Rod Spade wants more slots.	Don Tatum and Nick Page on the strip.

$9 buys a title ...

In Vegas Showdown 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 rounds, 4-player games were the preference; with 5-player games used as necessary.

The three heats generated 29 preliminary games. This year no one managed to win more than one heat.

The closest preliminary was a brawl that included three players that would ultimately qualify for the semifinals with Redie Smith's (more on him later) 78, besting Cary Morris (74), Dusty Usner (73), and Randy Buehler (70). The biggest win of the entire tournament was by Sceadeau D'Tela, who took a 5-player game by 23 points.

The heats generated 24 different winners, 20 of whom appeared for the next round, so no alternates were admitted to the semifinals. This left #13 ranked Mike Kaltman and #2 ranked Nick Page just outside the field.

The closest semifinal game overall from top to bottom was Redie Smith's win over Andrew Emerick, who finished tied at 56 points with Redie advancing due to an extra $9. Kyle Smith and Steve Cuccaro were not far behind with 49 points apiece.

Two other semifinals were even closer at the top and also were resolved by the money tiebreaker with Lachlan Salter besting Don Tatum by $7 and Cary Morris downing Eric Monte with loose change. This was the third year in a row that Eric barely missed the Final, but this was the closest miss yet. The largest victory in this round went to Rob Kircher who finished a comfortable 17 points over 2010 champion Randy Buehler. Curt Collins won the last game by 3 over John Weber.

A full play by play of the Final will be posted on boardgamegeek, but the highlights are noted below.

Slots decreased in value quickly in this game. By Turn 4, they were going for the minimum bid of 5.
Turn 6: Lachlan gets a bargain Buffet for 9
Turn 10: Redie the only player to get points from the Master Planner event
Turn 14: Redie the only player to get points from the Master Designer event.
Turn 18: Cary bids all he can (42) on one of the last remaining Fancy Lounges, so he has the prerequisite for the Theater he bought at the same price (42) in Turn 14

Final Fame on the board at the end was: Redie 53, Cary 44, Rob 41, Lachlan 43, and Curt 33.

Lachlan finished with the highest Population (18) for five points and Cary second (16) for three points. Rob and Redie tie with 15 to get no points. Curt finished with 13 population.

Curt had the highest revenue (19) for five points. Lachlan and Rob tied for second (16) for two points each. Redie and Cary finished with 10 revenue.

Curt, Rob, and Lachlan filled both sides and connected for 13 points. Cary filled both sides for ten points. Redie completed only one side and connected for eight points total.

Redie scored a whopping ten diamond points. Other than Redie, only Lachlan and Cary scored any diamond points with two each.

Cary and Rob scored two points for leftover cash.

Final scores: Redie 71, Lachlan 65, Cary 61, Rob 58, and Curt 51

Amazingly, Redie's tableau at the end contained only five types of room; two Lounges, three Fancy Lounges, three Slots, two Fancy Slots, and two Restaurants.

The winning players were again encouraged to record the rooms built in their casino, and the information was recorded on 27 games, nine of them 5-player. Over the course of four years, there are 106 total recorded games (25 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 18 4-player games this year, while the total after the "/" is the cumulative total over three years in 81 games. In addition underneath the room name is the total bought for the 25 recorded 5-player games over the last two years.

Lounge: 38/165
5-player: 51
Every winner over four years has bought at least one lounge. The "lounge kings" this year with four on their board (all 4p games) were Josh Cooper in a preliminary and Cary Morris and Redie Smith in their tight semifinal victories.
Fancy Lounge (4): 20/86
5-player: 25
This year for the first time recorded in four years, a winning board contained three Fancy Lounges and this board was Redie Smith's in the Final no less.
Nightclub (2): 4/29
5-player: 14
The Nightclub continued to be a more popular building among winners in 5-player games this year, but no winner this year bought both of them.
Theater (1): 6/32
5-player: 7
Thought by many to be a key tile, but in the twelve elimination games over the last two years, only two winners' board featured a Theater.
Sports Book (3): 14/52
5-player: 19
Eric Freeman was the only winner to have two Sports Books in his final tableau in his 5-player preliminary game. (more on this game in the next section)
Space Age Sports Book (1): 2/13
5-player: 4
This year the SASB dropped compared to the Dragon Room and the 5 Star Steakhouse on winners' boards. The two winners with SASB paired them with Theaters in their wins. Sceadeau D'Tela used that combo in his blowout win mentioned previously, while Eric Freeman squeaked by with a two-point win over Nick Page despite the power combo.
Slots: 67/305
5-player: 70
This year there were three players that managed to win with only one slot. However, only Ryan Barclay accomplished it in a 4-player game (and the fourth in four years). The other two games were noteworthy in that besides the single slot, the winners had a total of eight other rooms. In one of the games, former GM, John Weber had nine tiles with no duplicates of any of the tiles. One of those tiles was the Theatre that was key to his win. Cary Morris won his single slot preliminary game over two other semifinalists with a "minimalist" board. By minimalist, not only was there the low number of total tiles, but there was also absence of any of the top premier tiles. His board at the end included three Lounges, two Fancy Lounges, a Nightclub, one Slot, one Fancy Slot, and one Restaurant. On the opposite side of the scale was Rob Kircher with six slots in a 4-player game.
Fancy Slots (5): 23/94
5-player: 19
Mike Shea was the "Fancy Slot" king with three of them in his blowout (19 points) 4-player preliminary game.
Dragon Room (1): 7/20
5-player: 4
Much more popular among winners this year than last with it being bought at more than double the rate.
Table Games (3): 13/45
5-player: 9
This room was much more popular this year among the winners. Three preliminary game winners had two table games.
High Rollers Room (2): 5/21
5-player: 4
Restaurant: 22/101
5-player: 33
Every winner had at least one. Eight of the winners bought two Restaurants. No winner to date has bought three.
Fancy Restaurant (4): 16/87
5-player: 19
Buffet (3): 13/51
5-player: 12
Ryan Barclay in a previously mentioned "single slot" game was the only winner with two on his board.
Five-Star Steakhouse (1): 5/17
5-player: 6

A detailed breakdown of the scoring was available for 19 4-player games this year to add to 67 from previous years. In 55 of the 86 games (14/19 this year so a higher %) and in 13 of the 29 5-player games the winners completed both the Casino and Hotel sections and connected between them. This year only one player (three last year) was able to win a game with only one side filled and no connection; Andrew Emerick in a preliminary 5-player game. The title of "Diamond King" this year went to Kyle Smith and Sceadeau D'Tela with 12 diamond points (one short of Rod Spade's record of 13 set last year). Sceadeau's occurred in his blowout win and might be just as impressive as the current record as he scored his 12 in a 4-player game. This year four winners accomplished the "income daily double" to get ten points for having sole possession of highest revenue and highest population: Mike Shea, Cliff Ackman, and Ryan Barclay in preliminary games, and Curt Collins in his semifinal. This year there were the three "anti-income" wins where the winner won despite earning 0 points for revenue OR population. Those W's went to John Weber in a preliminary game and Redie Smith in the title game.

Pat Mirk, Andrew Emerick and James Freeman	Max Jamelli and Brad Raszewski