Tontine Video Winner Behind the Scenes

Here's an interesting video shot by press covering Rick Henry's award presentation, in which he gives some personal insight into his experience with the Tontine casting process.

The Thinking Man's Approach to Tontine

A lot has been written about the all-or-nothing stakes of Tontine. Certainly, it's a monumental risk to give up your entire life savings. But it seems to be a manageable risk, if you look at it the right way. By requiring your life savings, Tontine is essentially asking you for a "buy in" to a $10 million tournament. It's common in Poker tournaments for players to sell a percentage of their potential winnings to a sponsor to cover these buy ins -- why not in Tontine?

This is how I would play, to ensure that if I didn't win, I wasn't going home to nothing. Odds of 15:1 are not stratospheric. I would think that, selling him or herself the right way, a contestant could get as much as $100,000 for a 10% cut of potential winnings. That's a 1000% return on a sponsor's money, and $100,000 waiting for the contestant in case they didn't return home with the prize.

Of course, this would have to be structured in such a way that the sponsor's money was transfered post-competition, so it wouldn't be thrown into the pot with the rest of the contestant's assets.

Tontine Fever's Favorite Audition Videos

With the Tontine $10,000 Video Contest due to end on Friday, I want to send out kudos to the five videos that most impressed me personally. Here they are, listed in order of audition number:

#100192 - Rick Henry

Rick's video does a lot of things right. It deftly interweaves serious and lighthearted moments while always keeping your interest. Henry comes off as charismatic and down to earth, yet formidable, the type of person you can see winning it all. Of all the audition videos, his most clearly illustrates what the game means.

#100420 - David Abreu

David's video is short and to the point, and hits all the right beats. His confidence in himself is believable, not feeling artificial or forced like so many others. His video gives the impression that he understands the game at a core level, and most importantly, understands himself.



#100421 - Cristi Rau-Lagos

Cristi to me is the female Rick Henry: a charismatic super-athlete who would not surprise anyone by being the person holding all 15 keys at the end of Tontine. There's a misconception out there that only people with nothing to lose will be willing to play this game. Cristi's video shows that she's definitely not a loser.



#100751 - Chase Francis

Of all 250+ videos submitted for the contest, there's not a single one like Chase's. For that reason alone he makes this list.



#100992 - Branden Wilburn

Branden's video is touching, real and heartfelt. It shows him as the type of competitor you'd want in the game simply because you know it wouldn't be just about the money for him.

Tontine MySpace Page Pulled - Network Rivalry?

The producers of Tontine pulled their MySpace page yesterday, citing a "conflict with MySpace's parent company." With MySpace's parent being News Corp., also the parent of the FOX Network, it doesn't take a genius to interpret the parting of ways as a signal that Tontine could be airing on a rival network and News Corp. did not want to further promote it within one of its properties. However, given that Tontine only launched its custom MySpace page less than three weeks ago, at a minimum ad buy of $100,000 if my sources are correct, it seems there could be more to the story.

How to Calculate Your Net Worth

About.com tells you how to determine your net worth in a few simple steps here. (Thanks, Lifehacker)

Tontine Productions Issues Statement on Fight

The producers of Tontine have issued a press release expressing support for Boston Rob after his videotaped altercation with a potential contestant, which first appeared on YouTube and has since spread all across the Internet and television. You can read it here.

Heckler Beat Down. Owned.

Of all the articles written about "the fight," this has got to be my favorite title. Not that I condone violence, but the fat guy in the blue shirt really had it coming. Who doesn't like to see hecklers, smugly firing away from their protected perches, really get "owned"? Celebrities are easy targets and personally I'm glad that Rob stood up for himself here.

Link to video on YouTube.