An amazing 151 players participated in the initial Ticket to Ride tournament - leaving it trailing only Puerto Rico in terms of size of field at the 2004 WBC. The three qualifying rounds were jammed and finding table space was a logistical challenge. 42 players qualified for the Saturday afternoon quarter-finals with seven emerging as semi-finalists.

The semi-finalists were grouped in separate games of 3- and 4- players, with the lowest scoring player of each game to be eliminated from the tournament. Paul Haynes and David Field were thus knocked out, leaving five players for the finals ­ Tamara Houde, Alan Kaiser, Dan Karp, Cathy Kratz and Katherine McCory.

These clearly experienced players had a definite game plan as the finals got underway. Amazingly, each player drew cards nine times a piece (45 turns in total) before the first route on the board was claimed. With all those cards in hand, the track laying then became fast and furious. The game stayed close until the end, when the Destination Tickets were revealed and Alan Kaiser emerged victorious as the first Ticket to Ride champion.

Final Scores:
Alan Kaiser 126
Dan Karp 112
Tamara Houde 105
Cathy Kratz 95
Katherine McCory 86