The WSOP 25k Fantasy Draft took place Tuesday afternoon with a record 24 teams each bidding on eight players they hope will perform well this summer.
It took five hours to draft 192 players inside the PokerGO Studio on the Las Vegas Strip. Each team had a maximum of $200 to bid on players, and one squad — Team DPMD — used $141 of it on Jeremy Ausmus, who has five World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets since 2021.
The costly bid, albeit for the top performer at the series the past four years, left the team with just $59 to bid on seven other players, but they were able to find what appears to be some solid value with skilled players such as Seth Davies ($29) and Stephen Song ($17) among the roster.
Other teams avoided the high-priced talent and instead sought value. But they all had one strategy in mind: Make the most of a roster that costs $25,000 to enter.
Negreanu Chooses Himself
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu has only cashed in the 25k Fantasy Draft once. He's looking to make that two times this year, but he'll be heavily counting on his own performance at the WSOP.
The seven-time bracelet winner chose himself with his first pick for $108. Negreanu also gambled with some low bids on some old-school poker legends — Erick Lindgren ($2) and Mike Matusow ($3).
Matusow felt snubbed by the rest of the teams refusing to draft him. He vowed to reward Negreanu with a big summer.
All the biggest names in the game, at least those expected to play at least a handful of WSOP events this year, were selected. Some notable bids were Phil Ivey ($95 to Team Glue Factory), Phil Hellmuth ($79 to Team Money Mondays), Nick Schulman ($107 to Team Splash Sports), Scott Seiver ($125 to Team Frog Poison), and Josh Arieh ($71 to Team Jeremy's).
There were some noticeable absences at the draft. Shaun Deeb opted out of drafting a team, but he did go for $99 to Team Phenon. Allen Kessler wasn't chosen by any team, and he wasn't thrilled with the snub.
