In the drawn-out, yearlong journey that is the Portland Pub Scrabble tournament series, we have finally reached the midpoint of it all. There are 11 tournaments in all, from the start of 2024 to the end, and this past weekend was event #6 of 11.

When you run a marathon, the halfway point is a good opportunity to hit the nearest aid station, grab a cup of water, chug it, and find that second wind.

In a marathon Scrabble series, though? It's a chance to, well... hit the next brewery, grab a beer, drink it, and keep playing tournaments.

On Saturday, that's precisely what 9 intrepid Scrabblers did.

Here's what went down:

• This event drew a diverse field of players including the usual Portland locals plus a couple of visitors - Alec Sjöholm made the trip down from the Seattle area, plus special guest Jesse Matthews made a surprise landing at PDX the night before and played the tournament. With 9 players in total, everyone played 6 rounds (with a bye tossed into the mix).

• We saw an exciting race for the title this time. Through four rounds, there was a very tight pack of four players competing for first. Dave Wiegand was in first place at 4-0 +404, but three players - Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, Alec, and Jesse - were all 3-1 with spreads between 250 and 450. Any one of them could win.

• Round 5 brought two nailbiters at the top, as Alec topped Dave, 451-438, and Jesse snuck past Conrad, 424-405. This set up an insanely close finish - with one round to go, it was Dave, Jesse, and Alec all knotted up at 4-1, and their spreads were 391, 296, and 293.

• In the end, Dave took it down. He notched a big win over Jesse in the final game to seal the deal, and Alec meanwhile bested Conrad to secure second place. Travis Chaney moved into third place with a 4-2 record of his own; Jesse finished fourth.

Congrats to Dave on taking home the win, as well as to everyone else who finished strong. This is Dr. Bing's third Portland Pub victory of the year; only Conrad, Alec, and Kolton Koehler have secured wins this year otherwise. But there's still a long way to go in 2024, and many more tournament opportunities ahead.

The next “PPS” event will take place at Oregon City Brewing Company on Saturday, July 20. After that, we'll have four more pub tournaments sprinkled throughout the rest of the year - on Aug. 24, Oct. 5, Nov. 2, and Dec. 7.

Pace yourselves, Scrabblers. There are still many tournaments - and many craft brews - still to come.