Most sports bettors would probably be happy to win $400,000 and have a chance to play for another $4 million, right? That wasn't the case for professional poker and high-stakes sports betting player Sean Perry.
When the $1,000 buy-in NFL Circa Survivor field reached 13 players last week, 12 of them agreed to the deal described above. However, Perry was the only one who didn't want to, wanting to keep playing for the entire prize.
Instead, poker pro Ralph Perry's son made a counteroffer that he would agree to a deal if they gave him $2 million.
“I said, 'With all respect, I’m the best bettor in the world. There’s no way I’m ever chopping. I wish you guys all the best. I’ll see you at the finish line,'” he told the Las Vegas Review Journal.
“Why am I going to share when I had an advantage? If you give $400,000 each, any money I take from the prize is money I am, in theory, losing because I have an advantage. I believe I have the best teams left and I am confident in my ability. This is what I do. I am a great destroyer. I’ve been the sport’s biggest winner for a long time.”
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Empty Pockets but No Regrets
But despite his bravado, Perry was eliminated from contention over the weekend when the Broncos lost 26-23 to the Patriots. As the NFL approaches the end of the regular season, players have limited options when it comes to teams they haven't been selected for before.
The Broncos were 7-point favorites and six of those remaining in the Circa contest also selected them. Now there are only four players left and three weeks to determine the winner. The contest had a total of 9,267 entries and will pay almost $9.3 million to the winner.
No doubt many punters would be disappointed not to profit after getting so far, but Perry seemed to have no regrets about rejecting the split.
“I wish all the haters a merry Christmas, remember that I still am the biggest winner in sports and I will be having a wonderful Christmas still,” he noted on Twitter. “...I went in to set up and deposit $1 million into my new Circa account. I proceeded to make $500k within the first couple of weeks before my limits got reduced. So gambling at the Circa was still very profitable for me. I still am the GOAT. ”
Life as a Sports Bettor and Poker Player
It's no surprise that Perry is a poker-playing high roller. His father, Ralph Perry, is an old-school player who has $3.5 million in live poker tournament winnings and even won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2006 for $207,817.
Poker runs in the family and Sean Perry has over $6.8 million in live tournament winnings. These numbers include several major cash awards and several PokerGO Tour high-roller tournament titles.
In recent years, much of his action has been in sports betting and he has profited, betting on the 2022 and 2023 Super Bowls (with nearly $2 million in profits). After 2022's win, he posted a video of himself packing his cash winnings into a suitcase.
Perry may not need a suitcase for Circa Survivor this year, but he says money isn't really the goal.
“It’s just another day at the office,” he told the Review-Journal. “I just love the fight. Victory is more important to me than money.”
What is Circa Survivor?
Survivor is a popular game in the United States in which each round a player chooses a team to win. If the person gets it right, they advance to the second round. If they make a mistake, they are eliminated. In later rounds, you are only allowed to choose teams that have not yet been selected.
For poker players, it's always going to be more fun to hop into freerolls and compete for cash. You won't pay anything to enter, but all of the freerolls on our schedule will payout real money prizes to winners. Have a look and see which events are running today – plus which site they are on and which passwords to use.
