Fred Roeper, Lexi Shea, Andy Lewis and Lori Miskoff

Does it look any better down there, Rob?	Will Hoch, Rob Eastman, Paul Rubin and Kevin Burns

We had three games in the first heat, five in the second and four in the third. Bill Peeck took top score honors in the preliminaries with 224 and was the only player to break 200 this year. Andy Lewis was one short at 199. In the short game department, Robert Eastman had the lowest winning score with 55. Top cash went to Rod Davidson with 72. Proving that you don't need cash to win, Phil White only needed 20 cash to triumph. No records were set this year. Jeff Sealy was tops in 4-point cities and Lori Miskoff in 5-point cities, each making 13 such connections. Mark Sciera made the most 6-point city connections with 10 and Rob Kircher completed 11 to 7-point cities.

In the semifinals, Rob Kircher outdistanced 2005 champion Bill Peeck, doubling up with Dallas, Billings and El Paso scoring 84 points from those 6-city cards. Chris Palermo used the strength of ten 7-point cites (double LA for 42) to deny two former champions a chance to join the multi-winner club. On a late draw of the city deck, Jeff Senley found a second Denver worth 20 points, giving him the most cities points and the win in his first semifinal. In the closest semi, while tied with the most cash, Mike Shea edged by Richard Shay, playing 12 city cards to Rich's eight to earn his fourth trip to the Final table.

Semi #1
Rob Kircher 73 cash + 133 cities = 206
Bill Peeck 68 cash + 82 cities = 150
Vien Bounma 32 cash + 151 cities = 130

Semi #2
Chris Palermo 59 cash + 123 cities = 182
Andy Lewis 71 cash + 94 cities = 165
Tom Demarco 26 cash + 125 cities = 151

Semi #3
Jeff Senley 27 cash + 100 cities = 127
William Hoch 30 cash + 85 cities = 115
Curt Collins 47 cash + 62 cities = 109
Rod Davidson 45 cash + 54 cities = 99

Semi #4
Mike Shea 51 cash + 131 cities = 182
Richard Shay 51 cash + 124 cities = 176
Steve Shambeda 23 cash + 141 cities = 164
Robert Eastman 31 cash + 130 cities = 161

Unlike last year's Final composed entirely of rookies, we only had one first timer this year. Chris joined Mike for their fourth trip and Rob was making his fifth appearance, but first in the last six years. On the first turn, Chris, Jeff and Rob opened with southern cities. Mike played Des Moines hoping to avoid tipping the rest of his hand. Jeff drew first player and started the Kanas Pacific south. Mike went for some early cash playing his 2x on the second turn. On Turn 3, Rob took a Kanas branch while holding a 2x from the last round to connect Kansas Pacific into Denver for $12. Chris was matching Rob move for move as Rob gained cash in a game destined to last only nine rounds. The Kanas Pacific and Santa Fe were both run out of trains. The Great Northern Pacific was dead ended in Duluth and Canada. The Union Pacific ran south to Mexico by way of Little Rock and Dallas. The Texas Pacific was the last train active and started running to the north at first, then made its way to Denver. With the Kansas Pacific blocking the route west from Albuquerque, the Texas was forced to die in Amarillo. Each player played six city cards and three 2x or 4x plays. Mike was pushing the Santa Fe west with his early starting hand of 7-point cities. Jeff helped Mike with the northern run with Canada, Spokane and Bismark cities in play. As the Santa Fe was running down the Pacific coast, Rob took a 4x on Turn 7 to collect the bonus from Los Angeles and San Diego, not leaving much left for Chris. Sensing an early end of game, Chris played a 2x on the eighth round looking for better cities. Even though only one of the pocket trains entered the game (Western Pacific), everyone kept pushing the Texas line. Mike left Rob with an opportunity to end the game. With the strength of most cash and double El Paso with three connections, Rob decided to take the early ending. On his fifth attempt at the big game, Rob finally took the title. Chris had his best tournament, earning second. With only one train about to make it to the Pacific coast, Mike finished behind Jeff.

Final Scores:
Rob Kircher 38 cash + 63 cities = 101
Chris Palermo 36 cash + 44 cities = 80
Jeff Senley 24 cash + 44 cities = 68
Mike Shea 15 cash + 48 cities = 63

In the five games which turned in full trackers, we fell back to five cities topping out over 20 points (Denver, Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento and San Francisco). When we track cities scoring 15 or more, we add seven more cities to the list. Albuquerque and El Paso hit 15 in three of the five games. Phoenix, Salt Lake and Denver appeared twice in the 15+ column. Denver, El Paso and Los Angeles each appeared three times among the five winners.

I would like to thank everyone for playing again and express special appreciation to those bringing games.