Daniel Negreanu Commands Top Price in 2024 $25K Fantasy Draft

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Daniel Negreanu WSOP 25k Fantasy Draft

One hundred fifty-two players were auctioned off into 19 teams of eight during the 25K Fantasy Draft for the 2024 World Series of Poker, held at the illustrious PokerGO Studio.

With a total prize pool of $475,000, the stakes are incredibly high for the participants. The payouts are structured to reward the top four teams substantially, with the first-place team taking home $225,000, followed by $125,000 for second place, $75,000 for third, and $50,000 for fourth.

The draft followed an auction format, where teams with a $200 allowance bid on players to form their ultimate rosters. The event was marked by intense bidding wars, with several players commanding high prices.

Negreanu, Deeb and Livingston Most Expensive Picks

Daniel Negreanu was the highest-priced player of the night. Reigning champions Team DPMC, made up of Donnie Peters & Matthew Clark, secured Negreanu for a staggering $132, making him the most expensive player in 25K Fantasy Draft history.

"I swear to God, I was picking myself this year," said a stunned Negreanu, who's the second-highest point earner in the history of the league.

"My whole strategy was to get myself, Josh Arieh (TheCoffeeBreakers.com - $73), and Jeremy Becker (Team NGNF - $3) to fill it out." Negreanu told PokerNews after the Draft. "I had to go back to old school, Nick Schulman ($66), Chino Rheem ($40), Nacho Barbero ($53). We bought Erick Lindgren ($1) and David Williams ($3)."

Alex Livingston
Alex Livingston

Alex Livingston claimed the second-highest bid, joining Team Lang for $110. Shaun Deeb followed as the third-most expensive player, falling two places from last year. Ren Lin's Team Lady Gaga paid $104, more than half their budget, for the perennial WSOP Player of the Year (POY) contender on the very first sale of the night.

2024 $25K Fantasy Draft Ten Most Expensive Picks

PlayerPrice
Daniel Negreanu$132
Alex Livingston$110
Shaun Deeb$104
Yuri Dzivielevski$90
Joao Vieira$84
Jeremy Ausmus$81
Justin Liberto$78
Benny Glaser$76
Chad Eveslage$75
Koray Aldemir$75

All-Time Bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth also came with a hefty fee, costing $72, while poker icon Phil Ivey went to Dan Sepiol's Team for just $16.

2023 WSOP PoY Ian Matakis' price rallied to $22 and was Team Lang's second pick of the night. Last summer's Main Event winner and Team Lucky member Daniel Weinman nearly went for $2, but the bids eventually came flying in. Weinman remained in home colors after partners Deeb and Arieh spent $31 to keep his services.

Tice Gets Bragging Rights Over Becker

Landon Tice
Landon Tice

Alongside sweating the draft, many members of the poker community have a vested interest in a looming poker match-up between Landon Tice and the aforementioned Becker.

The duo have agreed to a 100% crossbook bet in at least 25 mutually played events over the summer where players such as Negreanu have action on the side.

A crossbook is a bet between players in the same tournament or cash game where "the player who loses owes the winner a percentage of that player��s net winnings (vs. the losing player��s net winnings) in the event," according to Upswing Poker.

If the Draft indicated how the duel would play out, it would see Tice enter the ring as the favorite. Tice was nominated by Team Wilson for $10, which got the job done. A few picks later, Becker's name was put forward for $1. Only two more bids followed, as Team NGNF (Jeff Platt, Brent Hanks, Ben Ludlow) snagged the budget buy for $3.

Jeremy Becker
Jeremy Becker

All 25K Fantasy Draft Picks

That's a wrap for PokerNews' time at the 25K Fantasy Draft, but it doesn't mark the end of our 25K Fantasy Draft coverage.

We'll be on hand throughout all of the 2024 WSOP, keeping tabs on all the drafted players. Each player is highlighted with a unique 25K Fantasy badge in our live updates and there are special filters which allow you to only see hands that feature 25K Fantasy players.

In the meantime familiarize yourself with the rosters from the 19 participating teams.

Team Noori  
PickPlayerPrice
1Jeremy Ausmus$81
2Joao Vieira$84
3Maria Ho$6
4Hal Rotholz$5
5Dan Shak$4
6Seth Davies$1
7Taylor Paur$1
8Xavier Kyablue$18
 Total$200
Team Wilson  
PickPlayerPrice
1Mike Gorodinsky$20
2Landon Tice$10
3Isaac Haxton$15
4Anthony Zinno$31
5Matthew Wantman$30
6Yuval Bronshtein$54
7Aram Zobian$7
8Adam Hendrix$33
 Total$200
Team Livingston  
PickPlayerPrice
1AJ Kelsall$36
2Chance Kornuth$73
3Mike Matusow$11
4Justin Saliba$40
5Tyler Brown$29
6Ray Henson$2
7Brock Wilson$3
8Eli Elezra$1
 Total$195
Team Negreanu  
PickPlayerPrice
1Nick Schulman$66
2Chino Rheem$40
3Nacho Barbero$53
4Andrew Lichtenberger$6
5Eric Wasserson$16
6David Williams$3
7Erick Lindgren$1
8Georgios Sotiropoulos$15
 Total$200
TheCoffeeBreakers.com  
PickPlayerPrice
1David "ODB" Baker$50
2Josh Arieh$73
3Phil Hellmuth$72
4Michael Mizrachi$1
5Punnat Punsri$1
6Christian Harder$1
7Joe Cada$1
8Ari Engel$1
 Total$200
Team Oz  
PickPlayerPrice
1Jake Schwartz$41
2Brad Ruben$50
3Robert Campbell$1
4Brian Hastings$5
5Josh Reichard?$5
6Michael Moncek$56
7Ash Gupta$1
8Warwick Mirzikinian$41
 Total$200
Team Lucky  
PickPlayerPrice
1Dylan Linde$61
2Adrian Mateos$45
3Daniel Weinman$31
4Mike Noori$3
5Scott Ball$12
6Erik Seidel$14
7Patrick Leonard$7
8Matt Glantz$27
 Total$200
Team Lang  
PickPlayerPrice
1Alex Livingston$110
2Ian Matakis$22
3Jason Mercier$2
4Craig Chait$5
5Artur Martirosian$4
6Nick Pupillo$23
7David "Bakes" Baker$18
8Sam Soverel$16
 Total$200
The Dinkers  
PickPlayerPrice
1Chris Brewer$60
2John Racener$36
3Brian Rast$37
4Bryce Yockey$13
5Jerry Wong$30
6Robert Mizrachi$1
7David Coleman$3
8Ben Lamb$16
 Total$196
Team Girl Dads  
PickPlayerPrice
1John Riordan$18
2Jim Collopy$33
3Jesse Lonis$46
4Ryan Riess$16
5Shannon Shorr$13
6Dario Sammartino$45
7Julien Martini$22
8Dustin Dirksen$7
 Total$200
Lady Gaga  
PickPlayerPrice
1Shaun Deeb$104
2Yuri Dzivielevski$90
3Wing Po Liu$1
4Qiang Xu$1
5Dong Chen$1
6Renji Mao$1
7Yingui Li$1
8Anson Tsang$1
 Total$200
Team Chingas  
PickPlayerPrice
1Brian Yoon$47
2Dylan Smith$33
3Justin Liberto$78
4Toby Lewis$2
5Aaron Kupin$25
6Ryan Hoenig$3
7Darren Elias$2
8Bin Weng$4
 Total$194
Team Baker  
PickPlayerPrice
1Dylan Weisman$59
2Ben Yu$67
3Phillip Hui$26
4Joey Couden$9
5Felipe Ramos$16
6Sam Laskowitz$6
7Nick Guagenti$16
8Maksim Pisarenko$1
 Total$200
Team DPMC  
PickPlayerPrice
1Daniel Negreanu$132
2Sean Winter$17
3Stephen Chidwick$20
4Sergio Aido$1
5Andres Korn$1
6Stephen Song$4
7Michael Rodriguez$3
8Dario Alioto$1
 Total$179
Team Sepiol  
PickPlayerPrice
1Alex Foxen$70
2Adam Friedman$35
3Phil Ivey$16
4John Monnette$45
5Ryan Leng$9
6Dzmitry Urbanovich$1
7Calvin Anderson$3
8Kevin Gerhart$1
 Total$180
Team AJ's Eagles  
PickPlayerPrice
1David Peters$13
2Steven Wolansky$9
3Maxx Coleman$45
4Arthur Morris$47
5Scott Seiver$37
6John Hennigan$24
7James Chen$14
8Jeff Madsen$1
 Total$190
Team Kalas  
PickPlayerPrice
1Philip Sternheimer$35
2Paul Volpe$34
3Koray Aldemir$75
4Kane Kalas$33
5Rob Hollink$1
6Dan Smith$6
7Yueqi Zhu$1
8Chris Hunichen$15
 Total$200
Team NGNF  
PickPlayerPrice
1Chad Eveslage$75
2Ren Lin$55
3Dan Zack$50
4Kristen Foxen$11
5Allen Kessler$2
6Jeremy Becker$3
7James Obst$3
8Dylan Destefano$1
 Total$200
Team Sternheimer  
PickPlayerPrice
1Benny Glaser$76
2Christopher Vitch$41
3Espen Jorstad$11
4Marco Johnson$37
5Cary Katz$11
6Danny Tang$9
7Joao Simao$8
8Renan Bruschi$7
 Total$200
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Editor & Live Reporter

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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