UPDATE: The 2026 PokerOrg Fantasy Freeroll draft is live... Pick your 8-player team now!
With the World Series of Poker (WSOP) just days away, it's a good time to start thinking about which players you might want to pick up for your WSOP Fantasy teams.
Whether you're firing the big $25K Fantasy, the $500 ODB Fantasy League, or our own free-to-play PokerOrg Fantasy Freeroll, it helps to know the lay of the land when it comes to drafting a team.
To help with your 2026 draft prep, let’s look back at the players who outperformed — or underperformed — their salaries during the 2025 WSOP.
The value picks
Several of the $1 players massively outperformed their salaries in 2025. Andrew Ostapachenko, Quan Zhou, and Huck Seed were all priced at the lowest possible salary – and all three of them finished in the top 30.
Ostapachenko's 234 points earned him the 16th-highest point tally, clearly a value steal if ever there was one. Zhou's 194 points were good enough to tie for a 23rd-place finish in the overall player standings. While Seed didn't rack up quite as many points as his fellow value picks, his 185 points were just enough to crack the top 30.
While it's unlikely that the trio of high-scorers will be available for $1 again, it could be worth spending a bit more of your budget to pick up players with a proven track record.
Isaac Haxton and Klemens Roiter, while not quite as affordable as the players listed above, both outperformed their relatively low salaries in 2025.
Haxton, priced at only $6, was one of the most efficient picks of the year – returning 46 points per fantasy dollar. With 276 points accrued across the series, Haxton finished eighth overall in total points.
Roiter, priced at $9, delivered 277 points – good for 30.78 points per fantasy dollar. Roiter's haul saw him finish seventh overall in points.
The underperformers
Fantasy drafters know expensive players carry risk – and 2025 offered a few painful reminders.
With six bracelets and more than $10M in live earnings, Josh Arieh looked like a bargain at $71. Instead, 2025 proved a disappointment, with Arieh posting just 11 points across the series – only 0.15 points per fantasy dollar.
In 2024, Scott Seiver won three bracelets to claim the WSOP Player of the Year title. It was an impressive display of skill – one that earned him a massive $125 salary for the following year’s Fantasy competitions and made him the second-most expensive player in the draft.
Seiver failed to replicate his success from the prior year, racking up a meager 46 points for a ratio of 0.37 points per dollar spent.
At the time of drafting, no one was shocked to see Jesse Lonis command a $103 salary. Managers who paid up were rewarded with just 43 points. Lonis returned just 0.42 points per fantasy dollar.
Still, WSOP Fantasy can turn fast – and it would be surprising to see players like Arieh, Seiver, and Lonis struggle to that extent again in 2026.
Prizes in the 2026 WSOP Fantasy Freeroll include Amazon vouchers, PokerOrg merch, training courses and subscriptions for Octopi Poker, and books from D&B Poker.
Octopi Poker helps live and online tournament players sharpen their edge away from the table. Start a free three-day trial and unlock the Octopi Academy’s quizzes and video lessons, a powerful GTO trainer, and the Vault.
D&B Publishing is poker’s leading book publisher, working with some of the game’s biggest names, including Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Little, and Alexander Fitzgerald. Check out their full range at dandbpoker.com.
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