WE HAVE WINNERS!!
Week 13 will be worth $1,530.00 to a single winner
Week 12 began with what I thought would be a rollover week. Instead, it opened with chaos. Thursday night saw Houston upset Buffalo, knocking out 103 faithful pickers. Just like that, a third of the pool was gone after the very first NFL game.
Friday brought two college matchups. The opener—Florida State vs. NC State—delivered yet another Pooler Pick upset. Fortunately, only 26 Poolers had chosen Florida State, so the damage was limited. Still, a loss is a loss.
From there, the weekend mostly followed the script. A few surprises popped up, but nothing big enough to stop 44 Poolers from cashing in. That’s the largest single-week group of winners in the 2025 season.
Heading into Monday Night Football, four Poolers—Art Vandelay, GoGoBuffalo, Jay, and SailorMiles—had already racked up 10 wins. Without MNF, each would have pocketed $382. But with 42 Poolers riding San Francisco over Carolina, the payout dropped to $34 apiece. Just enough for a pumpkin spice latte and a blueberry scone.
For many of the 44, this wasn’t their first win of the season, so their totals are starting to stack up. Congratulations to all the winners! The list is too long to include here, but if you’re curious, check the Weekly Picks 2025 file under the Downloads link on the website and look for the Winners tab.
Week 12 was the easiest week of the season. The average number of wins was 8.35. The previous best was 7.79 wins in Week 1.
I have to admit a mistake in Week 12. Somehow, I listed Kansas State vs. Utah as one of the college games. Utah, a 16.5-point favorite, nearly lost. What baffles me is that only 141 Poolers picked Utah. What were the other 166 thinking? Granted, nearly 50 of you wait until Sunday morning to make picks, so you wouldn’t have noticed that game was in the pool. But plenty of others did pick college games—just not that one. I’d love to hear the reasoning.
Side Pools
• Pick 1 Winner Pool: Only 6 of 103 were eliminated this week.
• Pick 1 Loser Pool: With 51 entries, 9 suffered their second loss and are out. At this stage, most of the obvious teams have already been used, leaving pure luck to carry the final six weeks.
You may have noticed some aliases highlighted in green. Those Poolers have survived all 12 weeks without a loss. If the season ended today, they’d win on the tie-breaker: zero losses beats one.
Accumulative Pool
After 12 weeks, Hail Yeah and Canadian Joe are tied for first with 92 wins. If the season ended now, they’d split the top two payouts. Sitting in third with 91 wins are AL&BW, Deception27, FUBAR, and Jordan JJ. Ten more Poolers are at 90 wins, and another eleven sit at 89. Expect plenty of movement before the season wraps.
Looking Ahead
We’re entering the final third of the season, and Thanksgiving week is loaded:
• 3 NFL games on Thursday
• 1 NFL game on Black Friday
• 1 college game on Thanksgiving Day
• 3 more college games on Friday
If you wait too long to make your picks, your options shrink fast. By Sunday, you’ll only have 12 games left to choose 10 teams. Don’t let procrastination kill your odds.
That’s it from your long-winded Pool Master. Wishing all Poolers and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving!