A quick explanation of how the monthly TLB works: Stars takes your top 20 results (in terms of TLB points) for the month and adds them up, giving you your point total. The player with the most points at the end of the calendar month is the winner. In other words, Darrell could technically take over the lead before the weekend, as there are enough tournaments with large fields in a 2-3 day span to make this happen.
My point isn't that Darrell will be ahead by this weekend, obviously, or that he will win it at all, but rather that it is not necessary to play the entire month in order to win the TLB. A player just needs to play a lot of tournaments---a LOT---and place in the top 3 or 4 in several of them. He's got plenty of time to do exactly this, and he isn't at all lacking in ability, so don't count him out!
Anyway, I opened Stars today and did what I usually do when I sign on, at least this month: I requested to find a player and typed in darrell77. Much to my delight, he was playing in 6 tournaments at the time, ranging in buy in from $1 to $100. It amazed me at that point that he is able to separate himself from the amount of money involved and just play good poker. I mean, it can't be easy for him to be motivated about winning a $1 tournament where if you beat 1,500 people to take it down, you get $400 in prize money.
When I see something like that, I can tell Darrell's a man on a mission. He couldn't have been happy to see one of his biggest challengers take second in the first Sunday tournament of the month, but it doesn't mean he's giving up. I expect this race to be a close one between JJProdigy, Riverloser, and Darrell77, and I would not be surprised if gank, sheets, and/or UH Big Tex fought their way back into the mix as well.
Interestingly, it's hard for me to tell exactly what nip/tuck's motivations are at this point. Is he in it purely for the money, or was excited about the whole idea and wanting to generate excitement through a month long race that keeps everyone's eyes glued to the leaderboard? My guess is it's the latter--he seems to want it to be a close race, to have that tension build up at the end of the month when nobody knows who will end up on top.
I'll wrap this up by saying GL once again to all parties involved: nip/tuck, Riverloser, JJProdigy, darrell77, and everyone else attempting to be the champion of champions this month. You've all shown a lot of class and at the same time inspired many of us with your competitive will and desire to be the best. I hope the rest of the month is as exciting as we all know it can be.
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