If you’re already an NFL fan, you know how exciting games can be. You can add a little extra excitement by playing an NFL survivor pool.
As the name suggests, your goal as a player in an NFL survivor pool is to survive. If you have yet to play in one, here is a comprehensive guide to how to play, rules, and tips for how to win.
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NFL Survivor Pool – The Basics
In simple terms, an NFL survivor pool is one in which you pick one team to win each week of the season. In most pools of this type, you cannot choose a team to win more than once per season.
If your team wins, you survive and advance to play the next week. If your team loses, you are out. That’s really the basics of an NFL survivor pool.
NFL Survivor Pool Rules
As a player, you will usually pay a flat fee to participate in the tournament. The lone survivor at the end wins the pot.
Each player chooses one team that they believe will win their game that week. For example, you could have picked the Kansas City Chiefs to beat Houston in Week 1. The Chiefs did win and, as a result, you would advance to Week 2.
If you had chosen the Texans, you would have lost and been eliminated from the competition. By choosing the Chiefs in Week 1, you can no longer choose them again for the remainder of the season. Those are the basic rules of a survivor pool.
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Special Rules
Some survivor betting pools may vary because of the owner of the pool. For example, some pools may have a second-place bracket. Upon losing for the first time, you fall into the second place bracket. Lose again and you’re done.
There are some leagues where two picks are made each week. In order to advance, you must get both picks correct or you are eliminated.
Of course, in some tournaments there will be ties. In virtually every survivor pool, it’s either most wins or best strength of victory that determines the winner. Most wins is only applicable in pools where players get more than one life.
In all other pools, strength of victory is used to break a tie. A running total of the margin of victory each week is kept. The player with the higher number is the winner.
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NFL Survivor Pool Tips
There actually are some great strategies to employ if you’re looking to win an NFL survivor pool. Don’t save a team early in the season. Going back to the example of Kansas City and Houston in Week 1. If you believed the Chiefs were going to win, take them. Sure, you can’t use them again, but you would have definitely advanced.
Use the strategy of picking against a certain team. In 2017, if you would have simply picked whoever was playing the Cleveland Browns you would have been successful. The Browns went 0-16. The only thing you would have had to do is pick correctly in the games where they played a division opponent for the second time.
If you can, stay away from Thursday night games on the NFL schedule. Teams playing on a Thursday will have likely played the previous Sunday giving them just four days of rest. The better strategy is to make your survivor pool picks as late as possible.
Picking as late as possible allows you to get any last-minute injury information or other data that may affect the outcome of a game.
