Katie Breza was one of just ten ladies to try their luck in Acquire out of a field of 83 as her whole family played in the second heat.	Cliff Ackman, Kevin Breza and defending champ Josh Cooper play in the second heat. Josh parlayed his win into a successful title defense.

The tournament saw a renewed interest in this classic game as the third largest field in the 21-year history of the event generated 29 preliminary games in three heats. The median starting tile was 2C. Winning scores ranged from 33,000 to 61,000.

In past years I never noticed a correlation between seating position and winning. This year was different in that people playing first or THIRD (yes, seated third) were twice as likely to win as those seated fourth. More telling is people participating in the first merger: finishing first increased odds of winning to 50%, finishing second in the first merger increases odds of winning to 33%, not participating in the first merger decreases the (random) odds by half. These are only odds. Players participating in the first merger and seated first, still finished fourth and players not participating in the first merger and seated fourth are never out of the game (a player in this position had the highest runner-up score of the tournament with 99% of the winner's score.)

The finalists overcame a talented field that included seven former champions for a down and dirty, Wall Street takeover. Two of the former champs, 2007's Jason Ley and defending champ Joshua Cooper survived the gauntlet to reach the Final along with Cheryl Mallon and James Pei (the CDW wargame master). The game began in typical fashion: the first two chains started had the creators with four shares balanced with two players unable to start chains with three shares in each. Josh and Evan started their second chains before Jason and Cheryl were able to start their first, putting them in a bad position. Josh took majority in the first merger allowing him to purchase shares in the thick of the game while the other players "chose to pass". After a big first place payout ($5000), Josh recognized Continental would be a permanent hotel and purchased stock at a price no one could match thus guaranteeing him majority. Rather than merge a chain into Continental, he added to the rival chain's growth increasing its size to 11 (permanent status); depriving other players of much needed cash and preventing the trade for Continental stock. This year's championship proved Josh to be no one-hit wonder.

Evan Davis buys shares under the watchful gaze of John Tighe. Evan, the designer of Air Baron, was one of seven players to compete in all three heats.	GM Cliff Ackman keeps tabs on his finalists. Josh Cooper won again despite hefty competition from Caesar Pei who was out of his CDW element. Not the "Master" today.