LAST EDITED ON 11-10-11 AT 00:38 AM (EST)

U-Turning the Drama

Boy, I bet The Amazing Race producers were so disappointed with how the Double U-Turn ended up this week. It's clear that the whole point of having the thing is to increase drama and add a layer of strategy... So you can imagine their disappointment when the only team who uses it is Laurence/Zac (who wasted it).

The previews show another U-Turn next week, so maybe the producers are on the rebound.

Week 6 Results
1st place - Andy/Tommy (2x)
2nd place - Ernie/Cindy (1.5x)
3rd place - Bill/Cathi (1.3x)
4th place - Amani/Marcus (1.1x)
5th place - Laurence/Zac (.7x)
6th place - Jeremy/Sandy (.4x)
7th place - Justin/Jennifer (0x)

Peachy.

With another Andy/Tommy win this week, it was a very solid week for scoring. Even the 2nd place team, Ernie/Cindy, racked up a great number of bets. There were a few players who fell back a bit due to Jeremy/Sandy and Justin/Jennifer, but the large majority of players posted nice gains this week.

The bonus game proved to be surprisingly tricky, especially with Andy/Tommy scoring the same as last week. They messed up a lot of bonus wagers this week, as did Laurence/Zac and their "worse" showing.

We did unfortunately lose another player this week, MzTee. Justin/Jennifer were a really strong team all the way through, so their elimination was definitely surprising... Seemed like a pretty safe pick for the week.

Thanks for playing, MzTee! Hope to see you back next season!

This week's Greatest Gainer Award goes to Snidget, who climbed 14 ranks to #18 overall. Honorable mention goes to IanQuentin, who managed 11 ranks. Nice going, you guys!

The Perfect Bet Award goes to bbenzenberg (3x), who tripled up with a nice Keeper wager. bbenzenberg just narrowly sniped the award away from Snidget (2.96x) due to that 1 banked point left over. IanQuentin (2.76x), Ontheroadagain (2.3x), and alemattos (2.11x) also managed to eclipse the double-up mark this week. Way to go!

Leaderboard
1. 5cats - 442
2. Ontheroadagain - 425
3. flipxcyd - 360
4. ARNutz - 352
5. Max Headroom - 351
6. beau_30 - 302
7. michel - 281
8. IanQuentin - 270
9. Weez - 237
10. Yogi - 216
11. FFantasyFX - 214
12. qwertypie - 207
13. CTgirl - 193
14. Jims02 - 186
15. alemattos - 177
16. louislam - 150
17. esquire - 147
18. vennui - 145
19. Snidget - 133
20. KwietOne - 117
21. Deshawnator11 - 104
22. samboohoo - 92
23. Starshine - 84
24. Puffy - 81
25. Belle Book - 77
26. chiubakka - 70
27. jbug - 57
28. cahaya - 53
29. Molaholic - 50
30. LeftPinky - 48
31. Wallflower66 - 35
32. Element King - 21
33. Scuba Steve - 20
34. sarah1234 - 18
35. bbenzenberg - 18
36. jbenz - 12
37. taffnic - 3
38. popeave - 2
39. MzTee - 0

5cats still retains the lead, but Ontheroadagain made a huge play for the top spot with a successful Keeper Bet, leaping from #8 all the way up to #2. These keeper teams make things a little unpredictable sometimes, so it's still anyone's game!

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

Max Individual Bet - 125 points
Number of Keeper Teams - 2

The max bet continues to climb by about 30 points per week. That is your random stat for the week.

Lucky 7

I'm trying to stick to some of the more traditional bonus games for now, since (with the keepers) there's already more stuff than usual to keep track of this season. I shall think of new ones for later in the season.

The object of this game is to pick two teams whose ranks at the end of the next episode add up to 7. In other words, that means you're trying to pick the teams that finish 1st & 6th, 2nd & 5th, or 3rd & 4th.

It doesn't matter what your intent is, just the outcome. If you bet on two teams, expecting them to be 1st & 6th, and then they finish 3rd & 4th, you still win. All you're doing is picking two teams for your wager and hoping they add to 7. I can't tell you how many times I've dumb lucked my way into a win at this game. I recall a bet I made a couple years back expecting my guys to finish 2nd/5th... And then they ended up finishing 3rd/4th, causing me to win the bonus anyway. Hooray for luck!

Place a wager next to your bonus picks. If the final ranks of the two bonus teams you pick equals 7, then you're a winner.

Here's the Payout Table for this game.

Lucky 7 Payout Table
Adds to 7 - 5x
Doesn't Add - 0x

Max Bet - 25 points

Remember, if you're going to play Lucky 7, the wager goes on a pair of teams. Like the example...

25 points - Andy/Tommy & Jeremy/Sandy

You may only make one Lucky 7 pick, so choose carefully!

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

Good luck!

I can't remember the last time I was at the edge of my seat rooting for a team to finish 1st. I had a max Keeper Bet on Ernie/Cindy going, so seeing Andy/Tommy pass them at the last second was devastating (going from 3x to 1.5x).

That commercial break was mean, TAR Producers.