article by someone named Chad Millman Fezzik cleans up in Hilton Super Contest
For the second year in a row Fezzik won the Hilton's Super Contest, the most prestigious NFL picking contest on The Strip. It's like winning the Super Bowl two straight years, which cements Fezzik as one of Vegas' top sharps. He beat out 328 contestants, and won $196,000 in the process.
Of course, because we're talking gambling, the money didn't come without peril.
Fezzik had been atop the Hilton big board for most of the final month of the season. But heading into Week 17, he was half a game out of the lead, pushes count in this contest, trailing a guy named Big E.
The Hilton contest isn't the kind where cappers pick every game on the menu. They choose just five. And because this is a head-to-head competition, it's about more than selecting the right games; players need to be thinking about what their opponents are going to do as well. "There is some game theory involved," says Fezzik.
Heading into the weekend, Fezzik did a little research and he realized that Big E had a tendency to take underdogs in the 3-7 point range. He saw Seattle plus-4 against the Titans and thought to himself, I need to make sure we're on opposite sides of games, so I am going to take the Titans. He also had Buffalo, Carolina, New England and Tampa. Big E had Buffalo, Tampa, Arizona, KC and, as Fezzik expected, Seattle.
Of course, for a spell yesterday afternoon, it seemed he out-thunk himself. Through the first four games of the day, he was 3-1 and Big E was 2-2. Now he was ahead by a half game with just that Titans-Seahawks game to go. And the Titans, who had played like world-beaters the second half of this season, were struggling against a woebegone team.
"All they cared about was getting Chris Johnson to 2,000 yards," says Fezzik. "And it kept them playing hard."
But it didn't stop Rob Bironas from missing a field goal to give the Titans a three-point lead. And it didn't stop Ahmad Hall for committing a holding penalty that called back Chris Johnson's 62-yard TD run early in the fourth, which would have given the Titans a four-point lead, pending the extra point. Playing hard did, however help Johnson score from the one later in the quarter, barely getting the ball across the goal line, to finally give the Titans the lead Fezzik needed. At least the officials said he scored. Replays were inconclusive. "Honestly, I lost six months off my life watching this game," says Fezzik.
And that was before Hasselbeck drove the Seahawks down to the Titans 27, where he eventually threw a pick with a little more than a minute left in the game. "I hedged a little bit and made a bet on Seattle plus-6, so I would have made a little money back," says Fezzik.
Remarkably, Fezzik had never finished higher than 24th in the contest before last season. In fact, as recently as 2005, he finished three games below .500 and lost $35,000 on side bets he made with other contestants. Now, he's the first back-to-back champ in the two decades of the contest. A couple weeks ago Hilton bookmaking boss Jay Kornegay described Fezzik's run to me as, "truly remarkable." Which it is. It's also, as Fezzik admits, a little bit lucky. "Honestly," he says, "I don't think I'm getting smarter. I'm actually getting a little dumber."
He's also already thinking about the over/under on what place he'll finish next year. He put the number at 50. My money is on him.
