Surf's up!
It's nice that Hawaii finally got to be the Finish Line for this season. Usually, the show treats the state (and Alaska) as the unofficial layover before the final destination city. I wasn't overly impressed with the tasks (surfboards? pigs?) but it was a nice locale.
Oh, and Tammy & Victor won. Good job. 
Finale Results
1st place - Tammy/Victor (2x)
2nd place - Cara/Jaime (even)
3rd place - Margie/Luke (0x)
Millions of "Million"s
As usual, the final bonus game was to predict who would say "million" first. Usually, it ends up being the first team out the gate, but Tammy/Victor avoided saying it. It actually came in after 15 minutes when Jaime said the episode quote, "This is how you lose a million dollars," on the beach. And then they said the word over and over and over and over. I counted literally 7-10 times, they said it.
This week's Perfect Bet Award goes to 5cats with a nice 2.96x payout. Way to go!
The Greatest Gainer Award goes to shilfiell who jumped 9 ranks in the final week.
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What?
Oh, you wanted results?
Fine. I've hidden the Top 10 scores in invisible ink, in case you want to reveal them one-by-one dramatically. Highlight them to read it.
Leaderboard
1. 5cats - 44110
2. ARNutz - 20074
3. KwietOne - 8853
4. louislam - 5702
5. Weez - 3634
6. SilverStar - 2555
7. CTgirl - 2174
8. Element King - 2000
9. bbenzenberg - 1605
10. dragonflies - 1206
11. Yogi - 1200
12. Belle Book - 856
13. jbenz - 720
14. Ontheroadagain - 400
15. Higgs - 263
16. vennui - 176
17. FFantasyFX - 140
18. shilfiell - 63
19. tvgeek401 - 46
20. Quepea - 23
21. michel - 12
22. Jims02 - 10
23. kidflash212 - 4
24. sarah1234 - 1
25. popeave - 1
26. flipxcyd - 0
27. beau_30 - 0
28. taffnic 0
29. MzTee - 0
In the end, it was 5cats who managed to leap ahead to 1st place and is the TAR14 Casino Game Grand Champion. Although never leading the pack in a single week, 5cats played an extremely consistent game, starting at #11 after Week 1 and hovering in the Top 10 all the way through. It looked like 5cats was going to be stuck at #4 all season long until Week 9 happened (Kisha/Jen's win) where they jumped to #2. Ultimately a comped Tammy/Victor wager landed 5cats the victory.
Congratulations. You have joined the TAR Casino Game Hall Of Fame!
Previous Casino Game Champions
TAR5 Casino Game - zombiebaby
TAR6 Casino Game - VA Slim
TAR7 Casino Game - esquire
TAR8 Casino Game - Neobie
TAR9 Casino Game - Neobie
TARX Casino Game - bighair
TAR All Stars Casino Game - Higgs
TAR12 Casino Game - KwietOne
TAR13 Casino Game - CTgirl
TAR14 Casino Game - 5cats
ARNutz ended up snagging the Silver Medal overall. ARNutz played a similar game to 5cats, getting a major push in Week 9, but just came up short in the end. Still, a very impressive game played. Finishing third, and snagging the Bronze Medal, was past Casino champ KwietOne. KwietOne was off to an early start, winning a few weeks and being a dominant force. Got passed by ARNutz and 5cats in Week 9, but still finished strong. Congrats!
Special mention goes out to Yogi, who utterly dominated the game early on (much like KwietOne). The Tammy/Victor shakeout in Week 9 hurt his score, forcing him to play catch-up. Tammy/Victor's domination of the race after that point didn't make a comeback possible, so he ended up finishing just outside of the Top 10.
Closing Remarks
Actually, great job to everyone this season. With the comps as crazy as they were, just getting to the final week is an accomplishment. Consider the fact that we started with 50 players.
Before closing out the season, I'd like to thank everyone for playing this year. I say it every year, but I mean it. Every season, I'm extremely gratified by the turnout each year for my little online game. Every season when I start up the game, it's literally one of those "The gang's getting back together!" moments. It's great to see all the familiar faces back each year, as well as welcoming in the new players.
So thanks for playing, everyone! It's been fun!
I'm also obsessed with improving the game each season, and I eagerly await your input on the stuff you liked/disliked. This is stuff like regular rules, betting structure, bonus games, or general complaints against my hotel staff.
Or if you have new ideas, post 'em! As you saw this year with the comps, I like experimenting with the rules. Not all of them always work the best (considering the TAR results), but I'll always lean on the wacky side rather than play it safe.
Anyway, that's it for me. See you next season!
A 2003 IceCat original
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