Rod Spade, Ken Horan, Anni Foasberg and Redie Smith in Sin City.	Patrick Mirk and Eric Raymond place their bets on construction.

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 being used only as necessary.

In the three preliminary heats there were a total of 33 games played with 93 different players (just one short of the 2011 record). For the first time there were three double winners in the heats with Eric Sokolowsky and Max Jamelli winning both the games they played, while John Corrado followed a third place finish in a 5-player game with wins in the next two heats.

The closest preliminary game this year was decided by a 7-point sread from first to last with 2012 finalist Curt Collins' 78 just enough to get by Doug Covell's 77, Jarrett Weintraub's 73 and Bryan Berkenstock's 71. Sceadeau D'Tela bested his biggest win (by 23 points in a 5-player game) in 2012 with a new record 26-point margin in the semifinals.

There were 30 unique non-tied heat winners, but fortunately onlyappeared for the semis, so no heat winners were turned away. The semis proved not as close as last year when three finalist slots were won on money tiebreakers. The closest finish was Doug Faust's 1-point win over Steve Cuccaro, with Lexi Shea and Eric Sokolowski only three points back. Sceadeau D'Tela's aforementioned 26 point win was one of the most impressive victories in the tournament, considering it came in a semifinal and in that distant second place was none other than defending champion Redie Smith. In the other semifinal games it was Randy Buehler, returning to the Final after a two-year absence, over Jason Long by 3, Cary Morris, returning for his second final in a row, by 5 over Greg Crowe, and Max Jamelli, with his third straight win, by 3 over Dana Champion.

The Final included no less than three folks who wrote about their experience on Boardgamegeek. You can find their accounts as follows
Doug Faust - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/160788/item/2759792#item2759792
Randy Buehler - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/160823/item/2760952#item2760952
Max Jamelli - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/160693/item/2757791#item2757791

Some of the highlights of the Final include:
Slots decreased in value very quickly in this game. By Turn 3, they were going for the minimum bid of 5.
All the players hoarded money so there were very few bargains to be had. At Turn 11, all the players were hanging on to at least $25 with one at $45.

Turn 14: The slot tournament gives everyone some extra income. It gives Doug only $2, however it is now just enough for him to make the minimum bid on the theater. Cary who already had enough to bid on the tile, gets MORE income from the event, but does not have enough to outbid Doug for it.
Turn 16: the last lounge goes for 15. All the basic tiles (Lounge, Slots, and Restaurants) emptied in the game.
Turn 17: game ends

Final Fame on the board at the end of the game: Randy 30, Cary 27, Max 21, Doug 36, and Sceadeau 14.

Max finished with the highest Population (17) for 5 points, Sceadeau second (16) for 3 points, and Doug third (15) for 1 point. Cary and Randy finished with 12 population.

Sceadeau had the highest revenue (15) for 5 points, Max second (13) for 3 points, and Randy third (12) for 1 point. Cary and Doug finished with 11 and 10 revenue, respectively.

Sceadeau filled both sides and connected for 13 points. Doug filled both sides for 10 points. Randy and Cary completed only one side and connected for 8 points total. Max completed one side for 5 points.

Max scored 4 diamond points with Doug at 3 and Cary at 2.

Sceadeau, Randy, and Cary scored 3, 2, and 1 point respectively for leftover cash.

Final scores: Doug 50, Randy 41, Max 38 (2 leftover cash), Cary 38 (1 leftover cash), and Sceadeau 38 (no cash leftover).

Doug's tableau at the end contained two Lounges, a Fancy Lounge, Theater, Sports Book, two Slots, Restaurant, and Buffet.

For the fifth year running, the winning players were encouraged to record the rooms built in their casino, and the information was recorded on 36 games (nine of them 5-player). Over the course of five years, there are 142 total recorded games (34 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 27 4-player games this year, while the total after the / is the cumulative total over five years in 108 games. In addition underneath the room name is the total bought for the 34 recorded 5-player games over the last three years.

Lounge - 58/223
5p - 71
Every winner over four years has bought at least one lounge. The "lounge kings" this year with four lounges on their board (all 4-player games) were Steve Scott and Cary Morris in preliminary games. Interestingly, Cary was one of three players to pull off this feat in 2012 as well (in the semifinals).
Fancy Lounge (4) - 34/120
5p - 36
For the second time recorded in five years, a winning board contained three Fancy Lounges. This board was Sceadeau D'Tela's in a preliminary round against the only other player to accomplish this feat, Redie Smith, who did it in the 2012 Final.
Nightclub (2) - 8/37
5p - 17
The Nightclub was bought by 14 of the 4-player game winners. In his semifinal 5-player game, Doug Faust was the only winner over the last two years to purchase both Nightclubs.
Theater (1) - 10/42
5p - 10
Thought by many to be a key tile, three of the six SF/F winners' boards contained the tile. This is in contrast to the previous two years where only two of the twelve SF/F games did.
Sports Book (3) - 21/73
5p - 27
Kevin Burns (5p), Brad Raszewski and Steve Cuccaro all won preliminary games with two Sports Books (and none with Space Age).
Space Age Sports Book (1) - 7/20
5p - 4
This year SASB was much more popular than ever before for the winners of the 4-player games. More than a third of the total wins with this tile occurred in a single year.
Slots - 87/392
5p - 99
This year there was a single player that managed to win with only one slot. However, that person, Doug Faust, was able to accomplish it twice. Once in a preliminary 4-player game (the fifth in five years), and then repeated the trick in the semis in a 5-player game. In his Final win, he purchased the unbelievable amount of TWO slots, double what he had before. What was going on there, Doug? On the opposite side of the scale was Sceadeau D'Tela with six slots in a 4-player game in the aforementioned 3 Fancy Lounge game. Greg Crowe also did the six slots for the win in a prelim game.
Fancy Slots (5) - 26/120
5p - 25
Sceadeau D'Tela was the "Fancy Slot" king with three of them in his previously mentioned blowout in a semifinal game.
Dragon Room (1) - 2/22
5p - 1
No love at all for the Dragon Room among the winners this year.
Table Games (3) - 17/62
5p - 10
This year only Cliff Ackman won a game with two Table games.
High Rollers Room (2) - 10/31
5p - 4
Huge year for the HRR. Dana Champion hosted the highest rollers with her prelim victory that had both rooms built.
Restaurant - 32/133
5p - 45
Every winner had at least one. Seven of the winners bought two Restaurants. No winner to date has bought three.
Fancy Restaurant (4) - 29/116
5p - 27
Three games where the winner had three of this tile
Buffet (3) - 15/66
5p - 19
Five-Star Steakhouse (1) - 8/25
5p - 10

A detailed breakdown of the scoring was available for 30 4-player games this year to add to 86 from previous years. In 74 of the 116 games (19/30 this year) and in 16 of the 38 5-player games the winners completed both the Casino and Hotel sections and connected between them. The title of "Diamond King" went to Eric Sokolowsy who tied the record of 13 set by Rod Spade in 2011. Eric's record number of diamonds fueled a 25-point win, in a "diamond happy" game where second place Matthew Craig also had a high total of ten diamond points. This year five winners accomplished the "income daily double" to get ten points for having sole possession of highest revenue and highest population. Dana Champion (in the two HRR game), Max Jamelli (fueled by three Fancy Restaurants), Don Tatum, and Eric Sokolowsky accomplished this in prelim games, while Sceadeau D'Tela did it in his already twice mentioned semifinal blowout. This year there were the four "anti-income" wins where the winner won despite earning 0 points for revenue OR population. Those W's went to Scott Saccenti, David Duncan, and Steve Scott (in his four Lounge game) in preliminary games and Doug Faust in his semifinal game (with two Nightclubs). Noteworthy in Doug's game was that his income at the end of the game was only 9.

Eric Sokolowsky apparently has an enthusiastic taker for his Math Trade of slots for table games.	Max Jamelli obviously is in the market for a Sports Book. Not a good year to bet with your heart, Max.