Suicide pools are the easiest form of popular sports betting to win. It’s not that they are easy. It’s just that most people don’t approach them logically. More than any other form of football-related betting activity someone who approaches suicide pools intelligently can have a big edge. When you are setting out to win your next NFL suicide pool here are six things to keep in mind:
Don’t be a hero – The biggest enemy to suicide pool success is your ego. People try to make picks that will prove how cool they are, how insightful they are, and how much smarter they are than anyone else. I’m talking about the kind of NFL picks that have high rewards – bragging rights – if you are right, but high risks because they aren’t the most likely winning pick. Your job isn’t to win in impressive fashion. It’s just to win. There are no style points. The best thing you can do if you want to win a suicide pool is make the available pick that is most likely to win – regardless of how it will make you look to your friends.
Live for today – There are people who will save the strongest NFL teams until later in the season. Those people are idiots. It does absolutely no good saving a football team until later weeks if you don’t survive until those later weeks. Besides, a team that looks very strong now might not look nearly as good later on because of injuries, a slump, or any one of a hundred other developments. To win a suicide pool you have to make the best possible pick on the board no matter what, and then do the same thing next week. Anything else is less than optimal.
Be wary of divisional road teams – As a general rule the best football team on the board can be any team in a given week. That being said, it’s very difficult to make the argument that the most likely winner on a given week is the road team in a divisional contest. More than almost any other scenario, road teams in divisional contests in the NFL have a lot of issues that they have to overcome. In order for me to pick one of these teams I have to be far more confident in their chances than I do of any other team in any other circumstance.
Use the spreads as a guide – The oddsmakers are the ones with the best general sense of how teams look at any given time, so you might as well let them do the heavy lifting – at least to begin with. I’m not suggesting that you just pick the team that is the biggest favorite on the week – that’s too simple. What I would say, though, is that the point spread can be a very good indicator of two things – which teams are highly regarded on a given week, and whether you are taking too much of a risk. If the football team that you like above all others on a week is an underdog then you might be exposing yourself to more risk than you need to – especially early in the season. It’s not like underdogs can’t win a game, but they don’t do it as often as favorites do.
Tie goes to the less popular team – If there are two teams that you think have a similar chance of winning their game on the week then there is one simple way to break the tie – take the less popular one. Your goal is not only to win every week, but to last longer than everyone else. If you are on the team that is less popular in the eyes of the public then they will probably have been picked less often in your suicide pool as well. That means if the less popular NFL team wins and the more popular team loses then a good portion of our opponents will be eliminated.
Be boring – This final point regarding NFL suicide pools is really just a summary of the five that have come before it. The people who win suicide pools are most often the ones who are disciplined, who avoid betting risks, and who analyze situations like a smart handicapper and take the least risky option at every opportunity. You won’t be able to impress anyone with stories of your suicide pool heroics, but you might be able to impress them with all of the extra cash you have in your pocket. If you want to take risks and get your pulse racing then look elsewhere. If you want to have your best shot at a payday in a big pot then play NFL suicide pools.
