BROWNA, JED split $6.133 million Circa Survivor
Two contestants using the aliases of BROWNA and JED won more than $3 million apiece as they split the record $6.133 million Circa Survivor NFL elimination contest in Las Vegas on Sunday.
The JED entry (Mike Buchmiller, the 50-year-old dean of athletics at The Alexander Dawson School in Las Vegas) earned his share as the Seahawks rallied from a 13-6 halftime deficit and 16-13 late in the fourth quarter to win 19-6 in overtime. Buchmiller and his wife, Jessica (who told VSIN that her older brothers wanted another brother and nicknamed her Jed when she came home from the hospital) turned down an invitation to watch the game in Circa owner Derek Stevens’ VIP area in the sportsbook and chose to stay home to watch the game.
BROWNA, who has stayed anonymous as of early Sunday night, used the Jaguars against the Titans on Saturday night. They also trailed most of the game but took a 20-16 lead when Jacksonville EDGE rusher Josh Allen returned a Joshua Dobbs fumble 37 yards for a scoop-and-score TD with 2:51 to play and the Jaguars held on for the AFC South-clinching victory.
It was almost a three-way chop as the only other live entrant entering the final weekend – Mike Barth, 60, of Houston, aka THE ENEMY WITHIN – suffered an all-time Bad Beat as his pick on the Colts lost 32-31 to the Texans despite facing two 4th-and-long plays that would have ended the game, including 4th-and-20 from the Indianapolis 28-yard line as Houston QB Davis Mills threw up a jump-ball that was caught by TE Jordan Atkins for a touchdown with 50 seconds left in regulation.
Barth still could have won if the Colts stopped the 2-point conversion – which they didn’t – or marched for a winning field goal. That didn’t happen either as the Colts didn’t reach midfield and a Hail Mary went unanswered.
After he was eliminated, Barth told VSiN: “We were well-hedged, so we’re fine.” He later said that the three finalists reached a partial chop and agreed they could say they made a deal but had a non-disclosure agreement about the details.
Circa Survivor drew a Las Vegas football contest record 6,133 entries at $1,000 apiece this season with players picking one NFL winner a week without using any team twice. The field was whittled down with a seemingly endless stream of upsets that led to only the last three remaining entering Week 18 (actually Week 20 as there were extra “Thanksgiving” and “Christmas” weeks in the contest hosted by the Circa sportsbooks in Nevada).
The actual winning amount for JED and BROWNA is $3,066,500. Stevens also offered an aggregate $1 million bonus for any contestant(s) that went 20-0 without using last year’s Super Bowl teams – the Rams and Bengals – but both used at least one earlier in the season.
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