
That's Love
It's been awhile since we've seen someone on the show who looked like they wanted to kill their teammate more than Wynona. I get that Chuck was just joking around with some of his comments when they were sitting around, but Wynona really didn't seem to be in a joking mood. It might just be their dynamic, though, heightened by the stress of the race.
Week 8 Results
1st place - Bates/Anthony (2x)
2nd place - Mona/Beth (1.7x)
3rd place - Max/Katie (1.2x)
4th place - Caroline/Jennifer (.9x)
5th place - Joey/Meghan (.2x)
6th place - Chuck/Wynona (0x)
A No Limit Game in Disguise
Y'know when I decided to go with this credit card gimmick this season, I didn't realize we'd have 1 team completely outclass everyone for 3 straight weeks. 
Basically, Bates/Anthony is making the standings look pretty silly these days, as all of our scores are in the upper stratosphere now. The Bonus Game was surprisingly difficult to nail down, however, so it did allow a few people to jump away from the pack a little.
We did lose one player this week, however: mikey. He went after that bonus game wager and unfortunately whiffed on it. But, as I say, it's best to go down swinging in this game. Thanks for playing, mikey! 
The Greatest Gainer Award goes to alemattos and Belle Book, who both climbed up 7 ranks this week, all the way to a Top 3 finish each. Now that is how it's done.
The Perfect Bet Award goes to bbenzenberg, who snagged an awesome 5x payout with a credit card bet. Way to go!
Leaderboard
1. alemattos - 545
2. IanQuentin - 542
3. Belle Book - 489
4. Java - 478
5. Yogi - 472
6. taffnic - 472
7. Jims02 - 460
8. FFantasyFX - 454
9. louislam - 451
10. KwietOne - 408
11. Molaholic - 388
12. flipxcyd - 384
13. vennui - 362
14. Starshine - 360
15. sarah1234 - 350
16. Ontheroadagain - 328
17. bystander - 260
18. CTgirl - 217
19. beau_30 - 216
20. bbenzenberg - 186
21. pepperz - 182
22. MzTee - 22
23. Estee - 7
24. mikey - 0
So, two weeks ago, pepperz jumped from #8 all the way to #1 the following week. And then last week IanQuentin jumped from #8 to #1 overall. And now this week alemattos climbs all the way to #1 from the #8 spot.
So that means it's a good week to be FFantasyFX. 
Week 9 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.5x
3rd place - Break even
4th place - .5x
5th place - 0x
Max Individual Bet - 380 points
Credit Limit - 360 points
Interest Rate - 30%
We're cranking that interest rate up to 30%. And when everyone still manages to profit this week, we're going to 40!
We're probably in for a huge, huge crash sooner or later.
Bonus Game - Same or Different?
In this game, the object is to determine if each of the 5 teams is going to finish in the same rank as last week or in a different one. If you get all 5 of your predictions correct, you win. But if you get even one of your guesses wrong, then you'll lose your bet.
Same/Diff Payout Table
All 5 Correct - 20x
At Least 1 Incorrect - 0x
Max Bet - 20 points
Yeah, you're reading that right. We're offering 20-to-1 odds on this game. I finally got around to counting how many different combinations there are. By my count, there's 27 of them, with only 1 correct answer. So I'm giving me a 7x house edge and calling it 20x.
Remember, your wager is on the whole set of 5 teams, so it's an all-or-nothing thing. For example, a bonus bet might look like:
Bonus - 20 points
Bates/Anthony - SAME
Mona/Beth - DIFFERENT
Max/Katie - SAME
Caroline/Jennifer - DIFFERENT
Meghan/Joey - SAME
Heck, you can even vote all 5 SAME or all 5 DIFFERENT if you want. It's up to you!
TAR22 Teams Remaining
Bates/Anthony
Caroline/Jennifer
Joey/Meghan
Max/Katie
Mona/Beth
Good luck!

And to think I only offered 6x on the bonus game last year. What a rip-off.