LAST EDITED ON 05-15-14 AT 07:57 PM (EST)
On the Bubble
Those poor Afghanimals just never can get into the finals. The Final 4 always seems to be a leg that something happens to them. I've never been the biggest Afghanimals fan, but I gotta say I was bummed to see them go. They would've made for an entertaining finale.
Week 11 Results
1st place - Dave/Connor (2x)
2nd place - Caroline/Jennifer (1.3x)
3rd place - Brendon/Rachel (.7x)
4th place - Leo/Jamal (0x)
Jockeying for Position
The penultimate week has always been one of my favorites, mostly because it is that final jockeying for position. Whoever is atop the leaderboard basically gets to make whatever pick they want in the finale, and let's everyone else worry about finding an edge. So you start seeing a lot of different Hail Mary bets and stuff like that. Scores were very good overall, with a lot of Dave/Connor bets. The correct answer to the bonus was "all inconsistent" which was a fairly popular pick as well.
We did lose one final player going into the finale: taffnic. Putting all those chips on Leo/Jamal was a really nice hedge, considering all of the Dave/Connor bets, but unfortunately them getting lost sealed taffnic's fate. Thanks for playing!
This week's Greatest Gainer Award goes to pepperz, who climbed 4 ranks this week into the Top 10. Very nicely done.
The Perfect Bet Award also goes to pepperz, whose correct bonus wager netted an absurdly-great 7.2x payout. Now, that's what we call a comeback. 
Leaderboard
1. michiganlargefan - 6446
2. Georganna - 5496
3. flipxcyd01 - 4030
4. Yogi - 3928
5. IanQuentin - 3163
6. louislam - 2257
7. Jims03 - 2000
8. Ontheroadagain1 - 2000
9. coldbrewer - 1876
10. pepperz - 1656
11. Chiubakka - 650
12. Molaholic - 500
13. sarah12345 - 470
14. bbenz - 246
15. starshine - 192
16. taffnic - 0
michiganlargefan has retaken the top spot, thanks to a nice bonus wager. However, the difference between 1st and 2nd is still (relatively) small, so there's still plenty of ways anyone farther down the list to play as spoiler.
Finale Rules
We are now in the finale leg, so I should go over a couple of the slight rule changes that applies to the finale.
1. The overall team rankings (and payouts) will be based on the finish order at the Finish Line of The Amazing Race. We only have a 1-hour finale this year, so this rule seems self-explanatory, but it's worth saying, I guess.
2. The final week is No Limit on your regular wager. Feel free to wager as many of your points as you wish on the regular game. There is a bet limit on the bonus game, however.
3. There are no ignore teams. As mentioned in last week's thread, that stuff is officially over. Gotta bet this one with no hedging. :p
4. You are allowed to make your finale wager in secret if you so desire, by sending me a private message. If you want to keep opponents guessing, it might not be a bad idea.
I'm gonna make my final picks on Saturday night, so if you're worried about me and my 2000 pts peeking, wait for the usual Sunday rush. 
Finale Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - Break even
3rd place - 0x
Max Individual Bet - NO LIMIT
A Final 3 is so retro. Feels like I'm hosting the TAR5 Casino Game again.
Bonus Game - Million Million Million
And, as always, the final week's bonus game is the one where we guess which team will say the word "million" first in the episode. variations of the word will count, such as "millions", "millionaires", or "i'manoldmanwhodeservedamilliondollars". All we're looking for is M-I-L-L-I-O-N to be spoken by them.
The recaps don't count as part of the episode, and if none of the teams ever say it (it has happened once before), then no answer is correct and all bonus wagers score 0x.
Million Payout Table
Correct Answer - 3x
Incorrect Answer - 0x
Max Bet - 1300 points
1300 points is an oddly specific number, but that's what I settled on. Figuring out what a "fair" bonus game value would be in the final week is always difficult. I'm setting it at 1300 points because a correct guess would net +2600, which is about a 40% of the leader's point total. I thought about doing it at 33%, but with only 3 teams left, it didn't seem to leave enough wiggle-room for upward navigation. And putting it at 50% seems a little too much of a winner-takes-all crap-fest. Hopefully this is a happy medium.
TAR24 Teams Remaining
Brendon/Rachel
Caroline/Jennifer
Dave/Connor
Good luck!
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