Big news: you can win a $10K main event package or seat for free in the PokerOrg Fantasy Freeroll. Register now and pick your team of eight real-world players before the deadline at noon PT on May 29, with the leaderboard winner taking down the huge grand prize.
All player prices in the Fantasy Freeroll will be set at Daniel Negreanu’s official $25K Fantasy Draft taking place later today, and the big question you’ll be asking is simple: Who should make the team?
We’ve already looked at strategies, how to find players with exceptional value, spoken with David ‘ODB’ Baker about the $500 ODB League and last year’s number one point-scorer Jeremy Ausmus about top-performing players. But as the actual organizer of the annual $25K Fantasy Draft — and usually its most expensive player — Daniel Negreanu is uniquely positioned to offer advice and insight into the strategies behind building a winning team.
So, naturally, we had to grab some one-on-one time with Kid Poker.
Negreanu’s full chat with PokerOrg’s Craig Tapscott drops tomorrow, but for now let’s zero in on the topic of the day: the Fantasy Draft.
‘I’d love to have myself, but these guys go bonkers on me’
“I always map out a strategy going in,” begins Negreanu. “What I do is, I group the players into tiers, one through five: tier five being a $1 player, tier one players being those that are going to go for over $60 or $70. There’s only maybe eight of those, I think.
“I don't expect to be taking any tier one players — I'd love to have myself, but these guys go bonkers on me, they are 100% willing to bet $193 on me and just fill the rest of their team with $1 players, which I take as a sign of respect, but at the same time I'm not going that route.”
So if Negreanu isn’t going to be taking on any tier one players, what’s his planned route to success? The key, as people often say in many areas of life, is balance… with a few surprises thrown in.
“My team this year I expect will be a little bit of an ‘old school’ team that's more sort of mid-tier. Some mid-tier players with a couple of surprises. I do think there'll be one or two people that I draft that people will go ‘Huh? Who?’”
Who, indeed? On the eve of the draft itself, Negreanu isn’t about to give up the element of surprise. The draft will be streamed live on PokerGO’s YouTube channel, and PokerOrg will be there to share the fun with a live blog, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Mistakes to avoid
Having established the importance of having a strategy heading into the draft, Negreanu also points out some missteps that can end up costing your team.
“Adam Schwarz's team last year made a really bonehead move,” shares Negreanu. “You want to make sure that you utilize all of your capital; you get $200 to spend, you don't want to spend $10 when you could have spent $2, but he just blurted out a couple of names for big numbers that nobody would have bet $2 on.
“He goes, ‘Landon Tice for $10.’ And the thing was, if he had said $1, he would have got him, so he just burned up $9 because he was trying to save time.
“That's the Canadian in him, you know, he was trying to be the nice guy.”
Another potential pitfall is letting a rival who may have inside info have it all their own way. If someone is very keen on a player in whom you have no interest, maybe you should be interested?
“Last year Team Lady Gaga — Ren Lin — went super heavy on two players, Yuri Dzivielevski and Shaun Deeb, I think, and then he filled the rest of his team with people who nobody knew, but he had inside insight. So I think strategically people are going to start to see that this year and go, ‘Oh, wait a minute, Ren wants him and he's only $1, I don't have a great pick here I'll just go $2 and block him.’ Otherwise you can allow people to make a super team.”
The other possible error to be aware of, says Negreanu, is the lack of a Plan B.
“Last year, I swear to you, my plan was to take me and Josh Arieh and then fill it up with $1 players. I went for $130 or something, Josh went for $75. I couldn't have even just drafted the two of us. So as soon as I saw that, I'm like, ‘Alright, plan B,’ which was the guy I've had probably almost every single year: Nick Schulman.
"I think this year Nick is going to go for a lot more — I think people have woken up to that. He's been my stud horse for the last decade.”
‘You want to hear your name called’
Finally, Negreanu advises to be aware of the effect that the draft itself can have on a player. So many want to be drafted, he says, that they’ll send him their full schedules in the hopes of gaining a mention and a spot in a team. “Some people make it a goal for themselves to be drafted… you want to hear your name called,” says Negreanu, but the sword cuts both ways. Those who get drafted, but for a price they think is too low, can find extra motivation to prove the doubters wrong.
Take Scott Seiver. His price last year was $37, a far cry from where he thought he should be. “He was so motivated by the diss by his peers, he was, like, ‘Oh really? Do you know who I am? Let me show you who I am, you idiots’.”
Seiver eventually finished the 2024 WSOP as the Player of the Year.
But who will do likewise this year, and will they be such a bargain? Now that you’ve heard from Negreanu, it’s over to you.
The draft is just hours away, and the opportunity to pick your team will be available shortly afterwards. Head here to get involved.
Our full video interview with Daniel Negreanu will be available tomorrow at PokerOrg.
