Taj Mahal suffered a 35% decrease in attendance this year despite offering the same two heats as last year. There were exactly five tables of four players in each heat with five players trying twice. No one won both heats so that meant there were six spots open for the semi's (16 minus the ten winners of the two heats). Nine winners and five alternates chose to advance so according to the BPA guidelines the field was cut to the nine winners and the top three alternates making three tables of four with the winners and the best runner-up advancing to the Final.

2004 champ Nick Anner won his semi-final by nine points over Mark Geary, GM Steve Scott won his by three points over 2001 champ Tom Dunning, and Rich Meyer took his table by two points over Rob Flowers. That meant that Rob got the wild-card ticket to advance. The Final soon becamea battle for second place as Nick ran away with the championship by 12 points using the connect the provinces startegy. The battle for second was by the two legendary elephant hunters (Steve and Rich) who were separated by a single point.

I really liked Taj Mahal before I learned what it takes to win by playing in this tournament. When I play with friends back home we don't have any set strategies, we just go for what we can get. It's fun that way, we really didn't know what we were doing other than just having fun. But I found out by playing in this tournament that you have to decide on a strategy very early in the game. You either have to go for the connections or go for the commodities. And you have to commit to that strategy very early in the game. That makes it a two against two type of game. If you're going for commodities, that means you're competing against the other player going for the commodties. If you're going for connections, that means you're competing against the other player going for connections. It has to be two vs two, or the odd man would run away with the game. I would rather have it a four vs four type of game. That way you can attack everyone, not just picking on the same guy all game. That being said, I did enjoy taking home the second place wood!