Rookie, Katie, Wins Big and Cleans Up!

United States - Aaron Whitcomb, Natasha Rene Stafford, Katie McClain, and champion, Meg Holko, sat down for a title match on Sunday night that lasted nine hands. The list of finalists consisted of three veterans and one rookie and it was the rookie that would earn the title of MEGA-Nertz Open Champion.

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To start, the champ, Meg, quickly got down to business winning the first two hands on back-to-back Nertz calls. However, her lead dwindled when she was set in the 3rd hand by a Nertz call from Natasha. Natasha didn't just set Meg, but she also set Aaron and Katie making a full table set.

Katie, currently tied in second place at the start of hand #4, took the lead with a 20-point Nertz call after claiming the 4th. Katie followed that call with another Nertz call, this time acquiring 27 points(a game high) in the 5th . Katie was quickly set in the 6th by the champ, Meg. Then, 13 points off of the leader, Katie, made another Nertz call completing her second back-to-back, which had pulled her 1 point away from the lead.

Katie, sensing the champs pressure, asserted herself in the 8th with a 19-point Nertz. She now had a total of 92 points and only needed 8 points for the victory. Well, in the 9th, Katie more than closed things out with a 19-point full table set that secured her place in Nertz history.

The NNA crowned Katie "The MEGA-Nertz Open Online Champion". But the accolades don't stop there. Katie also received the "Rookie of the Tournament" award. And she also had the hand high for the tournament(37) in which she will receive an "Official Nertz Scoring Pad". Aside from the 2nd and 3rd place prizes, which would be impossible to obtain by winning the tournament, Katie won every prize available in this tournament. Her prize pouch will include an invitation to the "2009 Tournament of Champions", a "Nertz Champion" T-Shirt, and a free copy of the "Nerts High Speed Card Game" software. But that is just for winning the this tournament, there's more! As mentioned before, Katie receives the "Official Nertz Scoring Pad" from her tournament hand high, as well as, an "I Love Nertz" bumper sticker for winning the "Rookie of the Tournament" award. Her goal may have been to win all the prizes possible in this tournament, but all of the prideful tournament players that played in this tournament really only wanted one thing... : To go down in Nertz history as the first MEGA-Nertz Open Online Champion in history.

Meg placed 2nd in this tournament while Natasha placed 3rd. They both will be receiving copies of the "Nerts High Speed Card Game" as well.

New Rankings:

Out of the 9 rookies that played, 6 of them busted into the top 20 in the NNA Player Rankings. Katie went from being un-ranked to being ranked 2nd only having two-time champ, Sara Paseka in front of her. Meg only fell one spot but raised her player ranking with her outstanding play in this tournament. Brock Ellis moved down 6 places but Mallory Holko moved up three into 11th on the list. Natasha also made a leap moving from 10th to 7th, which landed her just behind her arch-nemesis, Aaron Whitcomb who is now 6th on the list.

The NNA wants to thank all of the tournament participants from every online tournament this year. The inception of the NNA Online Nertz Tournament System has been very successful. Everyone is looking forward to future NNA tournaments whether they are live/in-person tournaments or online tournaments.