UNLV nursing student, poker pros split $18.7M Circa Survivor prize

A few 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 Circa sportsbook.

Five entries finished 20-0 to split a record prize of $18.7 million and win $3.74 million each in the $1,000 entry contest. Entrants picked one straight-up NFL winner each week — including separate weeks for Thanksgiving and Christmas — but could use each team only once.

UNLV nursing student Fernanda Carriedo, a Palo Verde High School graduate, was one of the winners who survived on Minnesota, which cruised to a 16-3 win 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 the Vikings, Kick Your Knees Up, but chose to remain anonymous.

“It’s a huge honor. I’m so appreciative of this opportunity to have been one of the first two women to have won this competition,” said Carriedo, 25. “This is a huge win for me at my age. It’s insane. Life-changing, for sure.”

Carriedo credited pro poker players 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 contest, as all four favorites lost.

Carriedo and two other entries comprised of poker pros survived on the Bears, who beat the Eagles 24-15 as 7-point underdogs on Black Friday to slash the Survivor field from 900 to 49.

Casey Diener, a pro poker player from Austin, Texas, teamed with eight others to win Survivor with the entry Real Bro. They took Chicago on Black Friday and capped a perfect season Sunday with the Jaguars, who routed the Titans 41-7.

“Mathematically, everybody was on the Eagles, so the play was the Bears,” said Diener, 46. “I didn’t think the Bears were going to win, but if they did win, 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 that and hope for the best.”

‘Quite the sweat’

The entries Dylan W and GaryA survived Christmas week with the Vikings, who upset the Lions 23-10 as 7½-point underdogs.

GaryA cruised to the finish line Sunday on the Patriots, who whipped the Dolphins 38-10.

Dylan W, represented at Circa by local poker pros Dylan Wilkerson and Shannon Schorr, had to sweat out their final selection 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 left.

Atlanta returned an interception 59 yards to set up a field goal for a 19-10 lead with 2:52 remaining.

“It was quite the sweat,” said Schorr, 40. “The most fun weeks were Thanksgiving and Christmas because we picked underdogs, and they came in.”

Schorr said a poker background helps in Survivor.

“We kind of have training for this sort of gambling, high stakes, lot of money at the end type situations. So there were a lot of similar dynamics in that way,” he said. “To be able to stay level-headed and approach it mathematically and make hedges in a way where we can think rationally when a lot of money is at stake probably benefits us.”

Six entries were alive entering 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@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.