ShareFor the first time since 2019, Daniel Negreanu's $25,000 WSOP Fantasy Draft will be taking place once again. Fourteen teams participated in the bidding process for the players they believed would deliver the most remarkable outcomes at the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP), which begins on Tuesday. The bidding took place on Monday night from inside the PokerGO Studio.
Most poker enthusiasts anticipated the draft's most valuable players, Negreanu, Shaun Deeb, Joao Vieira, and Phil Hellmuth. Those four poker players will almost certainly have complete schedules since they have a long history of producing outstanding results during poker's most coveted yearly event.
Teams pickings
The teams had just $200 to spend on draft selections; they needed to spot potential value in underrated players who might outperform their bidding price.The more likely they seemed to dominate the competition this summer, the higher the offers were for specific players. Negreanu, however, could not pick himself, bid the maximum sum of $111, and was chosen by the No Gamble No Future squad from PokerGO. The 2018 WSOP Player of the Year, Deeb, was picked by Team Dan Shak for $110, while Team Maria Ho chose Vieira for $95, and Team Fleyshman picked Hellmuth for $91.
Additional high-value players included Dan Zack, worth $87 to Team Mojave's Balls; Ben Yu, valued at $86 to Team Fleyshman; Nick Schulman, $79 to Team Negreanu; and Benny Glaser, estimated at $74 to Team Chad E.
Some further noteworthy selections were Justin Bonomo ($16 to Team Chad E.), Brian Rast ($41 to Team Trivett), Phil Ivey ($33 to Team Dan Shak), Alex Foxen ($42 to Team No Gamble), and current WSOP Player of the Year, Josh Arieh ($25 to Team Negreanu).
Controversial players, including suspected poker fraudsters Bryn Kenney and Jake Schindler, were not picked. The former Full Tilt Poker executive and 2017 World Series of Poker Player of the Year, Chris Ferguson, was also passed over by all 14 teams. It's unclear whether those three players will compete in this year's World Series of Poker.
Team Dan Shak picked Ali Imsirovic, who several high-stakes players suspected of conspiring in live high-roller games and employing real-time assistance tools (RTA) online, for $1.
Value Picks
The objective of the 25k Fantasy Draft is to amass the most points during the 2022 WSOP, akin to fantasy football. WSOP awards Points depending on how well rostered players perform in bracelet events. The farther a player advances in a competition, the more points they get. Every cash is worth one point, and a tournament victory is worth fifty points (which a player can earn in one event).For a total prize of $350,000, the first place winner will earn $200,000, the second-place winner will pocket $100,000, and the third-place holder will receive $50,000.
Some of the choices received lesser bids than some would have anticipated. Joe McKeehen, the 2015 WSOP Main Event champion with three bracelets, is one case. The previous world champion was picked up for only $4 by Team No Gamble, and he might wind up being one of the draft's bargains.
