LAST EDITED ON 02-22-14 AT 00:27 AM (EST)

It's Me?

Well, here I am, back under a new user name because some jerk decided to hijack a bunch of user names. And even though it's been almost a month now, the owner of this website hasn't addressed the issue yet, or at least shown up to give us any information about it. Even though these boards have been dead for quite some time now, I've continued to host this game here out of a sense of loyalty. But now I'm seriously questioning why, given how little management seems to care.

But I'm not just going to disappear after telling you guys I'd be back in the winter. So I'm back, in this puny form, to do potentially one final season of the TAR Casino Game.

If you're new here, I apologize for opening with drama. Trust me, this game is quite fun, so I encourage you to check it out if it's your first time. See if you can supplant last season's winner Yogi.

And if this really is the last edition of the game, then the stakes are super-high this year, right? Fitting it's All-Stars this year too.

What's the TAR Casino Game?

The TAR Casino Game is a game in which players make wagers on the outcome of each leg of The Amazing Race. If you make good wagers and your teams do well, then you'll gain more points to use next week. If they don't as well, you'll go back a little bit. But even if you have a couple bad weeks, there's always time to catch up to the other players. We've seen people win the game after losing almost half their points in the first week!

Every player is given 20 points from the start, with the goal of accumulating as many points as possible until the end the game. The player with the highest total at the finale is the winner, and gets the prize of Supreme Bragging Rights.

Here be the full rules to the game.

Ye Olde Rules

1. Each player in Week 1 starts with 20 points. In every subsequent week, this amount decreases, so join now. Also, these are the only points you get, so don't waste them. Once you run out of points, you're out of the game.

2. Every week, you may choose to wager your points on the various teams. Later on, there will be limits on the max bet you can lay down, which will be covered in full next week.

3. You don't have to bet all your points. Any points you don't wager are banked, and will be carried over to the following week without risk.

4. Decimals are evil. All wagers must be a whole number. Also, in scoring your entries, all decimal points will be rounded up. It makes the scoreboard prettier that way. No one wants to see a final score of 693.22463 to 612.1935.

5. Absenteeism sucks. If you miss three straight entries, you're eliminated from the game. If you're going to be on vacation, send me a note and I'll keep the records.

6. All entries must be entered before showtime: Sunday, February 23rd, 8 PM Eastern Time. Any entries after that time will not be counted. Any edits to an existing entry after the deadline will be penalized. The clock is based on the clock on this message board.

7. Your wagers will be scored based on the almighty Payout Table. The Payout Table gives a multiplier value to each ranking, and determines the return on your wagers. Each of your individual wagers are multiplied by their appropriate multipliers, and then totaled together.

For example, here's the Payout Table for Week 1.

Week 1 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.6x
3rd place - 1.3x
4th place - 1.2x
5th place - 1.1x
6th place - Break even
7th place - .9x
8th place - .8x
9th place - .7x
10th place - .4x
11th place - 0x

This is going to be based off of the final rankings at the end of the episode when they arrive at the Pit Stop.

Fictionalized 24 Example - You've got 20 points and you choose to wager them on the following fictional teams...

10 points - Jack/Chloe
6 points - Tony/Michelle
3 points - David/Sherry
Bank 1 point.

Now let's pretend Jack/Chloe finishes 3rd, Tony/Michelle 8th, and David/Sherry 1st.

Jack/Chloe - 10 points * 1.3 (3rd place) = 13
Tony/Michelle - 6 points * .8 (8th) = 4.8
David/Sherry - 3 points * 2 (1st) = 6
+2 points banked

Total = 13 + 4.8 + 6 = 23.8 = 24 pts (rounding)

Overall, in this example, you'd manage to eek out a 4 point gain for the week and would start with 22 for next week. No a bad start, I'd say.

Here are the teams you will be wagering on.

TAR24 Teams Remaining
Bopper/Mark
Brendon/Rachel
Caroline/Jennifer
Dave/Connor
Flight Time/Big Easy
Jessica/John
Jet/Cord
Joey/Meghan
Leo/Jamal
Margie/Luke
Natalie/Nadiya

Good luck!

A 2014 tribephyl original