LAST EDITED ON 10-25-12 AT 08:48 AM (EST)

Out of Their Misery

Being a superfan of the show myself, I wanted to like Gary & Will. I really did. But their constant suckitude at the race combined with their constant sniping at each other got pretty old. I realize I'm not really in a place to judge having never done the race myself, but I was a little disappointed in how it turned out. Gary & Will did seem decent enough, I suppose... It just didn't really work out for them.

Week 4 Results
1st place - James/Abba (2x)
2nd place - Abbie/Ryan (1.8x)
3rd place - Nadiya/Natalie (1.6x)
4th place - Josh/Brent (.8x)
5th place - Rob/Kelley (.7x)
6th place - James/Jaymes (.6x)
7th place - Trey/Lexi (.5x)
8th place - Gary/Will (0x)

Split Down the Middle

A very hot and cold week, overall. The results seemed to be pretty split down the middle, with one group doing well with James/Abba and/or Abbie/Ryan bets and the other half falling back a little due to Trey/Lexi and James/Jaymes. And then there are those who were a little of both in the middle.

The Greatest Gainer goes to popeave, who climbed up a nifty 15 ranks to #19 overall. I would congratulate you and all right here, but...

The Perfect Bet also goes to popeave, who doubled-up on a nice James/Abba bet. So a double-congratulations to you! Truly a great week!

Leaderboard
1. flipxcyd - 102
2. Georjanna - 93
3. Yogi - 88
4. louislam - 88
5. chiubakka - 84
6. Floyd1 - 59
7. Starshine - 54
8. CTgirl - 53
9. sarah1234 - 48
10. jbenz - 48
11. IanQuentin - 47
12. alemattos - 43
13. Belle Book - 43
14. Ontheroadagain - 30
15. bbenzenberg - 27
16. mikey - 25
17. Pplys - 24
18. kduck - 23
19. popeave - 16
20. Weez - 15
21. beau_30 - 13
22. udg - 13
23. MzTee - 11
24. Max Headroom - 9
25. KwietOne - 9
26. esquire - 9
27. taffnic - 9
28. ARNutz - 8
29. Snidget - 8
30. michel - 8
31. vennui - 7
32. FFantasyFX - 6
33. VisionQuest - 6
34. qwertypie - 6
35. Jims02 - 5

Yet again, flipxycd leads the way, but his lead is being eaten away, little by little. We're approaching the real meat of the Casino Game now with bonuses and gimmicks, so make sure you don't let you guard down!

Speaking of which...

Introducing: The Lockout!

Big shout-out to Estee, whose football pool was one of the inspirations for this season's gimmick.

A couple seasons back, the main gimmick of the game was the Keeper Team, a team that each player could set aside for the following week. This season we're doing exactly the opposite, by introducing The Lockout. The Lockout is entirely optional this year, so you may choose to implement this bonus or skip it if they choose to.

In each given week, players may designate as many or as few of the Amazing Race teams as "Lockout Teams". For every team you choose to lockout, it means you are restricted from making a regular game bet on them the following week. You may still place a Bonus Game bet on a Lockout Team, but they're off-limits on your regular wager.

For each team you lockout, you will receive a .2x bonus added onto the 1st place payoff for next week. So if you lockout one team in a given week, the 1st place payout for the following week will be 2.2x. If you locked two teams, it would rise to 2.4x, and so on.

There are only two conditions to your lockout team selection.

1. You may not lockout the same team in back-to-back weeks. This prevents you from just locking out a team like Gary/Will every week and reaping an "easy" .2x bonus.

2. You still get credit for a lockout bonus if one of your picks is eliminated. If say, you designated Gary/Will last week as a lockout, and then they got eliminated, then you lucked out a little this week (since you weren't going to pick 'em anyway). You still would get the .2x bonus for not using them.

I'll post a list of everyone's current lockout teams during each week, so people can keep track of who they're not allowed to bet on each week.

Week 5 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.5x
3rd place - 1.3x
4th place - 1.1x
5th place - .7x
6th place - .4x
7th place - 0x

Max Individual Bet - 25 points

Time for the opposite of last week. More good payouts than bad one. Watch out for those 5th through 7th spots.

Bonus Game - PAT the Bunny

Given that we're starting up a new gimmick this week, let's do and oldy-but-goody for the first bonus game. PAT!

PAT stands for the Painfully Average Team which is the team that finishes right smack in the middle of the pack. They are neither awesome, nor sucky. They're just kinda there. For this week, with 7 teams remaining, that'll be the team that finishes in 4th place.

So you're essentially placing a wager on which team will finish 4th. If you're right, you get a huge payout. If you're wrong you lose the bet. This is a completely separate wager from your regular bet, though, and doesn't affect the new Lockout Rules in any way.

You may only make one bonus wager, however, so it's an all-or-nothing gamble.

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

Max Bet - 5 points

So, you got a chance to go +30 in this game, about the size of a max bet these days... Which isn't too shabby at all.

TAR20 Teams Remaining
Abbie/Ryan
James/Abba
Jaymes/James
Josh/Brent
Nadiya/Natalie
Rob/Kelley
Trey/Lexi

Good luck everyone!

Well, I guess it's time for the PAT or nothing for me...