Nick Page, Sceadeau D'Tela, Mary Ellen Powers, Lexi Shea and Jon Anderson	Shira Levy, Zvi Mowshowitz, James Carvin and Alfred Smith build their casino empires.

Vegas Showdown, denying its out of print status, had its most successful year in its fourth outing at WBC, thanks in part to the addition of an early third heat. Players are challenged to bid for and place basic and specialty rooms in an effort to build the best Hotel/Casino on the Vegas strip. In the preliminary heats, 4-player games were the preference; with 5-player games being used as necessary due to a paucity of games and/or players. This year, Mohegan Sun, a casino in Connecticut, graciously sponsored the event by providing prize support in the form of a T-shirt and deck of cards for each participant. Credit Bob Wicks for securing the sponsorship and transporting the prizes which were well received by the appreciative players. The GM often joked that the event was now to be called "Mohegan Sun Showdown."

In the three heats there were 29 games played. Two players, Alex Bove and defending champion Randy Buehler, won two heats each.

The closest preliminary game was also the lowest scoring contest in the history of the tournament. In this close-to-the-vest affair, Jim Fry bested Doug Faust, Alfred Smith and Eric Cheatam, 27 - 26 - 25- 24. The biggest win of the tournament was by Mark Globus, who won by 23 points.

Of the 27 different heat winners, six opted out of the semi-final, allowing four players with seconds to advance as alternates to the five 5-player games of Round 2. The closest semi, both between first and second as well as overall from top to bottom was Nick Page over one of the alternates: David Duncan. They finished tied at 43 points and Nick advanced due to $9 in change besting David's $5. Dave had to settle for sixth place laurels. Eric Monte, 2009 champion Eric Freeman, and Cary Morris followed close behind at 40, 38, and 35 points respectively. Both Erics were also involved in the closest top to bottom semi-final last year.

The largest victory in the semis went to another alternate, Mark Love, who finished a comfortable 17 points over defending champion Randy Buehler and Greg Thatcher. In the other semis, it was Rob Flowers by seven over 2008 champ Andy Gerb, Steve LeWinter by five over Michael Kaltman, and Jeremy Oppenheim by six over James Denham.

The full play by play of the final will be posted on boardgamegeek.

Some of the highlights include:
Turn 6: Nick gets a Fancy Lounge for a bargain price of $12
Turn 7: With nearly everyone else out of money, Steve gets a Fancy Restaurant for $12. Three of the players take Publicity.
Turn 9: A no publicity event combined with no bids on Lounges force four players to renovate, while Steve purchases the Restaurant he needs for $15.
Turn 11: Mark outbids Rob for a High Rollers room for 15 with no Table Games and two left among the remaining tiles.
Turn 12: Only Rob and Steve have the money needed to buy 5 Fame for $10.
Turn 17: Jeremy leads off with a bid of 25 for a Fancy slot. Rob gets a Buffet for 12, Mark gets the other Fancy Slot for only 12. Steve gets the Dragon Room for only 21.
Turn 18: The event that scores for Lounges and Fancy Lounges hits. Nick scores 10 points from the card, while Jeremy, Mark, Rob, and Steve score 6, 6, 2, and 2, respectively.
Turn 19: The event that scores diamond points comes up. Nick scores 5 and Steve scores 4, then the game ends with Nick sitting on $62. His board positioned for the Theater and with the most money, the tile never comes into play.

Final Fame on the board at the end of the game: Mark 29, Jeremy 31, Nick 43, Rob 31, and Steve 50.

Rob finished with the highest Population (18) for five points and Steve second (14) for three points. Mark and Jeremy tie with 13 to get no points. Nick finished with 11 population.

Rob has the highest revenue (18) for five points, Steve second (16) for three points, Mark third (14) for one point. Jeremy finished with 13 revenue and Nick with 8.

Mark and Jeremy fill both sides and connect for 13 points. Rob fills both sides for 10 points. Steve completes only one side (5) and Nick only connects (3).

Nick and Steve score diamonds for five and four points respectively.

Nick, Steve, Mark, and Rob score 6, 2, 1, and 1 for leftover cash.

Final scores: Steve 67, Nick 57, Rob 52, Jeremy 44 (and $7), Mark 44 (and $2)

On Steve's tableau at the end; Lounge, Nightclub, four Slots, Fancy Slot, Dragon Room, Restaurant, Fancy Restaurant, and Five Star Steakhouse.

For the third year running, the winning players were encouraged to record the rooms built in their casino, and the information was recorded on 34 total games, with 12 of them being 5-player. Over the course of three years, there are 79 total recorded games (16 5-player). The raw numbers can be a little deceptive as there is no information about what the winner paid to get the tile, and a key theme in the game is getting good value. In addition, some tiles in the B stacks will not be available to be purchased in any given game. Regardless, the numbers may indicate what tiles more frequently become good values. The number in parenthesis is the maximum total of a premier tile available in any given game. The number before the / is how many total rooms of that type were purchased across the 22 4-player games this year, while the total after the / is the cumulative total over three years in 63 games. In addition, with the large increase of people this year, both the semis and Final were 5-player games, so underneath the room name is the total bought for the 16 recorded 5-player games.

Lounge: 39/127
5p - 32
Every winner over three years has bought at least one lounge. David Platnik took the "lounging" to the extreme in his 4-player game win by purchasing five of them to squeak out a victory by $1 on the money tiebreak over Richard Fetzer. Despite all the lounges, David did not purchase any advanced tiles related to Lounges.
Fancy Lounge (4): 24/66
5p - 15
Nightclub (2): 8/25
5p -10
The Nightclub appears to be a more popular building among winners in 5-player games. In two games this year the winner purchased both Nightclubs; Greg Thatcher in a 4-player game and James Freeman in a 5-player game.
Theater (1): 8/26
5p - 4
A lot less popular for the 5-player game winners. In the six elimination games, only one winners' board featured a Theater.
Sports Book (3): 10/38
5p - 12
A more popular tile for the 5-player game winners. Perhaps because it is harder to fill the Casino without it in the 5-player game? Maybe because there are less slots available per person?
Space Age Sports Book (1): 4/11
5p - 2
Through three years running, this, the Dragon Room, and the 5 Star Steakhouse have all been pretty much equally bought. Jeremy Oppenheim bought one and did not get a chance to place it (so not counted among the stats here), but still managed to win his prelim game by a healthy seven-point margin.
Slots: 86/238
5p - 48
This year only one player, James Freeman, managed a win with only one slot (in his aforementioned two Nightclub game) in a 5-player game. On the opposite side of the scale was Greg Thatcher (also in a two Nighclub win mentioned previously) with seven slots in a 4-player game.
Fancy Slots (5): 26/71
5p - 11
Dragon Room (1): 3/13
5p - 2
Table Games (3): 9/32
5p - 6
High Rollers Room (2): 4/16
5p - 4
Restaurant: 31/79
5p - 20
The Restaurant was more popular among winners this year. Ten of the winners bought two Restaurants. No winner to date has bought three.
Fancy Restaurant (4): 24/71
5p - 13
James Denham rode three of them along with a Buffet and Five-Star Steakhouse to his preliminary round win. In this win, those were the only non-basic (Restaurant/Slot/Lounge) tiles he bought.
Buffet (3): 11/38
5p ­ 9
A little less popular among winners this year.
Five-Star Steakhouse (1): 4/12
5p - 3

A detailed breakdown of the scoring was available for 23 4-player games this year to add to 44 from previous years. In 41 of the 67 (13/23 this year) games and in eight of the 20 5-player games the winners completed both the Casino and Hotel sections and connected between them. This year three players were able to win games with only one side filled and no connection; James Denham in the aforementioned Fancy Restaurant game, Rob Flowers, and Steve LeWinter in the Final. In Rob's win he had a whopping 45 of his 57 points as Fame on the Board. The title of "Diamond King" this year went to Rod Spade with a record 13 diamond points in a 4p preliminary round win. This year only two winners accomplished the "income daily double" to get 10 points for having sole possession of highest revenue and highest population. Alan Pysnack (in a prelim game) and Rob Flowers (in Round 2) both accomplished it in 5-player games. Notable this year were the three "anti-income" wins (James Freeman, Nick Page, and Randy Buehler in prelim games), where the winner won despite earning 0 points for revenue OR population.

Cary Morris, 2008 champ Andrew Gerb and Perrianne Lurie.	GM Eric Freeman and his five finalists