LAST EDITED ON 04-24-13 AT 11:34 PM (EST)
But the Danger Must Be Growing...
Man, that Roadblock sure was trippy. All the psychedelic colors and stuff was reminding me of that tunnel scene in the original Willy Wonka movie. I kept half-expecting Gene Wilder's face to fill the screen and start reciting poetry.
Also, the neon letter museum, what the heck.
Week 9 Results
1st place - Max/Katie (2x)
2nd place - Joey/Meghan (1.5x)
3rd place - Caroline/Jennifer (even)
4th place - Bates/Anthony (.5x)
5th place - Mona/Beth (0x)
And Then There Were 14
Oof. Very rough week this week. Bates & Anthony were a really solid pick almost all season long, but their meltdown at the letters Detour really sunk a lot of scores. To put things in perspective, a 360 point loan on them scored played -180, plus another 108 points in interest. Being down 288 points immediately is a tough place to come back from. 
Because of this (and Mona/Beth's last place finish) we had 7 different placers bust out of the game: CTgirl, Java, beau_30, Starshine, Belle Book, bystander, and bbenzenberg. It was a pretty tough way to go out, but like I said last week, it's better to go out swinging, after all. Thanks for playing, all of you! Hope to see you guys back next year! 
The Greatest Gainer Award goes to Ontheroadagain, who climbed a whopping 11 ranks this week to nudge himself into the Top 5. Way to go!
The Perfect Bet Award goes to IanQuentin, who completely wrecked the grading curve with a maxed-out Max/Katie bet, as well as being the only player who correctly answered the Bonus Game (all DIFFERENT). Very nicely done!
Leaderboard
1. IanQuentin - 1554
2. Jims02 - 1042
3. Molaholic - 1020
4. KwietOne - 870
5. Ontheroadagain - 674
6. alemattos - 500
7. flipxcyd - 472
8. FFantasyFX - 420
9. sarah1234 - 350
10. louislam - 312
11. vennui - 254
12. pepperz - 182
13. Yogi - 72
14. taffnic - 46
15. CTgirl - 0
16. Java - -20
17. beau_30 - -38
18. Starshine - -118
19. Belle Book - -156
20. bystander - -158
21. bbenzenberg - -196
IanQuentin has jumped out to a huge lead now, exceeding the second place players' total by 50%. It's a pretty significant lead, but then again with this magical credit card available, no lead is truly safe.
We're also down to only 14 players, so there may be quite a bit of jockeying for position and/or mindgames going down the stretch. With so few people left, maybe just outlasting everyone might be the winning strategy?
As usual, the final week (whenever that is) is going to be no limit. And I'm revoking the credit cards at that point, too. So keep that in mind as you prepare for these final rounds.
Week 10 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.6x
3rd place - Break even
4th place - .4x
5th place - 0x
Max Individual Bet - 450 points
Credit Limit - 400 points
Interest Rate - 20%
Interest rate going back down to 20%, considering the crash last week. But really, one bad 400-point loan at this point is going to break most everyone's chances anyway.
Bonus Game - U-Turn Fever
As we saw in the previews, there's going to be a Double U-Turn in the next leg. So in this game, the object is to predict who will U-Turn who.
But there's a catch. You can choose to either predict one of the U-Turns or you can try to predict both of them. It's an all-or-nothing wager, however, so if you get any part of your guess incorrect, you lose the whole wager. But if you're able to successfully nail both of the U-Turns, you get an even bigger bonus.
Whether you're guessing one of the U-Turns or both of them, the max bet is 50 points for this game. So if you go for both, it's not like you're betting 25 on each... You're betting the points on the whole set.
A sample wager might look like:
Bonus Game - 50 points
Max/Katie U-Turns Mona/Beth
Or if you're going for both...
Bonus Game - 50 points
Max/Katie U-Turns Mona/Beth
Joey/Meghan U-Turns Bates/Anthony
But, remember, you gotta get the whole thing correct to win the bonus. Just one piece wrong, and you lose the whole wager. So try not to go too crazy. 
U-Turn Payout Table
Correct Answer - 10x
Incorrect Answer - 0x
Max Bet - 50 points
If you can successfully guess both U-Turns, I'm bumping the payout up to 15x. That's +700 in one swoop if you can do it.
TAR22 Teams Remaining
Bates/Anthony
Caroline/Jennifer
Joey/Meghan
Max/Katie
Mona/Beth
Good luck!
It's on like Donkey Kong, Mr. Quentin.
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