UNLV Student Wins Share Of $18.7 Million In Circa Survivor Contest

A UNLV nursing student, Fernanda Carriedo, from Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, won his share of $18.7 million in the Circa Survivor contest at the Circa sportsbook in Las Vegas. The Minnesota Vikings' victory over the Green Bay Packers secured the win for Carriedo, who shared the hefty pot with four other entries. Each entry cost $1,000, and the winners each got a share of $3.74 million. Each entrant picked one money line NFL winner each week, which included separate weeks for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, but could only use each team once. All five winners, including Carriedo, finished 20 - 0.

“I’ll be a Vikings fan for life,” the 25-year-old Carriedo said.

“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. This is a huge win for me at my age. It’s insane. Life-changing, for sure.”

She also credited pro poker players Jason Somerville and Gabe Patgorski for helping her win the Circa Survivor contest. Carriedo also shared a cut of the winning with the duo that helped her.

One of her biggest wins came on the Black Friday and Thanksgiving slate, when she picked the Chicago Bears over the Philadelphia Eagles. Two other professional poker players' entries also survived on the Bears, which cut the pool down from 900 to 49.

Another winner who also survived with the Bears and ultimately survived Week 18 when the Jacksonville Jaguars destroyed the Tennessee Titans, is professional poker player Casey Diener, a 46-year-old from Austin, Texas, who was part of a team of eight.

“Mathematically, everybody was on the Eagles, so the play was the Bears,” said Diener. “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.”

It seems that those holiday slates were the most fun for the contestants. Poker pro Shannon Schorr, who was representing Dylan W, reflected on the highlights of the contest after her team won when the Atlanta Falcons defeated the New Orleans Saints.

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

“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. 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.”

There was just one entrant eliminated in the final week of the season. They were eliminated when the Cleveland Browns hit a late field goal to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals. For the other five entrants, it was victory and glory in Week 18.

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