LAST EDITED ON 03-14-13 AT 11:07 PM (EST)

In Case of Emergency

For the life of me, I can't figure out a scenario where Jessica & John would use that Express Pass. It's obviously needed in case of an emergency, but that was such an emergency situation, so I'm wondering now. I guess I get their argument that they didn't know where Mona & Beth were. However, even in their best case scenario, they're in second-to-last place. They should've just beat the team they could see (Chuck & Wynona) and not bothered with it. Even if Mona & Beth were still out there, you just have to use it in that situation.

(Of course it's easy to say that, sitting here on my couch watching the show.)

Week 4 Results
1st place - Dave/Connor (2x)
2nd place - Pam/Winnie (1.8x)
3rd place - Max/Katie (1.6x)
4th place - Caroline/Jennifer (1.2x)
5th place - Joey/Meghan (even)
6th place - Mona/Beth (.8x)
7th place - Bates/Anthony (.4x)
8th place - Chuck/Wynona (.2x)
9th place - Jessica/John (0x)

Two Roads

Every season of this game, there seems to be a big shakeout week where half the scores radically go in one direction and half of the scores go in another. This was one of those weeks. A lot of people did well by making Max/Katie, Pam/Winnie, and to some extent Dave/Connor wagers. But Bates/Anthony really set other players back, as well as Jessica/John.

Luckily, the "shakeout week" happened really early this season, so there's plenty of time to catch up. Especially considering this season's gimmick. But we'll get to that later.

We did, unfortunately, lose one player, chiubakka. Jessica & John had been so consistently strong this year and were in 2nd at the start of the leg, so they seemed like a safe bet. But, alas, it was not to be. Thanks for playing, chiubakka!

We also had one more new player, Georjanna. We'll see if we can turn 5 points into 500, eh?

The Greatest Gainer Award goes to both Jims02 and alemattos, who each climbed a respectable 11 ranks to reach the Top 10. Special mention to defending champ, louislam, who moved up 10 spots. Nice job, you/me guys.

The Perfect Bet Award is also a tie, this time between FFantasyFX and louislam, who both nabbed a 1.85x payout. Way to go!

Leaderboard
1. KwietOne - 116
2. FFantasyFX - 85
3. CTgirl - 81
4. Jims02 - 68
5. pepperz - 64
6. vennui - 64
7. Estee - 59
8. Starshine - 58
9. alemattos - 51
10. beau_30 - 50
11. Yogi - 48
12. michel - 48
13. mikey - 43
14. ARNutz - 43
15. sarah1234 - 40
16. flipxcyd - 39
17. louislam - 37
18. Belle Book - 36
19. kduck - 34
20. Java - 34
21. taffnic - 34
22. Molaholic - 32
23. Ontheroadagain - 31
24. bystander - 30
25. bbenzenberg - 22
26. Floyd1 - 18
27. IanQuentin - 12
28. esquire - 12
29. MzTee - 10
30. Georjanna - 9
31. jbenz - 7
32. chiubakka - 0

KwietOne has taken the lead very decisively, absolutely smashing it with his wager last week. It still is, of course, very close, so we'll see if he can keep up his lead.

Introducing: The TAR Credit Card!

It's Week 5 now, so that means it's time to introduce the new wrinkle into the game that'll surely drive everyone crazy with indecision.

Introducing the TAR Credit Card!

You have all now been given a TAR Credit Card, which can be used to borrow points that you don't actually have. And this week, everyone can borrow up to 30 points. You can borrow as much or as little as you want, of course.

You can use these points to make an additional bet on top of your regular wager. And then you'll just pay me back the borrowed points (plus a little interest) next week. Sure, it's risky, but if you can turn 30 points into 60, paying me back should be a problem. But if you lose all of them? Well, I'll still demand my points back.

The borrowed points count as their own separate wager, so you can bet on any team you want, even if you've already laid a max bet on them. For simplicity, just add it onto the end of your post, so we know what is what.

For example, if you had 60 points this week, a sample entry might look like:

40 points - Dave/Connor
20 points - Pam/Winnie

Borrowing 30 points
30 points - Dave/Connor

In this example, you'd essentially be betting 70 points on Dave/Connor, 40 of your own, and 30 borrowed points.

The only downside? I'll be charging you interest on these loans, this week at 10% interest. That means if you borrow the full 30 points this week, you'll also have to pay me back an additional 3 points in interest.

I'll be adjusting the amount you can borrow each week, as well as the interest rate, so make sure you check out the Payout Table each week.

There's just 3 rules when it comes to borrowing.

1. You can only wager your borrowed points on the "regular" game and not the bonus games. Borrowing to chase a 7x multiplier is just too risky, you know?

2. Make sure you specifically mention you're borrowing points, and itemize it separately. It could get confusing with typos if I start thinking people are over-betting because of loans, or if they just goofed up their math.

3. Once you're out of points (or in the red), you're out of the game and cannot borrow anymore. I said I wouldn't check your credit scores, but I'm not crazy.

So make sure you don't go tooooooo crazy with borrowing. One bad loan, and you could be out of the game. Do be careful.

Week 5 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.5
3rd place - 1.4x
4th place - 1.1x
5th place - .9x
6th place - .5x
7th place - .4x
8th place - 0x

Max Individual Bet - 40 points
Credit Limit - 30 points
Interest Rate - 10%

Geez, the Payout Table looks like some serious financial business with all that extra info now.

TAR22 Teams Remaining
Bates/Anthony
Caroline/Jennifer
Chuck/Wynona
David/Connor
Joey/Meghan
Max/Katie
Mona/Beth
Pam/Winnie

We'll start up the bonus games next week. Good luck! And let me know if you have any questions!

Sorry I'm a day late, had to think things through and make sure I wanted to go through with the credit card idea. We'll see if this breaks the game.