The final Hosts Choice session was held at the Laurel Community Center and a second place finish in one of the games clinched the season-long series championship for Doug Hoylman, who took the lead by the mid-way point and held it to the end. The final session was one of the best attended of the series, with 14 different players playing three games of Vegas Showdown simultaneously. Like a real Vegas poker tournament, our "feature table" included the top 3 in the point standings (Doug, myself, and Rick Bynaker) plus two other strong players (Beth Raphael and Rod Spade). It was a very close a competitive game, which Rod managed to win with a well-timed purchase of the Theater title. Doug was second just a point ahead of Beth and myself, and Beth's third place on a tiebreak moved her up to fourth place in the overall standings.

The other two games were won by Mike Marshall and Eric Haas. Mike's game was the closest one, all five players within 10 points top to bottom. Eric's game was a teaching one involved two players new to the game, one of whom (Doug Heath) who was joining us for his first GCOM session ever. The other "newbie" in the game was none other than GCOM President Keith Levy who picked it up quickly and gave Eric a good run for his money.

With no more sessions scheduled, the top finishers in the season-long series are:

1st Place: Doug Hoylman 20 points (2 wins, 7 sessions played)
2nd Place: John Weber 15 points (2 wins, 8 sessions played)
3rd Place: Rick Bynaker 12 points (2 wins, 5 sessions played) 4th Place: Beth Raphael 10 points (1 win, 5 sessions played)
5th Place: Jamie Tang 10 points (0 wins, 4 sessions played)
6th Place: Helen Powell 9 points (1 win, 3 sessions played)
7th Place: Ed Rothenheber 9 points (1 win, 2 sessions played)
8th Place: Rich Shipley 8 points (1 win, 3 sessions played)
9th Place: Keith Levy 8 points (1 win, 2 sessions played)
10th Place (tie) Denise Stallings and Rod Spade
7 points (1 win each, 2 sessions apiece)

For those of you planning on attending EuroQuest in a few weeks, join us in presenting Doug with his winner's plaque on the first evening of the convention, Thursday, November 9th.

Thanks from Rich Shipley and myself, the coordinators of this competition, to all 63 people who participated in the 13 different sessions held at 11 different GCOM locations. There were a total of 25 different games played in the 13 sessions, with the high water marks being the first (Power Grid at GCOM-Reisterstown) and the last sessions, with 14 participants each.

As usual, details can be found at the webpage linked to the main GCOM site (direct link below)

rtgames.com/gcomhost/