"Big Income" Makes A Comeback!

In Vegas Showdown players bid for and place basic and specialty rooms in an effort to build the best Hotel/Casino on the Las Vegas strip. Four-player games were used in the Heats except when the number of total players required some 5-player games.

Highlights of the Heats

Mike Kaltman joined Keith Dent (2022), Sceadeau D’Tela and Eugene Yee (both 2019) as the only players to win in all three Heats. However, Mike didn’t just win those Heats, he crushed a couple of them with the biggest win of the tournament with a 17 pt margin and another victory tied for the second biggest margin of 16. Mike’s third victory was noteworthy as one of 4 games won with “low income” (no endgame points for Revenue or Population).

Mike recounted his games in a geeklist.

There were a total of 4 “low income” wins this year. “Low income” strategies with “no Restaurant” have been fairly common in recent years, but no one accomplished that this year. However, Rob Flowers accomplished a “low income” win in an even rarer fashion with no slots. An accomplishment I noted had happened for the first time last year when Matt Craig had done it. John Corrado also had a “low income” win but did it in the opposite fashion from Rob with 6 slots which was the most on a winning board this year. Anthony Lainesse was the remaining person to win with “low income.”

In most years there are multiple people with more than one Heat win, but this year, only GM Eric Freeman joined Mike with more than one win. Eric’s second win was noteworthy in that it was fueled by two Sports Books. Max Jamelli recounted his experience with that game in a geeklist.

The “dominating income” (the full 10 points for having the lead in both population and revenue) game was a massively reduced presence on winning boards last year only one winning board accomplishing the feat. This year 4 of the heat wins featured “dominating income.” Eric Raymond, Adam Hurd, Kevin Burns, and Cliff Ackman all had “dominating income” heat wins. Cliff’s board also had the most slot rooms of a winning board this year with 6.

Rob Kircher’s heat win was the “Diamonds are For winning” award for most diamond points in a win this year with 10.

Other geeklist entries of Heat games can be found at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/319832/wbc-2023-game-recaps-too-many-costume-changes?itemid=9969583#9969583”.

Highlights of the Semifinal

After the three Heats, there were 20 players who had won at least one game. Nineteen of those winners showed up to for the Semifinal, so five 4-player games would decide the finalists. This let first alternate Eric Schlosser (and 2022 Finalist) into the Semifinal, but left James Freeman one spot short of getting in and joining his grandson Andrew to make it a three generation Semifinal.

The closest Semifinal match turned out to be the closest game of the tournament this year. Kevin Burns (58) prevailed over Chris Houle (57), derailed Mike Kaltman (56), and took down Eric Schlosser (52).

Ben Scholl (70) had a fairly comfortable win over Andrew Freeman (60), Eugene See (56), and Cliff Ackman (46).

Rob Kircher (82) used a “dominating income” strategy to take down probably the hardest Semifinal this year. He prevailed over defending champion Sky Roy (77), two year in a row laurelist Matt Craig (68), and Eric Freeman (65).

Anthony Lainesse (49) used two High Rollers Rooms to defeat John Corrado (43), Jeff Wu (43), and Eric Raymond (38).

Sceadeau D’Tela (67) ended his Semifinal with a filled board and a win to go with it. He had two Sports Books, the Space Age Sports Book, 2 Restaurants, and a Buffet to provide most of the real estate. Keith Dent (62), Sara Ward (58), and Rob Flowers (54) were among the vanquished.

Highlights of the Final

First off, thanks to my dad, James Freeman, for recording the events of the Final which ran at the same time as the Puerto Rico Final I was in.

Turn 1 – The two opening slots go for $12 to Sceadeau and Ben.

Turn 2 - Slot prices drop down to $9 to Ben and Kevin. Turn 4 – Both the restaurant and lounge money events out by this turn. Slots drop down to $5 for Sceadeau and Kevin with other cheap stuff available in a $15 Fancy Restaurant to Rob and $9 Buffet for Anthony.

Turn 5 - Anthony grabs a Fancy Lounge for $15 overbidding Rob.

Turn 6 – With a Sales Event potential bargains were at the table with both a High Rollers Room and Fancy Slots dropping to $3 minimum prices. Sceadeau bid $3 for the High Rollers Room, hoping the other bargains and the lack of the prerequisite Table Games, however Ben outbid him to $5, forcing Sceadeau to go to $7. Ultimately the Fancy Slot went for $9 to Ben while a Sportsbook went for $18 to Kevin.

Turn 7 – With a bunch of new tiles flipping a combo of Good Relations (outbid by two spots), PR Scandal (no Publicity), and Lounge Builders on Strike (no bids on Lounges) proved fortuitous for the two players on the button. Sceadeau and Kevin both went $7 for slots. Then everyone else had to renovate whether they really needed to or not.

Turn 12 – A Visionary event (get a point for outbidding) created some furious bidding. On the button, Sceadeau gets out of the way with a Publicity action off the bat. Kevin bids $9 for one of the Fancy Slots available. Ben overbids to $12 (and a point), then Rob to $15. Anthony bids $12 for the other Fancy Slot and Kevin overbids to $15. Ben bids $9 for a Lounge and Anthony overbids to $12, then Ben takes publicity.

Turn 15 - With the medium stack running low, everyone but Rob spends $5 on the Ad Campaign event to get 2 Fame. Rob spent his available cash on a Fancy Restaurant the previous turn. This turn, Sceadeau gets a 5 Star Steakhouse for 25, while Ben gets a Fancy Lounge for $25.

Turn 16 – The other Ad Campaign comes out causing the medium tile stack to empty. Anthony, Kevin, and Rob all have the $10 cash for 5 Fame, while Ben and Sceadeau spend $5. The next event is Fancy Chef (points for Restaurants) which will end the game, but not before the event happens and scores 3 for Anthony, 9 for Sceadeau, 3 for Kevin, and 9 for Rob.

Final Fame on the board at the end of the game: Sceadeau 38, Rob 38, Ben 35, Kevin 30, Anthony 29.

Sceadeau finished with the highest Population (16) for 5 points and Rob was 2nd (15) for 3 points. Anthony finished third at 14 for 1 point. Kevin had 13 and Ben 9.

Sceadeau finished with the highest revenue (15) for 5 points. Kevin finished 2nd (13) for 3 points. Anthony finished third with 12 for 1 point. Ben and Rob trailed behind with 11 and 10.

Kevin and Anthony completed both sides and connected for 13 points, while Sceadeau completed both sides for 10 points. Ben completed one side for 5 points. Rob just connected for 3 points.

Ben scored 3 diamond points, while Rob got 2.

No one had a lot of cash on hand at the end, with Kevin and Anthony scoring 1 point for leftover money.,/p>

Final scores:Sceadeau 58, Kevin 47, Rob 46, Anthony 45, and Ben with 43.

It turned out that the final Famous Chef result dropped Ben from 3rd to 5th.

Sceadeau executed a “dominating income” in his win, capping the comeback of this strategy from the single win in 2022 to 6 wins in 2023 including the Final.

Sceadeau’s tableau at the end contained 2 Lounges, 4 Slots, 1 Table Games, 1 High Rollers Room, 2 Restaurants, 1 Fancy Restaurant, and 1 Five Star Steakhouse.