Any tournament in poker with a $25,000 buy-in is usually referred to as a “High-Roller” event; as such, we suppose the fantasy poker draft recently hosted by Daniel Negreanu could be referred to as the “High-Roller Fantasy Poker League.” Who partook? Fifteen players/teams entered, including Jason Mercier, Huck Seed, Barry Greenstein, and Erick Lindgren.
Before the World Series of Poker began, Negreanu and the other participants gathered at the Aria for an auction draft. Not sure what that means? Negreanu explained it best in his blog: “Each team gets 200 to spend on 8 players. A player is nominated, then goes to the highest bidder. So if you want Phil Ivey, you would have had to spend 108 of your 200 bankroll to get him, leaving you just 92 left to fill out the rest of your team.”
Obviously Negreanu wrote that blog before he knew Ivey wouldn’t be playing in this year’s WSOP, but you get the gist. The draft itself was open to the public in an Aria suite, complete with a projector screen and full bar. Needless to say, much merrymaking and spirits were to be had at the draft. So much so that there were some unfortunate, albeit entertaining, mistakes. Negreanu provided one example: "The Hoyt Corkins pick [by Team Robert Mizrachi/Greg Meuller/Jared Bleznick/"Crazy" Mike] was an accident, as Bleznick just yelled out 'five' after Todd Brunson threw him out for 1. In a pool like this, the right price for Corkins was 1.”
Here is a look at the $25K High Roller Fantasy Poker League draft results.
Team Joe Cassidy/Huck Seed
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Tom Dwan
62
2
Vladimir Schemelev
33
3
Alexander Kostritsyn
58
4
Jennifer Harman
19
5
Sam Trickett
7
6
David Pham
1
7
Vitaly Lunkin
10
8
David Bach
1
Team Barry Greenstein
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Barry Greenstein
64
2
Phil Ivey
108
3
Chau Giang
19
4
John Pham
2
5
Ralph Perry
3
6
Ted Forrest
1
7
Joe Serock
1
8
Jimmy Fricke
1
Team Robert Mizrachi/Greg Meuller/Jared Bleznick/"Crazy" Mike
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Daniel Alaei
80
2
Robert Mizrachi
51
3
Josh Arieh
26
4
Hoyt Corkins
5
5
Chad Brown
24
6
Marco Traniello
1
7
David “ODB” Baker
5
8
Lee Goldman
1
Team Justin "BoostedJ" Smith/Ashton Griffin
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Justin "BoostedJ" Smith
64
2
Huck Seed
50
3
Ali Eslami
35
4
David Chiu
32
5
Farzad Bonyadi
3
6
Amnon Filippi
1
7
Eli Elezra
4
8
Mike “SirWatts” Watson
10
Team Eugene Katchalov/Daniel Alaei
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Eugene Katchalov
72
2
Steve Sung
6
3
Matt Hawrilenko
32
4
Nikolai Evdakov
12
5
Pat Pezzin
14
6
Mikael Thuritz
28
7
Ville Wahlbeck
15
8
Abe Mosseri
21
Team Casey Katz
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Erik Seidel
43
2
John Juanda
53
3
Michael Mizrachi
50
4
Carlos Mortensen
19
5
Annette Obrestad
1
6
Jason Somerville
1
7
David Singer
20
8
Eric Baldwin
13
Team Scott Seiver/Justin Bonomo/Eric Froelich
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Matt Glantz
58
2
Sorel Mizzi
40
3
Justin Bonomo
43
4
Christian "charder30" Harder
5
5
Jon "PearlJammed" Turner
13
6
Andrew Brown
9
7
John Monnette
11
8
Greg Mueller
21
Team Jason Mercier/Jason Somerville
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Michael Binger
45
2
Dan "djk123" Kelly
36
3
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
18
4
David Oppenheim
6
5
Allen Bari
36
6
Daivd “Bakes” Baker
40
7
Ben Lamb
15
8
Bryn Kenney
4
Team James Bord/Toby Lewis
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Nick Schulman
64
2
Scott Clements
45
3
Shaun Deeb
38
4
Luke Schwartz
1
5
Richard Ashby
28
6
Andy Bloch
6
7
Anthony Lellouche
1
8
James Bord
1
Team Daniel Negreanu
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Scott Seiver
73
2
Jason Mercier
74
3
Yuval Bronshtein
18
4
Yueqi Zhu
5
5
Mike Matusow
12
6
Roland De Wolfe
1
7
Gavin Smith
1
8
Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis
16
Team Frank Kassela/Shaun Deeb
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Daniel Negreanu
89
2
Frank Kassela
41
3
Dwyte Pilgrim
10
4
Allen Cunningham
25
5
Victor Ramdin
1
6
Rob Hollink
17
7
Thomas Koral
1
8
Dario Minieri
16
Team Erick Lingdren/David Oppenhiem
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Erick Lindgren
61
2
David Benyamine
58
3
Shawn Buchanan
63
4
Eric Froehlich
6
5
Shannon Shorr
1
6
Kirill Gerasimov
1
7
George "Jorj95" Lind III
9
8
Brian Hastings
1
Team Todd Brunson
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Todd Brunson
40
2
Scotty Nguyen
35
3
Phil Hellmuth
38
4
Freddy Deeb
23
5
Allen Kessler
41
6
Chris Ferguson
4
7
Minh Ly
1
8
Shun Uchida
1
Team Mori Eskandani
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Jeffrey Lisandro
50
2
Chris Bjorin
38
3
Men “The Master” Nguyen
27
4
Dan Heimiller
21
5
Tom Marchese
10
6
David Williams
14
7
Vanessa Selbst
5
8
Phil Galfond
35
Team Vladimir Shchemelev
Round
Player
Points Bid
1
Sebastien Sabic
40
2
Joe Cassidy
43
3
Brett Richey
37
4
Patrik Antonius
5
5
Jared Bleznick
8
6
“Crazy” Marco Johnson
43
7
Alex Kravchenko
21
8
Sergey "gipsy74" Rybachenko
31
If you want to read a full analysis on each team and determined by Negreanu, be sure to check out his blog. Also, if you’re a fan of fantasy poker, be sure to read our recap of the 2011 ESPN Fantasy Poker League.
Want to know how all these players do throughout the summer? Be sure to check out our live updates for all the latest WSOP results. In the meantime, go ahead and like us on Facebook. Heck, you might as well follow us on Twitter too!
