Congrats indeed to Mike on a great win based on what I can only describe as an incredibly ballsy gamble in GG 9th, the very last race of the contest. If you want to see for yourself how close and exciting the finish was, it’s worth taking a look at the reply or chart of the 5.5f mcl race to watch the come from last, win by less than a nose in the final stride 3-1 winner which gave Mike his $1 win and an additional $850k.
I can certainly understand saving a bullet for the finale, but with that much on the line it took a good deal of courage to take a chance that the odds weren’t going to drop to 5/2 after the gate opens, or that the favorite would run second and cut the place price, since either possibility probably produces a payoff that isn’t enough to overtake the unfortunate leader, who obviously experienced a very tough loss.
Assuming I did this right, half way down the page of this link is a link to a complete list of the final standings: [
www.drf.com]
In addition to Mike’s big win, TG perhaps deserves even bigger congrats for Paul Sherman’s Tour Championship and 6th place finish in the NHC. In addition to collecting $75k for finishing first, second, or third at ten different contests throughout the year, and giving the agent representing the carrier which underwrote the $2 million bonus some very anxious moments late in the contest, at the banquet Paul was honored for being one of only four players who have qualified 10 times. With all due respect to Mike’s incredible achievement, one could make the case that in addition to having the best contest year ever, Paul is the true handicapper of the year.
There are always quite a number of interesting player stories, and this link to a pre-contest ESPN piece covers most of them: [
espn.go.com]
As usual, many others took place during the event, including the player who flew 17 hours from New Zealand to compete and qualify in the last chance contest Wednesday, the player who returned $5900 cash another player left at a table near the betting windows, and the Luck screening and cocktail parties with the entire cast, which made the trip much more fun than usual for Maddy. Perhaps Roger or one of the other TG players I talked at the screening could provide some of the juicy details.
Last but certainly not least, the real purpose of this long winded post is to thank JB and the entire TG staff for both providing sheets for and incurring the cost of sending a representative to the NHC, which presumably generate as much gratitude and goodwill from others as they do from me.
