Star Wars Episode VII: "A San Francisco Adventure"

That was a pretty fun final leg. The virtual reality task really tested the teams' cooperation and directional skills, while the tower climb and trunk carrying were physical. It was a bit of a shame that the final puzzle task was a bit low-impact, but you can't have it all.

Dan & Jordan took the lead early on and never looked back. They are The Amazing Race 16 champs.

Finale Results
1st place - Dan/Jordan (2x)
2nd place - Jet/Cord (even)
3rd place - Brent/Caite (0x)

And the Results Are...

The Bonus Game was pretty interesting this final week because the dark horse vote ended up being the winner. The correct answer was Dan/Jordan, as Jordan was the first to say "million", when he was at the ticket counter.

Usually teams tend to say it during their departures, which I suspect fueled a lot of the Brent/Caite bets. I'm kind of curious to know now how often the 1st place team from the previous leg says it first.

The Greatest Gainer Award goes to kidflash212, who climbed 8 ranks this final week.

The Perfect Bet Award also goes to kidflash212 (2x), who doubled-up with an All-In Dan/Jordan bet. Very nicely done.

And here are the final results.

For those of you who like to read things suspensefully, highlight the Top 10 to view them. I like to reveal the names one at a time, myself.

Leaderboard
1. Yogi - 2998
2. michel - 1304
3. CTgirl - 1249
4. MaxZ - 1200
5. KwietOne - 1035
6. kidflash212 - 900
7. vennui - 868
8. flipxcyd - 822
9. louislam - 820
10. Belle Book - 494
11. MzTee - 493
12. Jims02 - 471
13. beau_30 - 429
14. ARNutz - 368
15. qwertypie - 262
16. Element King - 220
17. Snidget - 128
18. Wallflower66 - 100
19. chiubakka - 38
20. Silver03 - 33
21. Nessie - 19
22. kduck - 16
23. Molaholic - 6
24. VisionQuest - 4
25. Ontheroadagain - 4
26. jbenz - 3

In the end, it was Yogi who took home the big prize, becoming the TAR16 Casino Game Champion. michel finished second, winning the Silver Medal, while CTgirl won the bronze.

It was an interesting horse race throughout the season. Ironically, none of the Top 3 started the game particularly strong. Yogi started in 25th place (out of 46), michel in 16th, and CTgirl in 38th. But each of them recovered quickly. michel climbed into the Top 10 in the second week, where he stayed for every week thereafter. michel stayed in the #4-#9 range most of the time, but leaped ahead to #2 with a nice Dan/Jordan wager in the finale.

There was an interesting battle between CTgirl and Yogi late in the season. CTgirl rose to the top of the board for a couple of weeks, but Yogi took it back with a (+1) bet. CTgirl regained it, and then lost it when Yogi successfully guessed "Brent" for the Week 11 title bonus game.

Ultimately, Yogi's final Dan/Jordan wager clinched the game for him. Congratulations, Yogi! You'd been close to winning a few times now, and you've finally broken through! You're officially in 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
TAR15 Casino Game - taffnic
TAR16 Casino Game - Yogi

It was an interesting game all around. There were a lot of people who regularly broke the Top 10, so many I couldn't name everyone. I'd like to particularly make note of KwietOne who was the leader for 4 straight weeks, Weeks 3, 4, 5, and 6. Also, winning weeks were tribephyl (Wk1), vince3 (Wk2), CTgirl (Wk7,8,10), and Yogi (Wk9,11,12.

Thanks!

And, as always, I'd like to thanks everyone for playing the game. It's always a delight to get the gang together every season, and it's fun to see the new faces join in. I take my hosting responsibilities seriously, so I always hope that people find the game 1) easy to play 2) fair to all players, and 3) fun.

As much work as I do in the game, it's you guys who keep the game going season after season. And Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS, I suppose. But mostly you guys.

I'm always looking for ways to improve the TAR Casino Game. I like to add little gimmicks to each season to keep the game fresh, so I love a good idea. I think the (+1)s were pretty fun this season, although they might've worked better in a more unpredictable season. The only thing I didn't like, from a housekeeping perspective, was that they were an extra thing I had to keep track of. I feel like having the (+1) question made the weekly wagers more overwhelming too.

I'm thinking about going back to the basics more next season, but it depends on what I can come up with. So, if you've got idea, share them! I'd love to hear them!

See you next season!

One idea I floated this past season was to do away with the individual bonus games, and to allow side-bets all season long. In addition to the regular wagers, you could make All-Or-Nothing wagers on the individual ranks (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) and players could bet on as many teams as they want. I was thinking a limit game with that approach, though.