On Thursday, June 12, David "ODB" Baker released the prize pool information for his $500 league. With 872 entrants, a $436,000 prize pool will be paid to the top 87 teams, with the last-place team receiving a $2,500 consolation prize. Up top, the eventual winner will take home $80,000, and the runner-up team will receive $60,000.
"This is what you are playing for! Thank you to everyone who participated. Thank you to Survivor Sweat. Thank you 25kfantasy. Thank you, Nicole Baker," ODB said in a tweet. "Absolutely amazing what you all have helped me build!"
The 2025 25K Fantasy attracted a record 24 teams, which means a $600,000 prize pool is up for grabs. That will be distributed amongst the top five teams, with this year's champ taking home $250,000 and the title!
It’s been a big few days at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP), especially for several 25K Fantasy players.
On Monday night, Nick Schulman (Team Splash Sports) defeated ODB bonus player Darren Elias heads-up to win Event #30: $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship for $497,356 and his seventh gold bracelet. That moved Schulman, who sold for $107, up to 154 points and made him the third-highest points earner thus far behind Ryan Hoenig (184 points) and Benny Glaser (167 points).
In addition, Jason Koon (also of Team Splash Sports) defeated Andrew Lichtenberger (Team Glue Factory) heads up to win Event #32: $50,000 High Roller for $1,968,927 and his second bracelet. Koon doesn’t play a ton of tournaments, but he’s already earned 128 points off just two cashes.
The two big scores vaulted Team Splash Sports, owned by the PokerGO commentary duo Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks, into fourth place with 375 points, up from 21st place with just 120 points the day before.
Jason Koon gave a big boost to Team Splash Sports.
For Thursday, Event #35: $3,000 Freezeout NLH is down to the final eight players, though none have fantasy implications. The same cannot be said for Event #36: $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, which will see 27 players from a 386-entry field return to action. Of those, a dozen are 25K Fantasy players and three more – Jordan Siegel, Loni Hui, and Allen Kessler – are all ODB bonus players. In fact, the top five chip counts are all 25K players in Sam Soverel (Team Lang), Chris Vitch (Team Phenom), James Obst (Team Australia), Brian Hastings (Team AJ’s Eagles), and Shaun Deeb (Team Phenom).
Late reg is still open in Event #38: $100,000 High Roller, and plenty of fantasy players will return for Day 2 action including Joao Vieira (Team Lady Gaga), Adrian Mateos (Team Splash Sports), Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen (Team Handsome Horses), Brandon Wilson (Team Dinkers), and David Peters (Team Wass).
Nicolas Milgrom
Meanwhile, Event #39: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. has nearly 200 players from an 867-entry field coming back for Day 2 including Nick Milgrom (Team DPMD), Josh Reichard (Team Lang), AJ Kelsall (Team AJ’s Eagles), Ryan Leng (Team Frog Poison), and Nick Guagenti (Team BTG); as well as, ODB Bonus players Dekel Balas, Greg Mueller, Ray Fishman, and Bin Weng.
How to Follow the Action
Remember, PokerNews has been tracking $25K Fantasy players in our live updates and has even made it simple to follow the action by tagging all players with either a 25K Fantasy or ODB badge. That allows you to utilize our chip count filter option to follow only those players (just tick the 25K Fantasy or ODB badge); what’s more, each blog will have a “25K Fantasy” tab that if you click all you will see are hands played by 25K Fantasy players.
In the 897th episode of the PokerNews Podcast, Chad Holloway and Kyna England are joined by PokerNews Ontario Ambassador Kyle Anderson, who fills in for Mike Holtz. The trio discusses the deadly shooting that took place across the street from the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in front of the Bellagio Fountains, and then dives into the color-up controversy involving Tyler Brown, who shared his story with PokerNews.
Kyna then sounds off on the cancelled WSOP Online bracelet event, Michael Lavin won a gold bracelet and an extra $1,000,000 thanks to ClubWPT Gold, and Benny Glaser claimed two bracelets early in the summer. Other tournament winners include Josh Reichard, Brad Ruben, Blaz Zerjav, and Nick Guagenti, who denied Chino Rheem his first bracelet.
After recapping Dusti Smith's win in the Wynn Ladies High Roller and a look ahead to some upcoming poker charity events, Chad shares details on his recent Live Reality Game (LRG) adventure in which he left the WSOP for 10 days to compete in a Survivor-based game, Surviving Reelfoot Season 13, in the woods of Tennessee.
Learn about all those stories and more in the latest episode of the PokerNews Podcast!
Day 16 of the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will be another busy one!
An extra day was needed for Event #30: $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship, and the final six players from a 233-player field will return to action including Nick Schulman (Team Splash Sports), Chad Eveslage (Team Handsome Horses), Ben Yu (Team Survivor Sweat), and Dan Smith (Team Money Mondays Podcast), as well as ODB Bonus player Darren Elias, who is the chip leader and seeking his first-ever gold bracelet.
Event #32: $50,000 High Roller is down to the final 10 players from a 171-entry field. Jason Koon (Team Splash Sports) holds the chip lead with 14.5 million, which is well ahead of Andrew Lichtenberger (Team Glue Factory), who sits in second with 6.7 million. Others still battling are Brock Wilson (Team Glue Factory) and Viktor Blom (Team Dinker).
Jason Koon holds a big lead in Event #32: $50,000 High Roller.
In Event #33: $1,500 Limit Hold’em, just seven players from the 491-entry field remain but none of them have fantasy implications. Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen (Team Handsome Horses) was the last 25K Fantasy player standing in that tournament, busting in eighth place for $11,954.
Day 2 of Event #35: $3,000 Freezeout NLH will see 156 players from a 1,027-player field return to action including 21 players with Fantasy ties. They include ODB Bonus players like Matt Affleck, Nick Marchington, Justin Young, and Michael Mizrachi, as well as 25K Fantasy players like John Hennigan (Team Wass), Yuri Dzivielevski (Team Liaison), and Kristen Foxen (Team Money Mondays Podcast), just to name a few.
Likewise, Day 2 of Event #36: $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo 8 is chock full of fantasy players including Phil Ivey (Team Glue Factory), Erick Lindgren (Team Negreanu), and Shaun Deeb (Team Phenom). With 142 players returning, it’ll take a full day of play for the fantasy picture to take shape a bit better.
Racener Scores Big
On Tuesday, the one-day Event #34: $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty played out. The tournament attracted 2,244 runners and awarded a $1,834,567 prize pool.
John Racer, who was drafted for $54 by Team Splashy Octopi, made the most of it by taking down the tournament for $247,595, his third gold bracelet, and amassing 97 fantasy points in the process.
Remember, PokerNews has been tracking $25K Fantasy players in our live updates and has even made it simple to follow the action by tagging all players with either a 25K Fantasy or ODB badge. That allows you to utilize our chip count filter option to follow only those players (just tick the 25K Fantasy or ODB badge); what’s more, each blog will have a “25K Fantasy” tab that if you click all you will see are hands played by 25K Fantasy players.
The 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is over two weeks in, and things are in full swing.
Today, Event #19: $500 COLOSSUS will play down to a winner. Just nine players remain from the 16,301-entry field, and two of them are draftees from the 25K Fantast. Matt Glantz (Team Hoggers) sits seventh in chips while Ryan Leng (Team Frog Poison) is the short stack. Both are primed to earn big points for their respective teams, and even more if either can spin and make a run at the bracelet, which would be Glantz’s first and Leng’s fourth.
Event #27: $1,500 Big O will also crown a winner as an extra day was needed. Just two players remain, but neither has fantasy implications. That ended when Ryan Hoenig (Team Lang) busted in third place late Monday night. Hoenig, who sold for $52, is now the league’s top points earner with 182 over four cashes, which included a bracelet win.
Ryan Hoenig is the top points earner through 15 days of the 2025 WSOP.
In Event #29: $2,500 NLH, 17 players remain including Dylan Linde (Team BTG), the lone fantasy player remaining.
Day 3 of Event #30: $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship will have the final 16 players from a 233-player field return to action including Dan Smith (Team Money Mondays Podcast), Daniel Negreanu (Team Negreanu), Nick Schulman (Team Splash Sports), Chad Eveslage (Team Handsome Horses), Brian Rast (Team Wass), Ali Eslami (Team Survivor Sweat), and Ben Yu (Team Survivor Sweat). Likewise, ODB Bonus players Greg “FBT” Mueller, James Chen, and Darren Elias are all still in contention.
Daniel Negreanu is sitting pretty in Event #30: $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship.
There are still 258 players remaining from a 4,481-entry field headed into Day 2 of Event #31: $800 NLH Deepstack including Stephen Song (Team DPMD), Calvin Anderson (Team Monday Mondays Podcast), “Texas” Mike Moncek (Team Survivor Sweat), David “ODB” Baker (Team Australia), Nick Seward (Team NOVIG), Patrick Leonard (Team Girl Dads), Uri Reichenstein (Team DPMD), Arthur Morris (Team AJ’s Eagles), and Nick Guagenti (Team BTG).
Among the ODB Bonus players returning are Nick Marchington, Nick Verderamo, Mike Noori, Shawn Buchanan, Loni Harwood, Jonathan Tamayo, Maria Konnikova, and Nitesh Rawtani.
Viktor Blom has a big stack in Event #32: $50,000 High Roller.
Late registration is still open in Event #32: $50,000 High Roller, so chances are some fantasy players will be jumping into action. However, among the 52 to advance from Day 1, dozens are from the fantasy leagues including Viktor Blom (Team Dinkers), Joao Simao (Team Negreanu), Brock Wilson (Team Glue Factory), Joao Vieira (Team Lady Gaga), and Jason Koon (Team Splash Sports), all of who sit in the Top 10 chip counts.
In Event #33: $1,500 Limit Hold’em, 99 players from the 491-entry field will return for Day 2 including six fantasy players in John Monnette (Team Liaison), Jeremy Becker (Team Jeremy’s), Scott Seiver (Team Frog Poison), Frank Brannan (Team Splash Sports), Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen (Team Handsome Horses), and David “ODB” Baker (Team Australia).
There will also be several new tournaments kicking off, including Event #34: $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty, Event #35: $3,000 Freezeout NLH, and Event #36: $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship.
How to Follow the Action
Remember, PokerNews has been tracking $25K Fantasy players in our live updates and has even made it simple to follow the action by tagging all players with either a 25K Fantasy or ODB badge. That allows you to utilize our chip count filter option to follow only those players (just tick the 25K Fantasy or ODB badge); what’s more, each blog will have a “25K Fantasy” tab that if you click all you will see are hands played by 25K Fantasy players.
