against Mark Kenas in the final game of the night, reaching rather alarming heights of scoring with his 575-399 victory. NITINOLS, URANYLIC, and JERRIDS were his bingos in that round. One could consider that victory to be a form of revenge for an earlier loss to the same opponent: in the third round, Mark beat Thomas 460-442, instilling in Thomas feelings of barely-controlled rage which could only be extinguished by a follow-up win.

3rd Bryan Benwitz continued to hold his first-place position in the yearly standings with a 3-1 +368 record. In what seems to be a trend, his best game was his first one, a 555-293 win over Helen Flores. Helen found GARROTTE in that one, but Bryan had ASTERIA and BERLINS and probably a bunch of other high-scoring plays as well. Bryan's closest win was against Dennis Lloyd, 410-373, with both players getting one bingo: SNORERS for Bryan and IRONING for Dennis. A badly-timed phony of BLONDIE* (a type of brownie, but apparently not a Scrabble word) on Dennis' end spelled doom for him (note the pun). Again, Thomas Reinke played spoiler to Bryan's dreams of an undefeated record, as their match ended 406-325 in Thomas' favor. Bryan's play of JUSTIFY for 85 points, while impressive in its use of multiple unhelpful letters (J, U, F, Y), was sadly not enough by itself to take the win.

1st Thomas Reinke played six games, went 4-2 +227, and exploited a quirk in the placement algorithm (which only looks at total wins, not win percentage) to finish in first place. His bingo engines were running at full power right from the start, as he bingoed seven times in round one, a feat rendered slightly less impressive by the fact that he was playing two games at once. The scores were 464-413 against Mark Kenas and 521-426 against Charles Reinke, and his bingos were RUINOUS, MYLONITE, OTARINE#, NONAGES, SHIRTED, ANTERIOR, and LINEAGE. In a rematch against Mark, Thomas scored even more, but, unfortunately for him, Mark scored more more, with a final tally of 480-478 in Mark's favor. Thomas displayed significant knowledge of the Collins dictionary in that one, geting down CAPRATES#, SERVIENT#, OUGHLIED#, and DORMOUSE. A 446-472 loss against Bryan Benwitz was also extremely bingo-heavy, with both players getting three bonus plays: EXTERNAL, APOSTATE, and OUTSCORE for Thomas, VANITIES, FAKERIES, and OVERSOLD for Bryan.

2nd Bryan Benwitz maybe should have come in first place, but was awarded second place for his 3-1 +195 record, keeping his yearly win percentage at a lofty 81%. Hopes for an undefeated night were snuffed out in short order as he was felled by Lynda Finn in round one, 408-430. A nice find of VIDIOTS by Bryan was nullified by Lynda's trio of bingos: EXTENDS, HEARTIER, and SLANTED. Bryan's big win was a 458-313 drubbing perpetrated on Richard Lauder; when all was said and done, Richard could only draw a sad face in the box on his scoresheet where the bingos are supposed to go, while Bryan was able to triumphantly write down three bingos: VENTURIS, DIORITES, and ANTERIOR. A game against Sara McLaughlin was considerably closer, but Bryan emerged from the fray with the win, 400-354.