LAST EDITED ON 12-15-10 AT 09:16 PM (EST)History = Made
Well, it's about time a female/female team wins The Amazing Race, especially after that awful Eric/Danielle debacle in All-Stars. Although regardless of their gender, I don't think many people would deny that Nat/Kat were a good TAR team, period. They did have a couple close calls earlier in the race... But when they were firing on all cylinders they were impossible to beat!
Week 11 Results
1st place - Nat/Kat (2x)
2nd place - Brook/Claire (even)
3rd place - Jill/Thomas (0x)
Curse You, TAR Editors! (Part Deux!)
Speaking of history being made, did you know that this was the first TAR Finale that didn't feature one of the Final 3 teams saying the word "million"? I didn't hear it the first time watching, so I ended up watching it again and STILL didn't hear anything!
I know that bit of history isn't as interesting as, say, Nat/Kat's win. Still, it's a piece of trivia you can tell your friends and family. I'd kind of like to see their responses to that bit of trivia. 
Therefore, as is tradition with the "million" bet, all bonus wagers were scooped up by the house. It's kind of a fitting end for the bonus games this season which were, to put it mildly, "impossible to win" this season.
Anyway, the Greatest Gainer Award goes to both 5cats and shilfiell, who both climbed 8 ranks. Nicely done.
The Perfect Bet Award goes to Belle Book and Element King, who both doubled their score in this final week.
As for the final results? Well, here they are.
(highlight to read the Top 10 scores)
Leaderboard
1. Yogi - 3588
2. vennui - 2209
3. louislam - 2187
4. Weez - 700
5. Belle Book - 582
6. CTgirl - 561
7. Ontheroadagain - 401
8. cahaya - 344
9. Jims02 - 161
10. Snidget - 79
11. esquire - 70
12. Starshine - 69
13. 5cats - 37
14. MzTee - 25
15. shilfiell - 20
16. kidflash212 - 12
17. chiubakka - 10
18. ARNutz - 3
19. kduck - 3
20. KwietOne - 2
21. Element King - 2
22. Molaholic - 0
23. popeave - 0
24. flipxycd - 0
25. Deshawnator22 - 0
26. Nume - 0
In the end, Yogi managed to achieve truly a dominant performance this season in the TAR Casino Game, managing to stay in the #1 position for every week of the season. He is also the second player ever to repeat as champion of the Casino Game. For this reason I'm thinking about calling next season TAR18 Casino Game - "Yogi Goes For the Hat Trick". Although that might be too wordy. 
To illustrate how difficult Yogi's feat was, consider how little room there was for error. Being a No Limit game this year, there were multiple people behind him at all times who could overtake him with one poor wager. One .5x payout week and the lead is probably lost. By splitting up some of his later bets, he spread out his risk a little, getting a good-but-not-perfect wager each week as his competition slowly bit into his lead. They were indeed bridging the "percentage gap", but not quite quickly enough. In the end, Yogi took the top prize.
Congrats, Yogi! You are (once again) back in the 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
TAR15 Casino Game - taffnic
TAR16 Casino Game - Yogi
TAR17 Casino Game - Yogi
(Somebody go track down Neobie and we can have Casino Game All-Stars next season. Although next season's TAR is about those who didn't win, so maybe we're due for a new winner?)
Earning the Silver Medal this season was vennui, while louislam took the Bronze. Even though I gushed on and on about Yogi's game, these two certainly deserve some recognition for the way they played. These two were fixtures in the Top 5 all season long, never once falling out of it. vennui took over 2nd place for the latter half of the game with a point total that constantly rivaled Yogi's. louislam took 2nd place a couple times early on, fell to around #5 in the middle of the season, and then surged forward back to #3 overall.
Very nicely done, you guys.
Honestly, I could go on and on about stats all afternoon, and I kinda wish I had the time to go over everyone's stats... The point is that this season, although dominated by one player, did feature of a lot of different people who jumped into the Top 10 at one point during the game.
Final Thoughts (Feedback Appreciated!)
As I wrap up this last entry, I'd like to thank each and every player for participating in the game this season. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's the you guys that make the TAR Casino Game what it is, not me. It's always great seeing the "gang get back together" every season to play our silly little game.
But, honestly, as much as I enjoy hosting, I enjoy playing just as much. This game has actually enhances my viewing of TAR so significantly since I have a stake (although a minor one) in the outcome. I mean, if the payout for 2nd place is 1.8x and the payout for 3rd place is .2x, you know I'm going to be on the edge of my seat to see who finishes 2nd. Normally it wouldn't matter to most people, but that's what this game does to me.
Thankfully, the TAR producers are nice enough to oblige us with a little suspense, even for the later teams. It always surprises me when they do the suspenseful reveals for the 4th/5th place arrivals when there's 11 teams left. I like to pretend that they just do that for the sake of this game.
Anyway, I'm all about feedback, so if you want to, please answer the following questions. You're not obligated to or anything... I just like to have the feedback to consider for next season.
Survey Time!
1. What parts of the Casino Game did you like the best?
2. What parts do you think could be improved?
3. Any ideas of your own? (bonus games, season gimmicks, etc.)
4. Does this game mess with your TAR watching, like it does for me? Do you find yourself yelling at your team to stop screwing around?
#4 is just my own curiosity, as I'm interested if other people get annoyed at their wagered teams like I do. I know I'm not the only one who does that.
Other than that, I'm out of stuff. See you next season!
Time to start thinking of next season's gimmick... Screw with the payout table some more? Loan Sharking every week? Make every rank a possible side-bet? Hmmmmm...
...Ah well, I'll just make something up the week before the season airs, as usual. 
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But a WINNER Siggie would be supercool!
