I read DiceLord's post about the end game and it seems pretty clear he has a good point. Currently there is ZERO incentive for a very dominant first place player to kill the next two evenly match (and vastly separated) players.

The second and third place positions tend to get into a game of "chicken" waiting for the other to flag first. Meanwhile first place simply makes sure they are both kept even and non-threatening. Thus the point farming begins.

What about this as an idea: Give some kind of reward for how fast you win (the faster the better).

Setting aside the concept of "luckier", would not a "better" player be able to finish faster (more efficiently)?

To implement this idea, how about this: At the beginning of the game every player puts a set number of points (15-20 pts would be a good number for the 10 and under tables) into a side pot. Only the first place finisher will get these points. The catch is every round the points diminish by a number equal to the number of players left (-7 each round at the beginning and less as players get killed or flag).

This gives incentive for the person in first place to kill off the weaker players (to slow the rate of point loss). It also gives him incentive to win the game faster (to get as many points from the side pot as possible).

It may be with this scheme that the side points disappear completely before the game is won. So be it. The intention is that this is a bonus for winning quickly; not a given point award for first.

All other scoring stays in place as is (or as it gets changed from time to time).

So what do y'all think? More importantly, what does Ryan think? Ryan? *taps mic* Is this thing on? :)