Poor Leg Design or Brilliant?

That was a weird leg. They started it with no bunching, followed it up by two Roadblocks in a row, and then bunched them (to some degree) with the buses, with only one subtask to go. It was certainly an unconventional design for a leg.

Yet, somehow, it worked. The money situation with the cabs and the traffic allowed for a degree of strategy (and mistakes) when they got to Bangkok. You could question whether they gave them enough money (since Liz/Marie were at the mercy of their expensive driver in Phuket), but that seems to just be an occupational hazard of being on The Amazing Race.

Week 5 Results
1st place - Amani/Marcus (2x)
2nd place - Bill/Cathi (1.8x)
3rd place - Ernie/Cindy (1.4x)
4th place - Justin/Jennifer (1.2x)
5th place - Andy/Tommy (.8x)
6th place - Laurence/Zac (.6x)
7th place - Jeremy/Sandy (.2x)
8th place - Liz/Marie (0x)

Debt Crisis

So here's what I said last week.

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...

Kind of spooky, eh? It's weird because I know I'll randomly make those kinds of comments when I notice the wagers bunching up, and they very frequently seem to happen right before a rough week for the group. I swear I must be psychic or a medium or something, because CBS ain't giving me the tapes in advance.

Now if only I would follow my own premonitions, I'd be in 1st place right now. Stupid me.

You'd think that with a subpar week, you'd see some huge jumps in the rankings, but it seemed to hit the rankings fairly evenly across the board. This week's Greatest Gainer Award goes to KwietOne who climbed 10 ranks overall to #27 with a smooth Justin/Jennifer bet. Nicely done.

The Perfect Bet Award goes to 5cats (1.35x) who made a very clever 70-point Amani/Marcus bet. You gotta zig when everyone else is zagging, eh?

Leaderboard
1. 5cats - 218
2. michel - 196
3. flipxcyd - 175
4. Yogi - 159
5. Max Headroom - 140
6. ARNutz - 139
7. CTgirl - 131
8. Jims02 - 129
9. beau_30 - 127
10. vennui - 120
11. qwertypie - 117
12. Ontheroadagain - 110
13. samboohoo - 85
14. Starshine - 80
15. alemattos - 76
16. Puffy - 69
17. KwietOne - 68
18. Molaholic - 64
19. louislam - 64
20. Wallflower66 - 64
21. FFantasyFX - 56
22. Weez - 55
23. Snidget - 53
24. Deshawnator11 - 52
25. chiubakka - 51
26. Belle Book - 47
27. Georjanna - 45
28. jbenz - 45
29. esquire - 44
30. IanQuentin - 44
31. cahaya - 40
32. jbug - 38
33. Scuba Steve - 37
34. sarah1234 - 27
35. Element King - 23
36. LeftPinky - 21
37. bbenzenberg - 14
38. MzTee - 11
39. popeave - 9
40. taffnic - 4

Thanks to that Amani/Marcus bet, 5cats has leaped 9 spots to the #1 position. There is still a ton of game left, so you'll never know who might make the leap next! Only time can tell.

Week 6 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.5x
3rd place - 1.2x
4th place - .9x
5th place - .8x
6th place - .6x
7th place - 0x

Max Individual Bet - 60 points
Number of Keeper Teams - 2

Keeper Teams are in full-swing now. Here's a link to last week's rules for your reference. Your Keeper Teams from last week will be listed in Post #1 below.

So, if you choose to bet on either of your Keeper Teams from last week AND they finish 1st, then your wager will score 3x instead of 2x. But that's only for 1st place. 2nd place still scores 1.5x like normal.

And don't forget to make new Keeper Team picks each week, even if you don't bother using your ones from last week. You won't have any next week if you don't post any this week, so be careful!

Bonus Game - PAT PAT PAT

Well, of course, we'd start with the PAT Bonus Game right out of the game. This week, if you so desire, players can make a side wager on which team will be the Painfully Average Team (or PAT for short). This is the team that finishes right smack in the middle of the pack, or 4th place for this week.

This is an all-or-nothing bet, so you may only bet on one team for the PAT Bonus wager. If the team you bet on finishes 4th, you win points. If they don't, you lose them. No wager may exceed 10 points however.

All PAT wagers will be subject to the following Payout Table.

PAT's Payout Table
Correct Answer - 7x
Incorrect Answer - 0x

Max Bet - 10 points

And, remember, your Bonus Wager won't affect anything to do with the Keeper Teams. You won't +1 here if you bet one a Keeper Team, and you are free to select any PAT-betted teams as a Keeper Team (assuming they're not in your regular wager too). It's just a side wager only.

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

Good luck!

I just come up with these twists to make my own betting decisions harder each week. Should I chase after the 3x or go with my tried-and-true options? Or maybe pick someone else completely?