25K Fantasy Draft 2025

Team NOVIG nominated Phil Hellmuth, who just happened to walk into PokerGO Studio at the same moment. Hellmuth had his phone in hand and was streaming the action, and he waited it the back of the room to see how much he would fetch.

That price ended up being $79 to Team Money Mondays, which seems like a good deal for the 17-time WSOP gold bracelet winner, who sits second on the $25K all-time scoring list with 2,080 points.

Player	Chips	Progress
Team Money Mondays	121 79	79

Team DPMD put up Jeremy Ausmus for an $80 opening bid, and several bids brought his value into the rare triple-digit stratosphere.

A bidding war then ensued between Team DPMD, which is comprised of Donnie Peters and Mickey Doft, and Ren Lin's Team Lady Gaga.

In fact, Ausmus became the most expensive player in the history of the $25K Fantasy, going to Team DPMD for a wild $141!

Player	Chips	Progress
Team DPMD	59 141	141

Team Lang had the first pick and opened with Nick Schulman for $20, which was quickly bid up to $50, then $58, and finally $60.

It looked like it might close there before a flurry of bids brought it over $70 and then over $80. Dollar by dollar, it ticked up to $90 and then into triple-digit territory.

Eventually, Team Splash Sports bid $107. Going once, going twice... sold!

And with that, Nick Schulman became the first player selected in the 2025 $25K Fantasy.

Player	Chips	Progress
Team Splash Sports	93 107	107

Daniel Negreanu's World Series of Poker (WSOP) $25k Fantasy Draft will hold its annual draft for the 2025 WSOP at 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday, May 27, at the PokerGO Studio. Not only will the draft be streamed, 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, the draft results will also set the prices for David "ODB" Baker's $500 league, which last year attracted 709 entrants and awarded a $354,500 prize pool (up from 594 entrants/$297,000 prize pool in 2023) and $55,000 top prize.

Last year, Negreanu & Baker joined Chad Holloway on the PokerNews Podcast to talk about the annual draft.

$25k Fantasy Draft Yearly Results

*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, 11 players have been drafted each time. That list includes poker legends such as Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Justin Bonomo, and Eli Elezra, who actually revealed in he doesn't plan to play much this year.

No player in draft history has racked up more points than Negreany with 2,103. Click here for a look at full stats from the $25K Fantasy.

$25k Fantasy Draft All-Time Top Point Earners

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 fact, Negreanu recently shared some changes to the scoring:

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.

Learn more details at 25KFantasy.com!

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 $1,500 or less 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.
• As of 2025: a 25-point bonus will be awarded for any live bracelet won.

The draft is slated to begin at 1 p.m. PT and PokerNews will be there from start to finish. Stay tuned...