LAST EDITED ON 03-13-09 AT 09:27 AM (EST)

Siberian Jenga

Watching those teams stack those blocks of wood was, like, the most exciting thing ever. Even better, they had music playing in the background, which seems to be a theme this year for the Roadblocks and Detours. Well, that and humiliating Americans.

Oh yeah, and everyone in America learned who Chekhov is. Good for us.

Week 4 Results
1st place - Christie/Jodi (2x)
2nd place - Lakisha/Jennifer (1.6x)
3rd place - Tammy/Victor (1.3x)
4th place - Margie/Luke (1.1x)
5th place - Cara/Jaime (.9x)
6th place - Mel/Mike (.7x)
7th place - Mark/Michael (.4x)
8th place - Amanda/Kris (0x)

Bailout, Anyone?

Ouch, tough week.

After Amanda/Kris' great week last time, they seemed like they should've been in prime position to finish well. Their elimination was pretty painful. In addition, Mark/Michael finished second to last, who were also a popular pick. You'd think, though, that at least other popular teams would finish first and second.

Nope. It was Christie/Jodi followed by Lakisha/Jennifer. Although, to be fair, some astute players did make the switch to them this week.

Unfortunately, the surprise Amanda/Kris loss eliminated five players from the game: Starshine, Silve03, redbaronii, ohmyheck, and Scuba Steve. Thanks for playing, everyone. It's a bummer to see so many more players busted out of the game.

Complimentary cocktails all around!

This week's Perfect Bet Award goes to four players. Congrats to Yogi, IanQuentin, vince3, and qwertypie who each doubled up this week with Christie/Jodi wagers.

The Greatest Gainer Award goes to IanQuentin for jumping an amazing 21 ranks with a double-up. Element King, despite only gaining 3 points, managed to to move 11 ranks. It was that kind of week.

Leaderboard
1. KwietOne - 161
2. Yogi - 160
3. flipxcyd - 131
4. 5cats - 130
5. CTgirl - 83
6. sarah1234 - 66
7. Higgs - 64
8. SilverStar - 61
9. louislam - 50
10. tvgeek401 - 48
11. FFantasyFX - 47
12. dragonflies - 45
13. jbenz - 42
14. samboohoo - 42
15. IanQuentin - 40
16. Quepea - 37
17. vennui - 35
18. ARNutz - 34
19. Weez - 31
20. MzTee - 30
21. suzzee - 28
22. bbenzenberg - 27
23. taffnic 25
24. Belle Book - 25
25. PsychoKitty - 21
26. Ontheroadagain - 20
27. beau_30 - 20
28. LeftPinky - 20
29. Element King - 18
30. Molaholic - 17
31. esquire - 16
32. Snidget - 10
33. AddieRacer - 10
34. shilfiell - 10
35. vince3 - 10
36. Jims02 - 8
37. Estee - 8
38. popeave - 7
39. JanetFAN - 6
40. qwertypie - 6
41. Corvis - 5
42. michel - 4
43. kidflash212 - 4
44. HauntedOne - 1
45. Starshine - 0
46. Silver03 - 0
47. redbaronii - 0
48. ohmyheck - 0
49. Scuba Steve - 0

The Casino Game is officially closed to new entrants.

KwietOne retains the lead, but just barely. Yogi trails by one point. The leaderboard is definitely a bit top-heavy right now, but (as this week showed) you'll never know when the next surprise elimination will hit.

I mentioned that this group could use a bailout after this past week. But that's just not my style of economics. Why throw around free points for everyone? That's pork spending and I won't have any of that. I'm solving this recession by raising the stakes and encouraging even more risky bets. That's fiscally responsible, right?

We have officially entered into Part Two of the Casino Game, introducing bonus games and a new game mechanic. We'll start with the name game mechanic.

Comps!

We've already established that you guys know who you want to wager on. The real question to ask now is...

"How confident are you in your picks?"

In Las Vegas, a "comp" is a complimentary gift or service that a Casino gives to its high-rollers to keep them coming back. Hey, a free hotel suite is nice, but these people are expected to gamble. And gamble they well.

That's the trade-off to the comp. It's an added bonus, but you gotta gamble for it to payoff. If you spend all your Vegas time in your free villa, you're not getting that villa next time. In the TAR Casino Game, it's the same way. You gotta take a risk to get that bonus.

Here's how it works. To start with, here's the payout table for Week 5.

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

For the rest of the game, players have the ability to take some of the 2nd place payoff and dump it into the 1st place payoff. You can move as much or as little of it as you want, and you don't have to do anything at all. The only rule is that the 2nd place multiplier always goes into the 1st place one. Never the other way around.

Confused? Here's what I mean.

If you feel pretty confident that you know who's going to finish 1st, you can move some of the multiplier points from 2nd place to 1st. For example, let's say you chose to move .5 multiplier points. Your payout table you'd be playing would be:

1st place - 2.5x
2nd place - 1.1x
3rd place - 1.2x
4th place - Break even
5th place - .8x
6th place - .4x
7th place - 0x

As you can see, the 2nd place payoff isn't looking so hot anymore. If your team finishes 1st, then you'll be in great shape. If they end up 2nd, you might wish you'd left it alone. Any other place, and that decision didn't matter.

And you can move as much or as little of it as you want. You can even go up to:

1st place - 3.6x
2nd place - 0x
3rd place - 1.2x
4th place - Break even
5th place - .8x
6th place - .4x
7th place - 0x

It's not something I'd advise for the faint of heart, but it's an option.

Just make sure that you specify in your post whether you're comping each week and how much. Just typing in your payouts (i.e. 1st place - 2.1x, 2nd place - 1.5x) is fine, as long as you do you math correctly. Add the amount to 1st, subtract same amount from 2nd. If the math is wrong, I'm not accepting the payout table. It wouldn't be fair to the other players.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll post a Sample Entry below.

TAR14 Teams Remaining
Cara/Jaime
Christie/Jodi
Lakisha/Jennifer
Margie/Luke
Mark/Michael
Mel/Mike
Tammy/Victor

I'd normally do a bonus game this week, but I don't want to overwhelm you with rules right now. Comps will run all year long, including the final week, and there will be individual bonus wagers starting next week.

Good luck, everyone!

Comps? As if these stakes weren't raised high enough.