Auction, the game of buying, selling and collecting rare items, expands this year to two heats. The semifinals will follow the end of the second Heat and the finals will commence immediately thereafter. The two-heat format is designed to bring in more players, and should ensure that former champions and Hall of Famers Bruce Reiff (1993 & 1995) and Ken Gutermuth (1994 & 1997) as well as 1996 champion Bruce Monnin can challenge 1998 champion Cliff Ackman for the highly coveted "wood".

The tournament will be played with all the expanded rules (from the small six-page half-sized rulebook). The game can be learned in a short period of time. The winners of each three- or four-person board in heat #1 will advance to the finals. The winner of each board in heat #2 will also advance, along with the top scoring runners-up to bring the number of semifinalists up to a multiple of four. The winner of each semifinal board will advance to the finals, again along with the top scoring runners-up to bring the number of finalists up to four.