Bob Wicks, Mark F. Smith, Jeff Heidman and Tom Demarco in a Heat.	Rob Winslow, Rob Kircher, Pat Mirk and Mike Backstrom.

I would to thank everyone for playing this year and especially those who brought their games. We had seven games in the first heat, three in the second and another five in the third heat. Pat Mirk took the top score from the 15 Preliminary games with 250. In the short game department, Andy Lewis had the lowest winning score with 92 in a 3-player game and Mike Shea won his 4-player contest with only 102. Top cash went to Rob Kircher with 76 just edging out Phil White. Proving that you do not need cash, Bob Wicks won his game with only 15 cash. In another notable game, Chris LeFevre was able to make 14 connections in 7-point cities for 112 points in his victory.

In semi #1, Tom Demarco upset two-time defending champion Kevin Wojtaszcyk on the strength of four 7-point city cards in play to Kevin's one. In semi #2 Chris Palmero and Bob Wicks kept butting heads leaving lots of cash for Laurel Stokes who crushed them both in the end. Semi #3 provided another close contest with Mike Shea winning on the strength of having both Phoenix city cards. In semi #4, inaugural champ Andy Lewis kept steering the trains away from the west coast and seven of his nine city cards had at least three colors per city.

Semi #1

Tom DeMarco 41 cash + 129 cities(10) = 170

Kevin Wojtaszcyk 32 cash + 134 cities(11) = 166

Pat Mirk 48 cash + 108 cities( 9) = 156

Kelly Krieble 58 cash + 86 cities( 9) = 144

Semi #2

Laurel Stokes 66 cash + 144 cities(15) = 210

Bob Wicks 36 cash + 138 cities(13) = 174

Chris Palmero 22 cash + 150 cities(13) = 172

Semi #3

Mike Shea 34 cash + 142 cities(12) = 176

Phil White 41 cash + 124 cities(10) = 165

Steve Shambeda 36 cash + 114 cities(11) = 150

Mark Smith 20 cash + 115 cities(10) = 135

Semi #4

Andy Lewis 57 cash + 137 cities( 9) = 194

Rob Kircher 58 cash + 109 cities(10) = 167

Rob Winslow 36 cash + 110 cities(10) = 146

Paul Rubin 34 cash + 97 cities( 9) = 131

In the Final we had three former finalists plus Laurel who was making her first appearance there. The game went the distance again this year. Andy played a very different game ... playing four 7-city cards and kept pushing to the west. Tom benefited from taking the most cash. Mike tried to keep pace in the cash race but suffered from bad luck with his city cards. Laurel was able to play the most city cards but wasn't left much opportunity after Mike. Andy earned the most city points, but could not make up the 29 point difference in cash giving Tom DeMarco the win and our seventh different champion in eight years.

Final Scores

Tom DeMarco 68 cash + 117 cities(10) = 185

Andy Lewis 39 cash + 138 cities(11) = 177

Mike Shea 51 cash + 102 cities( 8) = 153

Laurel Stokes 21 cash + 126 cities(12) = 147

In the five games for which I have received full trackers, only four different cites topped the 20 pt mark (Denver, San Francisco, LA and Sacramento). This was down from six cites last year with only four games. LA was the only city to top 21 twice. When we track cities scoring 15 or more, we add six more to the list. No cities scored 15+ in any of the tracked games. Your best bets were San Francisco, Sacramento, Spokane and El Paso each scoring 12+ in all five games.

Next year we will look to move the third heat back to Thursday.

The perfect accessory gift for the railroad gamer who has everything.	Kelly Krieble, Tom DeMarco, Kevin Wojtasczyk and Pat Mirk.
Original champ Andy Lewis eyes a return to the title with GM Rob Kircher constituting the current impediment to that goal.	The finalists: only Lewis was a former champ but Laurel could claim half a title having trained husband Tom to the 2004 championship.