What is an NFL Survivor Pool: Description and Examples for Eliminator Betting Contest

NFL Survivor Pools are one of the most unique and challenging betting contests to grace the national office pool landscape. These pools, sometimes called Eliminator or Suicide Pools, are gaining in popularity each year because they are so simple to play and mostly because they are great fun and provide a competitor many weeks of action and enjoyment throughout the professional football season.

These pools don’t always require an entry fee as lots of people like to play for fun, but most competitors like to play for money. The premise for the standard Survivor Pool is simple: a contestant picks one NFL team each week of the 17-week pro football season and that team has to win its matchup or the contestant is knocked out of the pool. You can use a team only one time as once you have chosen that squad they are unavailable for you to use again. Eventually the group of Survivor Pool competitors gets whittled down as the season goes along, and the last competitor “alive” or still in contention at any point in the season takes the entire pot (the sum of all the entry fees paid by those in the pool). Normally if more than one player survives the full 17-game NFL schedule then all remaining competitors holding live tickets split the pot. Some pool runners like to extend the season into the playoffs if there is more than one player still in the running after 17 weeks (at this point competitors are normally allowed to once again use any team for their picks for the extended playoffs season). Rules may vary depending on who runs the pool, but the basic premise is normally the same.

So the strategy for an NFL Survivor Pool is to pick the team that you think has the best chance to win its matchup on that particular week. This makes it easy to play for everyone since there is no point spread involved and just about anyone can look at the weekly NFL schedule and pick out at least one game that he or she feels confident about. This type of pool is so easy to play that there are many in just about every Survivor Pool contest, especially those with smaller entry fees, that are very poor players and will likely be knocked out early in the season. That increases the odds for someone that is does his or her homework and knows the best strategies to employ to give them the best chance of collecting the cash in their pool.

Some Eliminator Pools are called Loser’s Pools where each competitor must pick a team to lose that week’s matchup. Just like a standard Survivor Pool, once a player uses a team once he or she can’t use that team again. And unlike a standard Survivor Pool, the worst teams in the league are the most coveted squads to pick.

Each Survivor Pool has its own rules and deadlines, which are created and enforced by the pool runner. It’s very important to adhere to rules and deadlines when playing an NFL Survivor Pool because dumb moves like missing the picks deadline or even picking the same team twice can get a competitor knocked out of the pool. There is no worse feeling than seeing your entry fee go down the drain because you picked the New England Patriots two weeks in a row because you weren’t paying attention or if you send your picks in after the game starts hoping for sympathy from the site runner because of a situation beyond your control. Excuses normally don’t work in these situations because any pool runner worth their wear runs a fair pool and has to be firm with the rules so each player in the competition gets a fair shake.

SurvivorPoolPicks.com is a great place to come for weekly advice and tips that will help you win your Survivor or Eliminator Pool. We will have several weekly articles during the pro football season written by former Suicide Pool winners that will share their expert knowledge with you all throughout the NFL season!