A Day at the Beach

I'm pretty sure Liz & Marie are never going to look at a beach umbrella quite the same way. This week's Detour options were pretty interesting ones overall, with the coral task definitely being the risk/reward play while the beach umbrellas were more slow and steady. It seemed like with the coral that if that stand wasn't completely solid going into the water, then you were pretty much toast... Just look at what happened with Jeremy & Sandy.

Oddly, every single team stayed in the exact same order, except for Justin/Jennifer and Laurence/Zac (who switched places).

Week 4 Results
1st place - Andy/Tommy (2x)
2nd place - Justin/Jennifer (1.6x)
3rd place - Jeremy/Sandy (1.3x)
4th place - Laurence/Zac (1.1x)
5th place - Ernie/Cindy (.9x)
6th place - Amani/Marcus (.7x)
7th place - Bill/Cathi (.4x)
8th place - Liz/Marie (0x)

Gnarly.

I see that we've already settled into our betting patterns for the season. Andy/Tommy and Laurence/Zac are our weekly solid picks, while Jeremy/Sandy (and to some degree Ernie/Cindy) will be the Third Party Option. So far, these teams have been pretty consistent throughout, but you you know someone's going to surprised you eventually! So be careful...

The Greatest Gainer Award goes to Belle Book, who climbed 9 ranks to #23 overall, also managing to snatch the prize away from esquire (7 ranks) getting it twice in a row. Very nicely done.

The Perfect Bet Award is a giant tie, with esquire, Belle Book, Deshawnator11, and cahaya. Enjoy your 1/4 trophies all!

Leaderboard
1. michel - 196
2. ARNutz - 181
3. Max Headroom - 175
4. CTgirl - 175
5. Yogi - 171
6. Jims02 - 171
7. beau_30 - 169
8. flipxcyd - 165
9. vennui - 162
10. 5cats - 162
11. qwertypie - 117
12. Ontheroadagain - 115
13. Molaholic - 97
14. Scuba Steve - 95
15. louislam - 90
16. Puffy - 89
17. Wallflower66 - 87
18. Starshine - 87
19. samboohoo - 75
20. chiubakka - 73
21. esquire - 72
22. alemattos - 67
23. Belle Book - 66
24. FFantasyFX - 61
25. sarah1234 - 58
26. Georjanna - 56
27. KwietOne - 56
28. Weez - 55
29. Snidget - 53
30. Deshawnator11 - 52
31. LeftPinky - 51
32. jbenz - 50
33. cahaya - 50
34. IanQuentin - 44
35. popeave - 42
36. Element King - 32
37. jbug - 31
38. bbenzenberg - 20
39. taffnic - 20
40. MzTee - 9

michel still sits at the top of the leaderboard, but there are still lots of people nipping at his heels. Still lots of game left to play!

Week 5 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.8x
3rd place - 1.4x
4th place - 1.2x
5th place - .8x
6th place - .6x
7th place - .2x
8th place - 0x

Max Individual Bet - 70 points
Number of Keeper Teams - 2

The TAR Casino Game is now closed to new entrants. Gotta wait until next year!

New Feature - Keeper Teams!

Each week, players may designate certain teams to be a Keeper Team for the following week's wager. And then when next week comes around, you will receive a bonus for betting on those teams (if you choose to bet on them then). These Keeper Teams should be listed at the end of your post after your regular picks.

There are is one rule to choosing your Keeper Teams for the week:

You may not select a team as a Keeper Team if you wagered any points on them in your regular wager. Additional wagers (bonus wagers) are exempt from this rule.

(So, in other words, if you lay wagers on Andy/Tommy and Laurence/Zac this week, then you can't choose either of them as your Keeper Teams for the week. You'll have to pick two other teams.)

This week, players may select 2 teams as Keeper Teams, although that number will be reduced to 1 as we narrow down to fewer teams. I will list this number in the Payout Table each week.

So, you've selected your two Keeper Teams this week. What happens next week?

Well, next week you can bet on them, along with any other team like normally. If you don't like the looks of your Keeper Teams you chose, no harm no foul... You can just ignore them and pick as usual. However, if you make a wager on one of your Keeper Teams the following week, you will receive a +1x bonus if that team finishes in 1st place. Or, in other words, if you bet on a Keeper Team next week and they finish 1st, your wager will score 3x instead of 2x.

The bonus only applies if the team finishes 1st, however. If they place anywhere else, they will score the regular payout as usual. For your reference, I will keep track of your current Keeper Teams each week and post them in Reply #1 below.

TAR19 Teams Remaining
Amani/Marcus
Andy/Tommy
Bill/Cathi
Ernie/Cindy
Jeremy/Sandy
Justin/Jennifer
Laurence/Zac
Liz/Marie

Good luck!

Regular bonus game starting next week. I have spent too much time contemplating whether or not the Keeper Teams gimmick is going to break the game. We shall see.