Shaun Deeb was nominated for $70 and, as expected, shot up to three-figure territory. The question seemed to be whether or not Deeb would go for the record $141 price set last year for Jeremy Ausmus, but it wasn't meant to be.
Team Lady Gaga, headed by Ren Lin, was among the active bidders, but it was Team Trump Power, headed by Australia's Gary Benson, who came out on top with a winning bid of $133.
Russian end-boss and jean shorts enthusiast Artur Martirosian was the fifth pick in the draft, with the bids starting in the mid $20s.
The bids slowly ticked up and Martirosian ended up going to Team Back Office for $39.
The first female poker player was nominated as the fourth overall pick with a starting bid of $1.
Dollar by dollar, that crept up to $18, which proved enough for Shaun Deeb's Team Lucky to get her on their team.
It was a nice increase for Etay after going for just $1 in 2025.
Ari Engel was the third player bid on and the numbers quickly rose from $20 to $40 for the Circuit crusher.
Ultimately, Team Lang picked up the four-time bracelet winner for $47.
Bidding for Joao Viera, the second player nominated, started at $20, but several teams expressed interest as his price quickly shot up into triple digits.
His price increased to $101, which proved enough for Team Noori to claim him.
The first pick of Daniel Negreanu went to none other than Daniel Negreanu heading up Team DNegs.
Reigning POY Shaun Deeb kicked off the bidding at $50, and there were several counter-bids before Negreanu came in with a last-second $116 bid to lock up himself as the first pick of the 2026 25K Fantasy Draft.
With the World Series of Poker now just one day away, PokerNews is on-site at the PokerGO Studio for the 25k Fantasy Draft.
The draft kicks off later today and will be broadcast live. If you can't watch the stream, PokerNews has you covered with live, blow-by-blow updates throughout the entire event.
| Year | Entries | Winner | Winning Team Top Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 15 | Team Jason Somerville, Jason Mercier | Ben Lamb* |
| 2012 | 11 | Team Jason Mercier | John Monnette |
| 2013 | 14 | Team Matthew Waxman | David "Bakes" Baker |
| 2014 | 12 | Team Gypsy | George Danzer* |
| 2015 | 11 | Team Hastings | Brian Hastings |
| 2016 | 11 | Team Alaei | John Monnette |
| 2017 | 8 | Team Leah | Ben Yu |
| 2018 | 15 | Team Fleyshman | Ben Yu |
| 2019 | 12 | Team Reiss | Dario Sammartino |
| 2022 | 14 | Team Maria Ho | Koray Aldemir |
| 2023 | 20 | Team DPMC | Shaun Deeb |
| 2024 | 19 | Team The Dinkers | John Racener |
| 2025 | 24 | Team BTG | Dylan Linde |
The $25k Fantasy Draft has been running each summer since 2011, except for 2020 when the WSOP was canceled due to COVID. In total, 14 players have been drafted each time.
| Rank | Player | Total Score | Total Cashes | Times Drafted | Average Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Negreanu | 2,103 | 133 | 14 | 150 |
| 2 | Phil Hellmuth | 2,080 | 98 | 14 | 149 |
| 3 | Shaun Deeb | 1,884 | 147 | 13 | 145 |
| 4 | John Racener | 1,640 | 102 | 12 | 137 |
| 5 | Ben Yu | 1,590 | 160 | 13 | 122 |
| 6 | Paul Volpe | 1,518 | 75 | 13 | 117 |
| 7 | John Monnette | 1,511 | 78 | 14 | 108 |
| 8 | David "ODB" Baker | 1,510 | 108 | 14 | 108 |
| 9 | Jeremy Ausmus | 1,458 | 90 | 10 | 146 |
| 10 | Scott Seiver | 1,375 | 69 | 14 | 98 |
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