| DOUBLEORNOTHING | High-stakes gamble, and how the answers with circles can be read |
| HALO | A good circle can wash a lot of things (4) |
| GASRING | Gossip circle can get heated (3,4) |
| TWODRINKMAX | Limit at the bar, and a hint to the answers with circles |
| PRIZEINSIDE | Cracker Jack extra, and what the answers with circles have |
| WRITTENINSTONE | Firmly fixed, and a hint to the answers with circles |
| INNERDEMONS | Personal struggles, and what the answers with circles have |
| LETTUCEWRAP | Low-carb lunch, and a hint to the answers with circles |
| SOAKUPTHESUN | 2002 summer anthem from Sheryl Crow, and what the answers with circles do, in two ways |
| OUTMUSCLED | Overpowered ... or how the Across answers with circles might be described? |
| DOUBLEHEADER | Stadium marathon, or what the eight answers with circles gained individually, and what they gained collectively |
| HIDDENGEMS | What the long Across answers with circles have |
| EVENLYMATCHED | Comparable in skill, like each symmetrical pair of answers with circles? |
| INBED | How breakfast may be served ... or how the answers to the eight starred clues should be entered? |
| MEHDEINCANADA | Like all the answers with pairs of circled letters, punnily |
| IMOUT | "Peace!," and a hint to how the answers to the starred clues were formed |
| BACKWARD | How the answers to the italicized clues must be entered into this puzzle |
| YOURADHERE | Words on an empty billboard, and a hint to how the answers to the starred clues were formed |
| INSIDEOUT | Thoroughly ... or how to read the four Across answers with parentheses in this puzzle |
| HEAVEHO | Dismissal, and a hint to how the answers to starred clues were derived |
