He’s a 25K Fantasy dollar darling, and now Dong Chen is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner, denying Benny Glaser a ninth piece of hardware heads-up in the $10,000 Limit Hold ‘em Championship.
Glaser’s next bracelet will come, but Saturday night was about Chen, the Chinese star with over $4.4M in live tournament earnings, whose fantasy value will be going way up before next year’s draft.
Chen’s $285,200 win was celebrated equally by his best friend, Tony ‘Ren’ Lin, and 25K fantasy owner Daniel Negreanu.
Chen has been a 25K draft pick for three years now, with his first two years as a $1 player, selected by Lin.
Chen is easily one of the best bargain basement picks in 25K Fantasy.This year, Lin hoped to draft Chen for another bargain price. But with only $3 left for his final pick, he could only watch as Negreanu pushed the bidding to $4 and secured Chen for Team DNegs.
As Negreanu’s day in the $250K High Roller was wrapping up, Chen had just defeated Glaser, and fantasy boss Negreanu came over to congratulate his fantasy horse.
In time for part of the photoshoot, Lin joined the festivities to celebrate with his friend.
Tony 'Ren' Lin (2nd from left) celebrates with his best friend. What's Dong Chen worth now?
So, the question is, how much is a player who earned 217 fantasy points in 2024, and now has at least 130 points in 2026, truly worth?
If you ask Chen, nothing’s changed.
“One dollar!” he said with a smile, before relenting: “Maybe five to seven?”
We then asked his good friend, Lin, if he was upset that he didn’t have him on Team Lady Gaga this year.
“I didn’t have enough money to draft him, so I felt so sad,” said Lin. “But he’s my best friend, so I’m so happy. I’m rooting for him.”
As for Lin’s fantasy valuation of Chen? Well, it’s much more than one dollar or even five to seven.
“I think he’s close to $30, then next year maybe $50.”
Number nine has to wait for Glaser
Benny Glaser was left frustrated in heads-up play versus Chen.Across the table sat Glaser, a $94 fantasy pick and the sixth-most expensive player in the draft.
After winning three bracelets last summer, Glaser was on the verge of his first of 2026 and ninth overall. But after leading much of the way at the final table, Chen caught Glaser in the hour before dinner break during three-handed play along with Jeremy Ausmus.
Chen took a slight lead into heads-up play, then extended it early and never looked back, finishing the match in just over 30 minutes.
Glaser never held the lead in heads-up play versus Chen.The win is an impressive and somewhat surprising one, given that this was just Chen’s second-ever Limit Hold ‘em tournament, with the $1,500 edition earlier in the week (which he finished 52nd for $3,034) his first.
Chen said that stepping on the gas against a more experienced field, including a final table loaded with star power, was key to his success.
“My strategy was to be more aggressive, so I three-bet and four-bet a lot. That was my default go-to strategy. I carried my aggressive style all the way to heads-up, where I three-bet a lot, so that won me a lot of pots, but eventually it was just a matter of hitting the board more than my opponent.”
$10,000 Limit Hold ‘em Championship final table results:
- Dong Chen (China) – $285,200
- Benny Glaser (England) – $190,260
- Jeremy Ausmus (USA) – $130,380
- Jesse Lonis (USA) – $91,844
- Jerry Wong (USA) – $66,560
- Gus Hansen (Denmark) – $49,665
- Dylan Smith (USA) – $38,191
Additional photos courtesy WSOP
