Patrick Shea, Doug Faust, Anni Foasberg and Gary Dickson tour the galaxy together.	Charles Hickock and Paul Bolduc consider their telegate options for delivering a load of space dust.

This year's tournament started on Wednesday with a crowd 41 cutthroat traders at Stitches Comedy Club (otherwise known as the Wheatland Room). The GM elected to sit out this game so there would be ten 4-player tables. Still the sharks were out in full force: , (No I was NOT avoiding them! Really!) Perennial semi-finalists Chuck Foster, Bill Crenshaw, Eric Wrobel, Steve Dickson, Debbie Gutermuth & Luke Koleszar qualified their way to the next round. Bernard Beckerman, Doug Faust, Roy Pettis, and vision-impaired Allen Stancius (who used his amazing psionic powers. Can anyone else play Merchant of Venus without seeing the galaxy?)

The best game was clearly Game #3: Ewan McNay actually had the highest score - needing only to deliver $40 of goods to win. He was paid off on a port, putting him over the winning amount needed, but you must declare victory on your own turn. In the interim Chuck Foster snuck in for the win. Tom Stokes was third in that game while amassing $1981, good enough for only third Alternate (Debbie Anderson finished with $1984 in Game #7) Wow, what a game!

Given this round was held in a comedy club, the funniest thing that happened (far funnier than many of the comedians that regularly appear there) was an unfortunate Philip "Mr. Freighter" Shea deciding to explore the Asteroid system using extra pips from having rolled 6-6-6. Of course, he was sent off course by finding a telegate which forcibly (the perils of Triple 6's) sent him to the Cloud. OUCH! For this Philip has won the fictional, annual "Wrong Way Corrigian" Award.

The second heat on Thursday evening , also in Stitches, drew 32 players, playing eight 4-player games. Philip "Mr. Freighter" Shea recovered from his misadventures in the first heat, to win his way into the semi-finals, using (what else!) a freighter and finding a Relic Yellow Drive and the Jump Start (which certainly helped.) Other winners were Richard Irving (yours truly), Eyal Mozes, Tom Stokes (who eliminated the need for a third Alternate spot), Rich Meyer, Ken Gutermuth, Luke Koleszar (the first repeat winner), and Robert Woodson.

The third heat on Friday afternoon was relocated to the Limerock Room which has exactly eight tables which was fortunate because exactly 32 wheeler dealers appeared - filling the tables exactly for the third straight time! What are the chances? This heat featured the true Return of the Machines: no less than five players scored their second win in the tournament: Eric Wrobel (who came in saying he wanted to play a light game where he didn't need to think.), Chuck Foster (who in a machine-like way found an Open Port and the next two systems would buy his goods in quick succession), Steve Dickson, Roy Pettis and Richard Irving (who played in a special game using his Green Tater variant who found a Red & Blue (yes, Blue) Drive for an easy win). Tom Browne, Patrick Shea and Gary Dickson also won the their first game - still good enough to advance.

With the rise of the Machines, only 20 players qualified for the semi-finals. A couple of players jokingly asked to be assigned to the "easy table"--unfortunately no such table existed. These games produced two "Water in Gas Tank" Award "winners". Bill Crenshaw needed to roll a total of 5 on three dice on his penultimate turn and got a 1-1-1. The turn's delay allowed Richard Irving to claim victory. Also Luke Koleszar loaded up with every Servo Mech in existence and merely needed to deliver them to advance, but his Freighter's normally slow engines almost completely stalled with a 1-1 roll, which allowed Patrick Shea to win. Eric Wrobel nipped Eyal Mozes as both were over the $3,000 victory condition, Steve Dickson starved Philip Shea of goods to win his ticket. Finally, Tom Stokes won comfortably to move on to the 5-player Final.

Tom Stokes got off to an early lead in the Final. By mid game there was a crowd showing up at the Interstellar Bioshpere. Tom, Richard and Eric had to worry about everyone else buying "their" goods first. This caused Eric to try another trade route where he found the Jump Start on the penultimate "?" marker. As usual, the Jump Start powers many a Merchant of Venus victory, as it did this one. Eric Wrobel was machine-like (and coincidentally playing the Eeep Eeeps) in victory for his second WBC Merchant of Venus title.

But all players played well and upheld the #1 rule of this tournament, Have Fun!

Results:

Top 5 determined by place in Final
1)Eric Wrobel, $3,034
2)Tom Stokes, $2,685
3)Richard Irving, $2,295
4)Patrick Shea, $2,268
5)Stephen Dickson, $1,640

Semi-finalists, determined by score in semi-final:
6)Eyal Mozes, $3,036
7)Bill Crenshaw, $2,923
8)Doug Faust, $2,851
9)Luke Koleszar, $2,699
10) Richard Meyer, $2,670
11) Gary Dickson, $2,586
12) Debbie Gutermuth, $2,538
13) Chuck Foster, $2,378
14) Bob Woodson, $2,318
15) Tom Browne, $2,097
16) Roy Pettis, $2,034
17) Philip Shea, $2,029
18) Bernard Beckerman, $1,650
19) Ken Gutermuth, $1,491
20) Allen Stancius, $1,144

Non-qualifiers, determined by best heat game:
21) Ewan McNay, $2,035
22) Christopher Ellis, $1,993
23) Debbie Anderson, $1,984
24) Alex Gesing, $1,930
25) Vassili Kyrkos, $1,920
26) Rod Davidson, $1,876
27) David Matheny, $1,874
28) Laurel Stokes, $1,828
29) Greg Romano, $1,819
30) Roderick Lee, $1,810
31) Jim Fardette, $1,672
32) Charles Hickok, $1,658
33) Joanna Chaplin, $1,623
34) Carl Armstrong, $1,620
35) Chris Gnech, $1,526
36) Barry Barnes, $1,525
37) Matt Calkins, $1,515
38) Harald Henning, $1,495
39) Kyle Geenwood, $1,425
40) Joe Abrams, $1,418
41) Stephane Dorais, $1,383
42) Paul Ganerson, $1,381
43) David Anderson, $1,340
44) Avi Appel, $1,328
45) Jessica Crandell, $1,322
46) Eric Brosius, $1,305
47) Mark Kennel, $1,301
48) Eric Monte, $1,263
49) David Fritsch, $1,262
50) Paul Bolduc, $1,166
51) Anni Foasburg, $1,130
52) Wade Fowble, $1,123
53) Kevin Sudy, $1,087
54) Jason Porta, $1,084
55) Aaron Fuegi, $1,084
56) Nikki Bradford, $782
57) Adam Meldron, $761
58) Mike Zorrer, $740
59) Craig Reece, $733
60) Pete Gathman, $692
61) Shantanu Saha, $682
62) Alex Henning, $680
63) Chris Erickson, $650
64) Eric Engelmann, $300

David Metheny watches as Kevin Sudy ventures far away.	The finalists, who this year included the GM.