After Alex Livingston went to Team Leng for $110 to Team Lang, Team Lucky nominated Alex Foxen and several bids saw him shoot up to $30 at which point Dan Fleyshman of Team CoffeeBreaker.com out his hand in the air and held it there, which prompted Brent Hanks of Team NGNF to start bidding it up.
Eventually, Team Sepiol, comprised of WPT World Champ Dan Sepiol and the red-hot Jesse Lonis, to jump into the mix. Team Sepiol placed a bis of $70 and that was enough to get the job done.
Daniel Negreanu was the second player nominated in the 2024 $25K Fantasy Draft, and things got spicy between the defending champs Team DPMC (Donnie Peters & Matthew Clark) and Team NGNF (Brent Hanks, Jeff Platt, Justin Young, and Ben Ludlow).
A bidding war saw Negreanu, the second-highest point earner in the history of the league, jump up to a bid of $121 from Team NGNF. Unexpectedly, Team DPMC bumped it up to $130 which prompted Team NGNF to one up them to $131.
That didn't deter the defending champs as they went to $132, which was enough to snag Negreanu, who will no doubt be the highest-priced player in this year's draft.
Shaun Deeb was the first pick in the $25K Fantasy Draft, and he went for $104 after a bidding war between Ren Lin's Team Lady Gaga and TheCoffeeBreakers.com.
Team Lady Gaga came out on top after Daniel Fleshman bowed out of the auction.
Daniel Negreanu'sWorld Series of Poker (WSOP) $25k Fantasy Draft will hold its draft for the 2024 WSOP tonight at the PokerGO Studio. Not only will the draft be streamed on PokerGO, but PokerNews will also provide live updates throughout!
Each year, those willing to put up $25,000 on a fantasy poker competition bid on the performance of various poker players during that summer's WSOP. Teams must draft eight players with a $200 auction-style bidding budget, and the winner is the team that accumulates the most points throughout the series. Player points are earned based on cashes, final tables, and bracelet wins.
In this blog we'll offer pick-by-pick selections, highlight the bidding competitions, and start each team with 200 in our "chip counts" to signify their starting bank. As they select players, we'll deduct the cost of those players from the count to show you just how much they have remaining for future selections!
Remember, tonight's draft results will also set the prices for David "ODB" Baker's $500 league, which last year attracted 594 entrants for a $297,000 prize pool and $50,000 top prize. Similarly, after tonight's $25K Fantasy draft Mark Gregorich will host his annual $2,500 fantasy draft.
Both Negreanu & Baker recently joined Chad Holloway on the PokerNews Podcast to talk about this year's draft.
$25k Fantasy Draft Yearly Results
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
*Denotes won WSOP Player of the Year.
The $25k Fantasy Draft has been running each summer since 2011, except for 2020 when the WSOP was canceled due to COVID. In total, 12 players have been drafted each time. That list includes poker legends such as Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Justin Bonomo, and Eli Elezra.
No player in draft history has racked up more points — 2,007 — than Hellmuth, who holds numerous WSOP records. The "Poker Brat" isn't just putting up longevity stats when it comes to the fantasy draft. He's averaged earning 167.25 fantasy league points per WSOP since 2011, the highest for any player to have been bid on at least seven times. Negreanu, averaging 161.25 points per summer over 12 years, is in second place.
$25k Fantasy Draft All-Time Top Point Earners
PLAYER
OVERALL POINTS
YEARS DRAFTED
AVG. PTS/YEAR
Phil Hellmuth
2007
12
167.25
Daniel Negreanu
1935
12
161.25
Shaun Deeb
1747
11
158.82
Ben Yu
1528
11
138.91
John Monnette
1499
12
124.92
That said, the number of bracelet events has increased significantly in recent years, and the fantasy league scoring system has been tweaked, leading to higher scores than back in the 2010s. In 2023, Team DPMC won the 20-team league with Deeb as the team's highest scorer at 241 points, which only ranked 11th out of 160 players drafted. Alex Livingston, who gave Team Lady Gaga exceptional value at $72, was the top point earner at 353 points.
The top value pick in draft history came in 2022 when Team Maria Ho selected defending world champion Koray Aldemir for just $2. Aldemir was good for a league-best 358 points, which helped spark Maria Ho to victory and $200,000.
Last year's winning team, Team DPMC, didn't find a steal like Aldemir. But the team received strong performances from their low bids, including 177 points from Ian Steinman, a pick that cost just $1. Each year, the winning team has at least a draft pick or two that costs little but provides great value, like Steinman and Aldemir. But many times, the traditional powers such as Negreanu and Deeb are worth their high bid price.
Here are some rules and scoring details regarding the $25K Fantasy:
In order to receive points, a player must cash.
An additional point per 100 entries is awarded to players who finish in the top 18. No rounding off. An event with 87 players gets no point bonus, a 105 player field gets a 1 point bonus, a 265 player field gets a 2 point bonus, and a 1451 player field would award a 14 point bonus to all players in top 18.
For every 1,000 players 9 more players get the field bonus.
All Points 0.5x in events with less than a 1k buy-in
All Points are worth 1.5x in events with a 5k buy-in
All Points are worth double in events with a 10k buy-in or higher
The Main Event is worth 3x points.
Events with a buy-in of less than 1k will have the field size bonus capped at 9 tables (81 players) and the field size bonus is capped at 100 points.
In a heads-up or shootout event, players finishing in the same position would split the points for that spot. For example, 5th through 8th would get 22.5 points (plus field size bonuses) and be rounded up.
Points will only be awarded in open events, no Tournaments of Champions will count. As of 2022, Tag Team events no longer count.
Results are final as long as one event runs.
Only events on the schedule before the draft count.
If an event is canceled, any results from that event do not count.
If an existing event is rescheduled and plays to completion, it will count.
As of 2023: Ladies, Seniors, and Employee events will count.
The field bonus is capped at 100 points.
As of 2024: Online events will NOT count.
The draft is slated to begin at 5 p.m. PT and PokerNews will be there from start to finish. Stay tuned...
