  Minimizing the scatter between cluster mass and accessible observables is an
important goal for cluster cosmology. In this work, we introduce a new matched
filter richness estimator, and test its performance using the maxBCG cluster
catalog. Our new estimator significantly reduces the variance in the
L_X-richness relation, from \sigma_{\ln L_X}^2=(0.86\pm0.02)^2 to \sigma_{\ln
L_X}^2=(0.69\pm0.02)^2. Relative to the maxBCG richness estimate, it also
removes the strong redshift dependence of the richness scaling relations, and
is significantly more robust to photometric and redshift errors. These
improvements are largely due to our more sophisticated treatment of galaxy
color data. We also demonstrate the scatter in the L_X-richness relation
depends on the aperture used to estimate cluster richness, and introduce a
novel approach for optimizing said aperture which can be easily generalized to
other mass tracers.
