Daniel Negreanu is coming in hot to the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP), which kicks off May 28, one day after the annual $25k Fantasy Draft.
Speaking of that draft, there will be numerous interesting storylines to follow on May 27, one of which involves the GGPoker ambassador. More specifically, the amount teams will be willing to bid on him this year compared to previous years.
PokerNews will be on-site at PokerGO Studio to live report the $25K Fantasy Draft.
Typical High Bid on Poker Legend?
In the $25k Fantasy Draft, each team has $200 to spend bidding on a roster of eight players. Throughout the series, players earn points based on performance (cashes, final tables, and bracelet wins), and the team that racks up the most points wins the largest chunk of the prize pool.
It’s imperative for those drafting to bid wisely and get as much value as possible for each pick. Negreanu and Shaun Deeb generate the highest bids each year due to the volume they put in, and they’re pretty dang good poker players, each with six bracelets.
Without question, both players will generate heavy interest from many teams in the fantasy draft again this year. But projecting Negreanu’s bid isn’t going to be as easy this year for a few reasons, of which we’ll discuss in the next section.
How Will Fantasy Draft Teams Value Daniel Negreanu?
Negreanu has posted two consecutive losing summers for a total of approximately $1.9 million. He hasn’t won a bracelet since 2013, and his last WSOP title in Las Vegas came in 2008.
The Poker Hall of Famer, who lost over $2 million in live tournaments last year, disclosed some planned changes to his game at the start of the year. One fix he’s been implementing is to play fewer events. And that strategy has worked like a charm and one could argue has been the driving force to what has already been a monster year for one of poker’s all-time greats.
Thus far, he’s won two high rollers in 2024 and reached eight final tables, and he’s done that on a limited schedule. So, on the surface, it would seem unlikely his fantasy draft bid wouldn’t drop below its usual $100-$110 range.
But there’s another side to this coin, and that is his planned lighter WSOP schedule, which he announced in February. That could make some team owners a bit hesitant to use half the team’s budget on one player who admits he isn’t going to focus as heavily on WSOP Player of the Year as he has been in the past.
Is Deeb, who has gone for at least $110 the past two years, a better value especially when factoring in Negreanu’s consecutive losing summers? Should team owners avoid both players altogether and allocate their budget elsewhere? Those are some questions team owners will have to ponder.
Fantasy Draft History
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 have 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.
The $25k Fantasy Draft takes place May 27 at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.