{"id":497746,"date":"2026-01-07T01:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497746\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T01:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T01:01:16","slug":"the-result-is-the-result-the-story-of-the-circa-nfl-survivor-contestant-who-lost-on-the-final-week-each-of-the-past-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497746\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The result is the result’: The story of the Circa NFL survivor contestant who lost on the final week each of the past two years"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Cleveland Browns kicker Andre Szmyt made a 49-yard field goal with no time remaining to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-18<\/a> on Sunday afternoon, there were plenty of bettors with Bengals money-line wagers who were hurt by the result.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s highly unlikely that anyone had as much on the line as Pete Tarsiewicz, who picked the Bengals as his Week 18 selection in Circa Sports\u2019 $18.7 million NFL Survivor pool. As one of the six remaining entries, the game-winning kick cost him a chance at $3.12 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The contest requires entrants to pick one NFL team each week of the season to simply win its game outright \u2014 and no team can be used more than once. Circa\u2019s contest is unique in that it breaks out Thanksgiving and Christmas as separate weeks, so 20 correct selections are required to \u201csurvive\u201d and make it all 18 weeks of the regular season.<\/p>\n

This year, six entries (including Tarsiewicz\u2019s) were still alive heading into Sunday\u2019s games, meaning each one had an implied value of roughly $3.12 million. The $18.7 million prize pool \u2014 the largest prize pool in legal sports betting history<\/a> \u2014 gets split by however many entires make it the full 20 weeks.<\/p>\n

Tarsiewicz, a 30-something-year old married man with children living on the East Coast, was a former professional poker player and has made his primary income from daily fantasy sports and sports betting.<\/p>\n

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This was only the second year he had entered Circa\u2019s contest after hearing about it from a friend, and last year he flew out to Las Vegas for 24 hours to sign up. One of the multiple entries that he (and his two partners) had last season ended up making it all the way to the final week \u2014 only to select the Atlanta Falcons, and see them lose 44-38 to the Carolina Panthers in overtime as 8-point favorites.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look at last year, I just have to laugh,\u201d Tarsiewicz told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what the hell we were doing. Our strategy changed multiple times as the contest went on. We weren\u2019t happy that we had to take the Falcons because everyone who had them available was going to be on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarsiewicz said he hedged on the Panthers money line before the Week 18 game last year, and added another $10,000-$20,000 on Carolina +500 at halftime after the Falcons scored a touchdown late in the first half to go up 24-17 and offer better odds on some more Panthers ML exposure.<\/p>\n

[<\/strong>Yahoo Sports TV is here! Watch live shows and highlights 24\/7<\/strong><\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tarsiewicz watched the game from the comfort of his home and described his strategy going into the game as, \u201cI had a certain amount I wanted to hedge but didn\u2019t want to do all before the game. It sucked to lose, but I mean I was pretty well hedged there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In all, 18 entries were competing for the $14.26 million prize last year, and Tarsiewicz\u2019s was one of eight entries that went down with the Falcons. Two more lost with the Packers, resulting in eight winners of $1.78 million each.<\/p>\n

Ahead of this season\u2019s contest, Tarsiewicz removed one partner, replaced him with another one and had a similar result \u2014 a perfect 19-0 run in the contest, heading into the final week.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s super lucky to get the end,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we felt more confident about strategy this year than last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two entries had selected the Minnesota Vikings (vs. the Packers), one had Atlanta Falcons (vs. the Saints), one had the Jacksonville Jaguars (vs. the Titans) and the other had the New England Patriots (vs. the Jets).<\/p>\n

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The Vikings and Jaguars were relatively stress-free victories, while the Falcons held on for a 19-17 win over the short-handed Saints. That meant there were already four of the remaining six entries through in the early window (with the Patriots, who would later beat the Dolphins, remaining in the late window).<\/p>\n

Much like last year, Tarsiewicz watched from the comfort of his home, but this time hedged the full amount he wanted on the Browns ML before the game. He was tempted to add more on the other side (Bengals ML) during the game, seeing how much Cincinnati was dominating everywhere except on the scoreboard, but decided against it since he had some much riding on a Bengals win already.<\/p>\n

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He watched the game on Red Zone, but didn\u2019t even catch the whole game, as he admitted that \u201conce I decided I wasn\u2019t going to hedge anymore, I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t really care about watching this game anymore.\u2019 I used to sweat games pretty hard from my DFS days, but those days are behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was also interrupted in the middle of the game by one of his daughters crying and so he spent some time with her. After he saw the final field goal go through the uprights, he told Yahoo Sports that his emotions were mixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result is the result,\u201d Tarsiewicz told Yahoo Sports stoically. \u201cI\u2019m pretty disappointed that I don\u2019t get the big check and get the ceremony and all that, but we hedged enough that financially it\u2019s fine. To do it twice with my entry is hilarious to me, to go 19-1 back-to-back years, so you have feel a certain type of way. But once the decision has been made [on the pick], I\u2019m OK with the result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t feel too bad for Tarsiewicz, as he still came away with a nice payday and admits the pain of losing in the Circa Survivor content was mitigated by winning $1 million in the season-long Fantasy Football Players Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He spent the rest of Sunday night with his family, and when Yahoo Sports spoke with him on Tuesday, he seemed to be at peace with the situation. He plans on entering the Circa Survivor contest again next year \u2014 and hopefully getting that coveted blazer, along with a little more cash for going 20-0.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be too upset with the result. Just no checks [this year].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Cleveland Browns kicker Andre Szmyt made a 49-yard field goal with no time remaining to defeat the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":497747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[115130,6328,8996,8997,1544,171,8017,34007,2184,8812,533,19621,223709,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-497746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-andre-szmyt","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cleveland-browns","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","15":"tag-jets","16":"tag-las-vegas","17":"tag-minnesota-vikings","18":"tag-new-england-patriots","19":"tag-packers","20":"tag-pete-tarsiewicz","21":"tag-tv","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115851118833626750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}