Days after revelers in Las Vegas counted down the final seconds to the new year, Circa Survivor contestants counted down the final seconds of the Vikings’ victory over the Packers on Sunday at the Circa sportsbook.
Five entries finished 20-0 to share a record prize of $18.7 million and win $3.74 million each in the $1,000 race. Contestants picked a straight NFL winner each week — including separate weeks for Thanksgiving and Christmas — but could only use each team once.
UNLV nursing student Fernanda Carriedo, a Palo Verde High School graduate, was one of the winners to survive at Minnesota, which won 16-3 over Green Bay.
“I’ll be a Vikings fan for life,” said Carriedo, one of the first two women to win the contest, which featured a record 18,718 entries.
A woman also had the other winning entry on Vikings, Kick Your Knees Up, but chose to remain anonymous.
“It’s a great honor. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to have been one of the first two women to win this competition,” said Carriedo, 25. “This is a huge win for me at my age. It’s crazy. Life-changing, for sure.”
Carriedo credited pro poker player Jason Somerville, her friend and proxy, and Gabe Patgorski for helping her win the contest. They won a percentage of the profits after partnering with Carriedo.
Da Bears
Thanksgiving/Black Friday week was the turning point in the race, when all four favorites lost.
Carriedo and two other poker pro entries survived on the Bears, who beat the Eagles 24-15 as 7-point underdogs on Black Friday to trim the Survivor field from 900 to 49.
Casey Diener, a professional poker player from Austin, Texas, teamed up with eight others to win Survivor with the Real Bro entry. They took on Chicago on Black Friday and capped off a perfect season Sunday with the Jaguars, who beat the Titans 41-7.
“Mathematically, everybody was on the Eagles, so the game was Bears,” said Diener, 46. “I didn’t think the Bears were going to win, but if they did, it was really, really good for us, and that’s how it worked out. I just try to base it on what I think the other teams are going to take and try to counter it and hope for the best.”
“Pretty sweaty”
Contributors Dylan W and GaryA survived the Christmas week with the Vikings, who upset the Lions 23-10 as a 7½-point deficit.
GaryA cruised to the goal line on Sunday at the Patriots, who beat the Dolphins 38-10.
Dylan W, represented at Circa by local poker pros Dylan Wilkerson and Shannon Schorr, had to sweat out his final pick on the Falcons, who held on for a 19-17 win over the Saints after New Orleans’ onside kick went out of bounds with 1:11 remaining.
Atlanta returned an interception 59 yards to set up a field goal for a 19-10 lead with 2:52 left.
“It was pretty sweaty,” said Schorr, 40. “The funnest weeks were Thanksgiving and Christmas because we picked the underdogs and they got in.”
Schorr said a poker background helps in Survivor.
“We kind of have training for this kind of gambling, high stakes, a lot of money in the end types. So there were a lot of similar dynamics that way,” he said. “Being able to stay fair and approach it mathematically and hedge in a way where we can think rationally when a lot of money is at stake probably benefits us.”
Six entries were alive going into the final week. The entry Partzi was eliminated by the Bengals, who took an 18-17 lead over the Browns with 1:29 left before Cleveland’s Andre Szmyt hit a 49-yard field goal as time expired.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ theplayerlounge.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
