Daniel Negreanu's draft attracted 24 teams, the same number as last year. The most expensive player in the draft was Shaun Deeb. Gary Benson paid $133 for Shaun and assembled a unique team. He spent just $167 on his eight players out of a $200 budget. He spent $18 on the experienced Yuki Zhu, and no one competed for the rest of the players (including the veteran Gary himself, born in 1957).
John Hennigan is one of the best limit players, but no one ever knows his plans. However, he's already been seen in chip counts, so it looks like he plans to play the entire series this year.
For the remaining $33, Gary could have gone after Stephen Chidwick, Calvin Anderson, Robert Mizrachi, and a host of other solid players, but he obviously didn't see the need.
Michael Monchek bought himself for $130. His brother, Tyler, is also on the team.
The third most expensive was Daniel Negreanu, who also placed a bet on his close friend Josh Arieh, who failed in the last series.
In the first episode of his flight vlog, Daniel admitted that he had done virtually no preparation for the draft:
"This year, I'll be pursuing a unique and highly effective strategy: sniping players. I'm well aware of which players are friends with each other, and I'll be keeping a close eye on who certain players are bidding for. I'll jump in immediately if I think someone should be worth more."
Daniel said he'd try to buy himself, and the plan worked. If that hadn't worked, he'd planned to make Matt Glantz his main purchase and was willing to pay up to $90 for him. Matt ended up going to The Dinkers for a modest $27. Apparently, word got out that he won't be playing much.
Following the draft, Daniel admitted (as always) that he likes the team.
Potential opponents also liked his team's build:
"Look, they're already lining up to bet on me. Everyone thinks my lineup is crap. I bet on myself, and they think I'm overrated. I'm perfectly happy with that."
Full team rosters can be found in the file or on the official fantasy website.
2025 WSOP champion Michael Mizrachi was taken for $80, having been completely overlooked in the draft last year. Phil Hellmuth went for a respectable $66, but he wasn't happy with the price :
– My guy Daniel Negreanu’s Fantasy Draft!
Amazing for poker!! Everything Daniel does is great for poker!
I went for a record low 66 points. Do they know something? Have I lost my poker skills? Or, will I crush it at 2026 WSOP?
"It's alright, Phil," Jesse Lonis reassured his colleague. "They put some disrespect on both our names! Let’s show them the white magic! 🦍"
"Less a $7,000+$3,000 super turbo in 2023, you haven’t won a $10,000+ buy-in since the 2015 Seven Card Razz Championship that had 103 entries," wrote Kill Tony Commenter. "That’s why you went for $66."
Jesse was going for $69. The same amount was paid for Viktor Blom and Martin Kabrhel, who had already finished 28th in the very first tournament.
If you'd rather skip fantasy and play for real, GGPoker is the place to get WSOP entry for this year's series.
The series is well underway, and bracelets have been awarded. As of today, we have 5 new 2026 WSOP champions.
The first event, the $550 Mini Mystery Millions tournament, is still underway, but Events #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6 are complete.
- Event #2: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed
Winner: Daniyal Gheba (United States) – $502,985 - Event #3: $500 No-Limit Hold'em Employees Event
Winner: Jerome Neppl (United States) – $64,083 - Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
Winner: Jason Daly (United States) – $191,362 - Event #5: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Winner: Yang Wang (China) – $595,388 - Event #6: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Winner: James Cheung (United Kingdom) – $103,185
Track the winners of every 2026 World Series of Poker event on the page below:
Nick Petrangelo got the brunt of the first few days of the series, even though he apparently hadn't even made it to Vegas from Montenegro yet. Neither, incidentally, did Artur Martirosyan.
Shaun Deeb was the author of a little chaos :
"30m into the table, NickyP already threatened to spit on a player at the table if they were outside. Now he’s trying to fight him. Some things never change at the WSOP."
Sean's post garnered 150,000 views, and Twitter's algorithms decided it was about Petrangelo, pushing the news to the top of the trending list.
Shaun Deeb quickly wrote that his tweet had nothing to do with Petrangelo. In the comments, almost everyone guessed he was talking about Nick Palma.
The $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo tournament featured Perry Green, who celebrated his 90th birthday in March of this year.
There's a legend at my table, Allen Kessler said excitedly.
Phil Hellmuth was quick to greet the legendary veteran:
Perry won three bracelets, all in the 1970s.
But his greatest success was undoubtedly the 1981 World Series of Poker Main Event. The tournament featured 75 players, and Perry Green reached heads-up play, losing only to defending champion Stu Ungar.
UPDATE: In Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo, Perry Green made it to 6th place and cashed for $30.973.
In the first days of the series, there are traditionally many complaints about the work of dealers.
Jason Wheeler shared what he saw in the first 10 minutes:
– First 10 minutes of WSOP:
The dealer tries to give me 3 cards
The dealer deals flop with action pre and after being told not to deal flop cuz she missed the action
The dealer tried to award the pot to the wrong player
Welcome to summer camp WSOP
It's safe to say that a dealer like this will either get extremely low ratings. Or perhaps... high ones?
