JASON IDALSKI (7:19 PM) What a weekend. That's all I can say. After Michigan clinched in Round 14 and we'd determined the Round 15 pairings and handed out scoresheets, Steve Grob made sure the players hadn't begun playing. The players gave George and I a hand at his request. He then walked up to me and said something like "And congratulations to winning captain Jason Idalski!" He then dumped a tile bag on my head, a la a Gatorade bath for a winning coach! I THINK we found all the tiles afterward. :) George snapped the photo at the perfect moment, too. He did a lion's share of the grunt work this weekend and he deserves to be commended. Michigan wins the round 5-2 and the tournament, 59-46. The score is approximately what I expected; it's a bit of a shame that it wasn't closer throughout. Hats off to Ohio players, especially winner Brian Bowman (12-3 in that field is awesome with a capital A) and Maureen Kennerk, who turned 0-9 into 5-10 (I think those numbers are right, but my brain is fried). Signing off...

JASON IDALSKI (5:23 PM) Round 14 results, in order of receiving: Jeff Clark (MI) beats Mike Stafford, Dan Stock (OH) beats Kit Morehead, Maureen Kennerk (OH) beats Steve Grob, Pete Zeigler (OH) beats Scott Pianowski, Kelly McKenzie (OH) beats Paul Epstein, Linda Hoggatt (OH) beats Jeff Fiszbein. Another 5-2 Ohio round! The 54-44 score is a lot more respectable.

JASON IDALSKI (5:13 PM) And Carolyn Easter is the clincher! She ends Brian Bowman's 10-game win streak with a 500 game. Paul can re-take the tournament lead if he beats Kelly.

JASON IDALSKI (5:08 PM) Don't expect much more in the way of commentary, as I'm preparing myself for an onslaught of contestant scoresheets and haven't gotten up to walk around this round. I can see that Jeff Clark has more than 18 minutes left while Mike Stafford's under a minute. Somebody wants to be the clincher! Three bingos on the Paul Epstein/Kelly McKenzie board: LINEATE (Kelly), AZURiT(E)S (Paul) and M(E)DIANTS (missed who played it). Paul's got about six minutes left to Kelly's 15:40 and his body language doesn't look good.

JASON IDALSKI (4:39 PM) I reminded everybody to get their winners slips and contestant scorecards in promptly so we could pair for KOTH. Kelly McKenzie, playing Paul Epstein at Table 1, said "You can just put this down as Paul by 200 if it'll speed things along." Yesterday Paul more than doubled up Kelly. I doubt that will be repeated today.

JASON IDALSKI (4:37 PM) Dan Stock beats Carolyn Easter by 24. Maureen Kennerk beats Jeff Fiszbein. Brian Bowman wins his tenth in a row, beating Paul Epstein to take a game lead. Another 5-2 Ohio round. 52-39 Michigan lead. First win of this round clinches!

JASON IDALSKI (4:29 PM) Two wins for Michigan from Steve Grob and Scott Pianowski. Who'll be "the clincher"? Not Jeff Clark, as he lost to Linda Hoggatt. 2-2 this round. Dan Stock/Carolyn Easter and Jeff Fiszbein/Maureen Kennerk look done. Brian Bowman's clock has ticked under two minutes; Paul Epstein has 48 seconds left.

JASON IDALSKI (4:21 PM) Since Pete's free, I got his scoresheet from the 572-508 game with Paul Epstein. Paul opened with OVERdUE, giving Pete DRI(V)ABLE as an answer. Paul then played GUERIDON to put three bingos on the board in three plays. Pete then played LANDING in the bottom of the third, but that gave Paul SCRUPLE(D). Five bingos in seven plays! Pete answered with a 59-point VEX, making the score 239-208 through four turns apiece. Paul then played ZILCH for 58 and Pete played JIBE for 48 in the bottom of the sixth. Then the infamous "Pete's MISWIREs* for 78 setting up Paul's TENNI(s)ES for 122" sequence. Pete made his 92-point play of CATIONS in the bottom of the ninth to make the score 494-463 through nine turns apiece! Nothing terribly exciting in the endgame (although all scores are in the 20s or 30s except for Paul's out of 18), and there you have it. 572-508. Wow. Definitely game of the tournament. I wish we were paying for high loss!

JASON IDALSKI (4:12 PM) Big game at Table 1 between Paul Epstein and Brian Bowman. They're each 10-2, two games (and spread) clear of the field. It looks like they're guaranteed to meet in the round 15 KOTH (1 Mich. vs. 1 Ohio, 2 Mich. vs. 2 Ohio, etc.). Brian has about 10 minutes left, Paul six. And there only looks to be one bingo on the board: SOLANINS. Brian's had DIPLANAR* challenged off. The winner's definitely in the driver's seat for the $200 first prize. And in a major upset, Jeff Clark is still playing while Pete Zeigler hands me his winners slip! Pete beat Kit Morehead, her seventh loss in a row. Ouch.

JASON IDALSKI (3:50 PM) Don't know what it was, but Maureen Kennerk challenged off Jeff Fiszbein's 113-point play. "I thought it was good both ways," Jeff says on the way back from the computer. As they sit down again, Maureen breathes a huge sigh of relief. Wish I could read the far challenge computer from here...

JASON IDALSKI (3:42 PM) The first four winners slips in are Ohio. Well, four of the first five, as Scott Pianowski's winners slip from his game against Linda Hoggatt got misplaced. Jeff Fiszbein has Michigan's only other win in the round. The overall lead dwindles to 50-34. Brian Bowman extends his win streak to nine. Paul Epstein (who challenged TINSELED in a loss to Dan Stock, although the game was decided by that point) and Bowman are each 10-2. Michigan's new slogan is now "Quit f***ing around!" Round 13 is under way. Michigan needs three wins to clinch.

JASON IDALSKI (3:24 PM) Jeff Clark's slide continues in a particularly painful way. He led and had BGIINOS and Maureen Kennerk had ADEEER?. To block bingos through the L, Jeff played a four-overlap BIGS before seeing it made OG*. So he played GIBS. Problem was, that made OB*! Maureen insta-challenged and bingoed out to win by 80-some. Pete Zeigler beat Carolyn Easter at Table 6. I see DORKIEST and FAG on the board. It's getting personal!

JASON IDALSKI (2:43 PM) The combined 1080 game between Paul Epstein and Pete Zeigler was cornered by the time I got back from lunch. George and I, to get our fix, played two speed games. I won both, drawing all four blanks. Made a couple cool plays in the first one: Q(U)RSH with seven consonants and C(R)EWCUT to dump. Getting back to the tournament, Round 12 is under way. Some bad streaks going on from this perspective. Kit Morehead's lost five in a row and Jeff Clark and Scott Pianowski have lost three in a row while Brian Bowman has won eight in a row and Kelly MacKenzie three to go from 1-7 to 4-7. Hats off to K-Mac, who handled a rough day yesterday with class and grace. And he's obviously quite resilient. Fortunately we only need five wins in four rounds, as we're limping to the finish line. George will probably be updating photos for most of this round, per Stocky's tongue-lashing while checking the live coverage at lunch. :) OK, gotta update the standings now.

JASON IDALSKI (1:26 PM) Paul Epstein beat Pete Zeigler 572-508! More to come on that, I'm sure. At table 1, Steve Grob and Dan Stock are recounting. Jeff Fiszbein looked to be having a tough go of it against Brian Bowman, who's just won his eighth in a row. A couple of "reversal" streaks continued as Kelly McKenzie beat Jeff Clark. After starting 1-7, Kelly's won three in a row while Jeff lost his third in a row. Maureen Kennerk beat Scott Pianowski; Maureen's won her second in a row after starting 0-9 while Scott's lost his third in a row. Another 5-2 round for Ohio; the losses were Pete's 508 and Stock's 441-432 loss to Grob. Momentum's definitely shifting. Time for lunch! Announcements will begin at 2:30.

JASON IDALSKI (12:57 PM) It's a little disappointing that after four hours, we're only in the middle of our fourth game. Why can't everyone play as fast as Jeff Clark? :) It's felt like a long day already and there's still 4 1/2 rounds to go... Trip-trips are flying fast and furious. Paul Epstein got into the act, playing TENNI(s)ES through Pete Zeigler's previous play of M(I)SWIREs*. I hear Pete announce a score of 92 and joke he's going to set a personal record for high loss. Sounds like that game could be an interesting write-up. Very quiet, very subdued room today. Not a whole lot going on, but that's never stopped me from writing before!

JASON IDALSKI (12:26 PM) Sorry for the lack of commentary, but George and I had to make our first director's ruling. Ohio takes the round 5-2 to cut the deficit to 46-24. Bowman got the first four bingos down in his game with Clark (SPEEDIN(G), DILATER, REsPOOL and VIOLINS). Clark bingoed late with AN(T)IQuES to keep it close. Round 11 is getting under way.

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (11:51 AM) Jeff Clark's game is the first done once again.  He's lost his second in a row, this one to Brian Bowman (OH).  Bowman has won his last seven in a row, which means he swept the team.  Very impressive, though we all knew he was a good player.  That's why we gerrymandered to include Villa Hills, Kentucky as part of Ohio.  Pete Zeigler (OH) has just triple-tripled on Steve Grob with DErA(N)GES.  Looks like Zeigler could pull out of his slump here, and against a pretty tough competitor. 

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (11:36 AM) Scott Pianowski has offered his own prize of $1.53 in change to the person who wins the 53rd game (the clinch) for their team.  It doesn't sound like much until you convert it into soft tacos.  The double-double STRIVERS sits on the board of Maureen Kennerk (OH) vs. Kit Morehead (MI).  Not sure whose it was, but Maureen's gotta be hungry for her first victory.  Dan Stock just laid down OPTIcaL with both blanks at table 2.  It looks like this tourney's big ratings gainer might be Carolyn Easter (MI), who slayed Ohio's top seed Kelly McKenzie (rated 1758) twice, as well as Dan Stock.  Carolyn is 6-3 after 9 rounds. 

JASON IDALSKI (11:29 AM) Jeff Clark's off to another bad start at Table 1, this time vs. Brian Bowman. Bowman bingoed with SPEEDIN(G) and Clark took two consecutive zeroes, one for having URIA* challenged off and the ensuing exchange. And now Bowman just dropped down DILATER. Kelly McKenzie's still waiting for Scott Pianowski to show, only fair since Scott waited for Kelly yesterday. 

JASON IDALSKI (11:07 AM) In case people think I was too critical of Jeff Clark, it should be noted that he's playing with an upset stomach today. For the good of the team, I made an emergency run to Wal-Mart for Pepto-Bismol. Insert your G.I. Joel joke here. Pete Zeigler's lamenting his loss to Jeff Fiszbein ... apparently missed his best out (which would've won) and earlier in the game let Jeff get away with KELTIES*. Needless to say, he's not pleased with his own performance. 4-3 Ohio that round to close the gap to 44-19. The room's pretty empty ... are people checking out of the hotel? They're starting to file in ... round 10 is getting under way.

JASON IDALSKI (10:46 AM) Jeff Clark has lost, 486-373 to Dan Stock. In addition to letting TRENDERS* go and having IGUANINE* challenged off, he accidentally gave a home to Dan's then-orphan out bingo of LEADIER. It's actually surprising the spread was only 113, all things considered. "I made a lot of mistakes that game," Jeff said. "I gave up. I'm sorry, captain," he said to me. At 8-1, I think I'll forgive him. Hopefully he can get back to his winning ways next round. We still haven't clinched, after all...

JASON IDALSKI (10:27 AM) Well, it looks like we won't be having any undefeateds. Dan Stock quickly followed up TRENDERS* with RETIR(I)NG and then challenged off Jeff's IGUANIN(E)*. Scott Pianowski commented that Brian Bowman's bEASTIE was "the best David Gibson word." He had to explain it to Brian, and he'll have to explain it to me, too...

JASON IDALSKI (10:11 AM) It's the first triple-triple of the tournament, and it's a phony! Dan Stock played TrENDE(R)S* for 131 on Jeff Clark, who didn't even hold. No bingoes in DEENRST? have the R seventh, according to Zyzzyva. Could Mr. Lucky's luck stop here?

JASON IDALSKI (10:05 AM) Brian Bowman records the only point for Ohio that round in his win over Kit Morehead. A 6-1 round bumps Michigan to an eye-popping 41-15. This seems like a good time to mention that, before Orlando, Ohio's average rating was higher than Michigan's. This beatdown is totally unexpected. I just wish I could take some of the credit... Six of seven Round 9 games are under way.

JASON IDALSKI (9:48 AM) Surprise, surprise: Jeff Clark's the first to deposit his winners' slip. 8-0, +888. Maybe the Chinese are onto something with that whole "8 being a lucky number" thing... Looks like Scott Pianowski beat Dan Stock at Table 1. Five games still in progress.

JASON IDALSKI (9:35 AM) Dan Stock's blank designation was an E for his play of TONeTIC, held but correctly unchallenged by Scott Pianowski. More defensive than the only other seven in the rack, TaCTION. A directing perk: You get to learn words while observing/Zyzzyva-ing! And speaking of blank designations, Paul Epstein called the blank a Q when he just played SILIqUE on Maureen Kennerk. Mike Stafford just played OGEE on Jeff Fiszbein, who commented: "No wonder I can't get any vowels!" Little does Jeff know Mike's leave was EEE...

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (9:20 AM) Things haven't looking good for Ohio, but I'm pretty sure the crew did some soul-searching last night and realized they shouldn't take Michigan's abuse lying down.  Dan Stock (OH) even eschewed his regular purple attire for Ohio State scarlet & grey.  Getting a picture of Dan Stock not wearing purple is like getting a picture of Bigfoot.  Early in their game, Brian Bowman (OH) and Kit Morehead (MI) have some bingos on their board. CREWMEN, CASEFIED and ADENITIS.  I'm not sure who played what.  Paul Epstein (MI) played HYALINE, with the last five tiles sitting neatly atop Maureen Kennerk's (OH) opening TONER.  Meanwhile, Jason and I are holding it down up front.  We've been writing inspirational messages to our team on the dry erase board behind us.  Yesterday mine included "Don't lose anymore, please!"  I see Dan Stock filling out a blank slip...

JASON IDALSKI (9:17 AM) At Table 1, after Dan Stock passed five, Scott Pianowski jokingly said: "Pass zero, game over." Their board looks, as Blanche Devereaux once said, "tighter than the girdle on the minister's wife at an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast." Last night Steve Grob said "If we lose this lead, it'll go down in Scrabble lore," to which I said: "Don't even MENTION that!!" I heard Brian Bowman say "82," and literally a second later Linda Hoggatt said "84, O," so this round may not be off to the best of starts for Michigan.

JASON IDALSKI (9:07 AM) We're playing eight today, and since Stocky wants to get to the Rocky River club (starts at 7:30) and I've got family to visit, I gave the "If you're not ready by 9:00, your opponent can start your clock" edict yesterday, at which Jeff Fiszbein remarked: "Taskmaster." No morning announcements, but people are still cornering tiles at about ten after. The room's quiet ... almost too quiet, a sharp contrast to the boisterousness (is that good?) of yesterday morning. Lots of laughs during poker last night (me first thanks to tripling up with quad sevens), Zeigler second, Grob third) and this morning. Round 8 is now under way. Gotta grab breakfast...

JASON IDALSKI (8:48 PM) Forgot to mention that Epstein opened with a bingo despite having no consonants: EUgEnIA. Upon hearing Jeff Clark was 7-0, Scott Pianowski taunted Pete Zeigler: "If you can't beat Jeff Clark, you guys deserve to lose!" On a roll, he saw Table 1 "uncornered" and said: "Apparently Epstein would spontaneously combust if he ever cornered tiles after a game. I'm not giving him crap ... I trust the doctors on that one." Dan Stock tells me he got away with V(AR)ICaTED* in his win against Kit Morehead. Said a vanquished Carolyn Easter of her opponent, Brian Bowman: "He plays some nice words," pointing out his NERVULE(S) and the tough-to-see E(N)DOSTEA. No slouch herself, Carolyn made the nice find of ExCUSES. But those last two are Ohio's only wins. Michigan wins the round 5-2 and leads 35-14 after day one. Can't ask for much more than that. Time for poker! 

JASON IDALSKI (8:25 PM) Jeff Clark beats Mike Stafford (despite missing the out bingo OOGAMET(E) ... ooh, I wish I hadn't walked by at that point) to go 7-0 today. At one point, Jeff's clock had more than 20 minutes while Mike's had less than 10. I had to take a picture! Paul Epstein's having his way with Ohio No. 1 Kelly McKenzie at Table 1. Despite a rough day (he'll go to 1-6), Kelly's taking it in stride. Good on him. My favorite play of Paul's was not his 40-point K(U)NZITE, but his 18-point W(A)RREN. My hometown! Yay, Paul! Games are finishing, but the room's pretty quiet. Maybe the players are as tired as I am...

JASON IDALSKI (7:45 PM) Mike Stafford won his third in a row for Ohio, beating Scott Pianowski. He and Bowman were the only Ohioans to win, though, as Michigan takes the round 5-2 and restores their 18-point pre-dinner lead: 30-12. 

JASON IDALSKI (7:36 PM) As I thought, the Steve Grob/Kelly McKenzie game was a shootout. Steve played ZEST for 47 in the top of the second. Kelly played MEERKAT for 89 in the third and followed with EX for 38 to lead 165-63. Steve played INVERTOR for 74 to answer, but Kelly played DAUPhIN for 70. Steve played QUASH for 67, but Kelly played YULE/(ZEST)Y for 50. (That's 247 in four turns for Kelly, if you're scoring at home.) Steve finally put it away by bingoing with BILGING (which Kelly challenged) and later bingo-bangoing out with InDUSIA and (A)NORETIC (Jeff Clark pointed out (D)OCTRINE was 22 more). Steve won 519-432. Look for the annotation on their LJs next week! :)

JASON IDALSKI (7:23 PM) Jeff Clark is first in (again), and first to 6-0. Paul Epstein doesn't look like he'll be 6-0. Brian Bowman bingoed out with (P)ATELLaR and caught Paul with EGGNRXY. Yuch! (Note the lack of an asterisk, Pianowski!) :)

JASON IDALSKI (7:16 PM) Only seven boards, but two Z bingos! At Table 1, Brian Bowman played AZOTISE against Paul Epstein and I see AZURITES on the Scott Pianowski/Mike Stafford board. Also, the two Jeffs (Clark and Fiszbein) are sitting next to each other this round. Gotta get a pic of that.

JASON IDALSKI (7:08 PM) We decided, since it was a double round-robin, to draw for first every game today and switch for the second round-robin. Dan Stock's gone second all six times! At Table 2, Steve Grob and Kelly McKenzie have a beautiful-looking board, with MEERKAT and DAUPhIN. INVERTORS is there, too, but it looks like it was just the eight -S hooked. Still, that's looking like a shootout. Jeff Clark found the only bingo in AAIMNNT and played it to open against Linda Hoggatt. As Linda verbalized it while Jeff was on hold, I thought "it can't be good," but it is. You see it? Looks like Mr. Lucky may go to 6-0 here...

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (7:02 PM) The Ohio team pulled out 5 wins to Michigan's 2 in the last round to double their win total.  Kelly McKenzie, Brian Bowman, Pete Zeigler, Mike Stafford and Linda Hoggatt all pulled it out.  That's more like it.

Pat Hardwick of Stow, OH sends the following inspirational poem:

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (6:55 PM) I was nearly beheaded by Linda Hoggatt when she saw that I had made an error in my blog entry for this round.  It was she that played YUCH and her opponent, Scott Pianowski who challenged it.  See, even the players here are checking the live commentary!

JASON IDALSKI (6:36 PM) Again, Jeff Clark is first in, and again he wins. However, after that five Ohio people deposit winners' slips, including Kelly McKenzie, who held off Jeff Fiszbein's comeback in part by getting away with GUNITES/(GLADIATE)S*. Everybody's shocked the latter is no good. Paul Epstein beats Dan Stock at table 1, so Ohio doubles its win total. 25-10 Michigan heading to round 6.

JASON IDALSKI (6:06 PM) Another double-V bingo: OVErSA(V)E on the Pete Zeigler vs. Carolyn Easter board. So, all future opponents of mine, remember: Hang onto those Vs! At Table 1, Paul Epstein drew a "nice play" from Dan Stock by playing (M)UTiNOUS. The Tile Gods rewarded Paul as he bangoed with (P)ERIGONS/(HAUT)E. Looks like Ohio may be starting to right the ship in this round, though I hope the other shoe stays in the air a little longer...

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (5:53pm) Ohio spirits are high after dinner.  I'll make a prediction right now that Ohio is over 18 wins by the end of the day.  Call it optimistic, but if this ship goes down, I'm going down with it.  At table 1, Dan Stock (OH) is playing Paul Epstein (MI), who's hot off a great performance at Nationals.  Kelly McKenzie (OH) just exchanged 7 and pulled out a playable LOADERS on Jeff Fiszbein (MI).  Linda Hoggatt (OH) just won a challenge when Scott Pianowski (MI) called shenanigans on her YUCH.  A quick glance around the room shows that two Ohio players have blanks on their racks, another holds AEINOSZ and yet another holds AEILNOT.  This could be a step in the right direction.  Anyone with pro-Ohio/anti-Michigan statements can send them to gcviebranzjr@gmail.com.

JASON IDALSKI (5:16 PM) Players are filtering in from the dinner break. Round 5 starts at 5:30. Ohio had two wins that round, but both were close: Brian Bowman beat Jeff Fiszbein 474-465 and Mike Stafford beat Carolyn Easter 435-421 thanks in part to a nice MACHREE find. 23-5?!?! Somebody pinch me! The Bowman/Fiszbein game was interesting: Jeff up 93, one in the bag, Brian on turn. Brian played (O)A(F)/A(MAZED) for 24 and had a final rack of AEHIRRS. Jeff saw Brian had (T)RASHIER for 95 so blocked and scored by playing WAW for 29, leaving PILL. Brian then bingoed out with RA(V)ISHER for 92 to win by nine! In the post-dinner post-mortem, we noticed Jeff missed TRa(V)ELED as a trip-trip for 149. D'oh! The world's slowest eater is now chowing down on most of his rice left over from dinner.

JASON IDALSKI (3:55 PM) I still can't get over the team standings on the big board behind us. 18-3?!?!?! This should be a fairly even match. Kelly McKenzie said yesterday the over/under for Michigan wins was 61.5 (of 105; 53 clinches) and Scott Pianowski, Pete Zeigler, George and I all thought it was way too high. I set the over/under at 57 and K-Mac put $5 on the over. If this keeps up, I will seldom be happier to lose a prop bet! Linda Hoggatt said she's planning to get the whole Michigan team drunk tonight and leave them in a ditch. I hope she's joking... And the work of a captain is never done. I had to replace Jeff Fiszbein's pen when it died on him and I just took an in-person outplay challenge at table 7, stuck in the corner. Dan Stock had JO(B)HUNTS* challenged off by Steve Grob early in their game at table 1. "Woulda been a good low-prob word," he said on the way back from the judging computer.

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (3:46 PM) My team is down 18-3 and I'm hoping I don't have mutiny on my hands after round 4.  All hands are on deck, though.  Ohio's top seed Kelly MacKenzie (who hails from the greater Cincinnati area, though his mailing address is in Kentucky) is off to a terribly uncharacteristic 0-3 lead.  I expect those wrongs to right themselves starting in this round.  Daniel Stock, Ohio proper's perennial top player is 1-2.  Judging by his body language, he might lose this one to Steve Grob.  Both played back-to-back bingos about 5 minutes ago.  Mike Stafford vs. Carolyn Easter is a pretty even game.  That one could go either way.  I'm nervously awaiting the tally slips, though my hopes are high.  Like recording artist Billy Ocean says, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."  I've never known any of my team to give up easily. 

JASON IDALSKI (3:17 PM) A Michigan sweep that round and an 18-3 lead! A lot of groans and gasps when that went on the board. As captain, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop!

JASON IDALSKI (3:04 PM) Jeff Clark's been done first all three rounds. And he's won all three games. Carolyn Easter deposited her winner's slip second ... also 3-0 (as Michigan's bottom seed!). Linda Hoggatt tells me that last night she's playing Jeff Clark in a friendly game. She plays NESTEGG* using a blank and Jeff jokingly asks why she didn't play NESTAGE. Today, she plays Epstein, and when NEGATES won't go, she tries NESTAGE*! Well, Paul wasn't having any of that and Linda's accusing Jeff of sabotaging Ohio.

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (2:43 PM) My hiatus from blogging has nothing to do with the fact that my Ohioans are down by a significant amount.  I have faith in them, and I am just waiting for some Ohio wins to turn up in the results box.  Ohio is definitely the underdog if you're going by raw numbers, but I think things will even out and Ohio will at least hold their own, if not completely decimate

JASON IDALSKI (2:10 PM) Turns out Pete Zeigler had the only Ohio win that round. Michigan off to a blazing 11-3 start. I promise to stop monopolizing the commentary while leaving George to work. Looks like everybody's just begun round 3.

JASON IDALSKI (2:00 PM) At Table 1, Jeff Clark beat Dan Stock 486-314. Dan pointed out that Jeff got eight power tiles. In addition to Jeff's two bingos posted below, he made UN(A)RMED as a 40-point double-double, DISH for 40, ZONER for 41 and QUIN for 35. At Table 3, Michigan's other Jeff (Fiszbein) went down to Pete Zeigler 474-371. Pete outbingoed Jeff 4-0, with CAR(Y)OTIN, AROI(N)tED, gLEAMED and LUS(T)ERED. Jeff, drowning in consonants, kept it somewhat respectable with ZI(T)S for 69 and EX for 36. "If I can keep drawing like this, it'll be a good day, Pete said. It turns out C(A)NNON was just a consonant-dump by Jeff, not a bingo as earlier reported. At Table 2, Scott Pianowski beat Brian Bowman. EvASIVE was Scott's, but Brian points out that he played oEDEMAT(A) to the triple. Gotta love those bingos ending in A. Players are taking their seats for round 3.

JASON IDALSKI (1:42 PM) Who says duplicated letters are a hindrance? Some bingos this round: AbSOR(B)ER (Jeff Clark vs. Dan Stock), EvASIVE (on the Brian Bowman/Scott Pianowski board), and CANNONS (on the Pete Zeigler/ Jeff Fiszbein board). Kelly McKenzie's playing Kit Morehead, and I see CRItICA(L), LINTIES(T) and the phony (I)NTERLIE* in their game.

JASON IDALSKI (1:17 PM) Dan Stock plays CARO(L)ING, in honor of two very good players missing from this event, Jean Carol (OH) and Carol Ravichandran (MI). I wish we had annotators at Table 1! Since this is the "poor man's Can-Am," Brian Bowman said we need to find the "poor man's Chris Lipe." But who is that?

JASON IDALSKI (1:14 PM) Jeff Clark and Dan Stock at Table 1. Jeff, a.k.a. "Mr. Lucky," pulls ?CIKLRU to open. Didn't take him long to find the bingo! Dan answers with (K)IWI, "in honor of our national champion."

JASON IDALSKI (1:09 PM) Michigan takes an early 5-2 lead. The first upset came when Michigan's No. 7, Carolyn Easter, beat Ohio's No. 1, Kelly McKenzie, by a score of 454-339. Round 2 is getting under way.

JASON IDALSKI (12:52 PM) It should come as no surprise that Jeff Clark's game was the first one done. He plays at three speeds: fast, faster and breakneck. Jeff beat Pete Zeigler 533-362, giving Michigan the early 1-0 lead. 52 more to clinch!

JASON IDALSKI (12:41 PM) Playing Scott Pianowski at Table 1, Dan Stock bingoed with ENtRAINED from EN, hooking the blank T to BOT. Nice fit! We have five specialty prizes: Low-prob seven, low-prob eight, high turn, high MI word and high OH word. METERING is on the Jeff Clark/Pete Zeigler board, so one of them's the early leader for that prize!

JASON IDALSKI (12:30 PM) While many people were still drawing to go first, Jeff Fiszbein announced his score of 70 and asked if there was a prize for first bingo. The word was DIARIES. I don't think that'll hold up for the low-prob seven prize...

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (12:24 PM) Games are under way now.  We tried to keep the announcements short and sweet, as the group was clearly ready to throw some tiles down.  We've already had to be the bad guys and shush the players as games were beginning.  Such is the case when you get fourteen people who know each other well in a room together.

JASON IDALSKI (10:33 AM): Testing, 1...2...3... George and I came in before 9:00 to set up and saw Maureen Kennerk setting up her board. She said she wasn't sure if it started at 9 or 9:30, upon which George had to break the news that we're starting at noon today! We'll see if the early bird gets the worm!

GEORGE VIEBRANZ (10:23 AM) Final preparations are wrapping up and co-director/Michigan Captain Jason Idalski and I are enjoying our continental breakfasts in the tourney room.  Players should start rolling in within the hour.  The tourney should run very smoothly and Jason's and my directorial debut  should be an enjoyable one.  The room is very comfortably set up, the top three tables will have one game each, and tables 4-7 will be two games to a table.  Now we play the waiting game...