The most successful fantasy players were Shaun Deeb and Viktor Blom.
Sean also won the WSOP Player of the Year award, closely followed by Benny Glaser, who won three bracelets.
The number of tournaments is growing every year, so fantasy players are gaining more and more points. This year, the top ten have more than 260 points, last year there were 6 players who reached this number of points. More than 200 points were gained by 22 participants, and a year ago there were 16.
The real fantasy winner was Michael Mizrachi, who scored a phenomenal 437 points. Michael spent the first half of the World Series sitting out in cheap tournaments, but had a very successful second half.
The problem? Despite the record number of teams (24) in the Negreanu draft , Michael was not included in any of the teams. This happened for the first time in history; in previous years, Michael was always taken at the very end for 1-3 USD. This year, he made it onto the list only thanks to David "ODB" Baker, who added Michael to the bonus participants of his fantasy. There, Michael was selected by 17 teams, and he ensured that half of them would make it into the money.
One of the most successful draft picks was Isaac Haxton. They paid only 6 USD for him, since he traditionally plays only the most expensive tournaments at the World Series. This year, Ike did not change, played about 10 tournaments, and performed very well. The cherry on top of the cake was getting into the bonus zone in the Main Event, which began right from 99th place. For 100th, Ike would have received 3 points.
One of the biggest disappointments of the draft was Scott Seiver. The three-time champion of the previous series was paid $125, but he scored only 46 points. Jesse Lonis (43 points, $105) and Josh Arieh (11 points, $71) also had poor performances. David Benyamine was the only player who did not score a single point.
But a whole scattering of participants, for whom they paid 1 USD each, brought their teams more than 100 points. Andrew Ostapchenko stands out among them.
Team BTG became the Negreanu Fantasy Champion.
1,279 points is the second-highest total in draft history. The record (1,437) was set last year by the Dinkers, who also finished fourth this year.
BTG (Beyond the Game) is another educational project by Phil Galfond, an annual course that costs $8,000.
On Twitter, the team wrote – Team BTG has won the 25k Fantasy and $250,000!
All shares are owned by our members, who earned a 10x return on their investment as a nice little bonus to cap off the first season of BTG.
We take no credit for this, though. Three of our dedicated members spent 1.5 months finding every possible edge for this draft and did all the hard work, knowing the shares would be offered to all BTG members.
BTG spirit at its finest. 🏆
Patrick Leonard's team took third place.
"Proud of all the boys," Patrick wrote. "Happy to get on the podium and looking forward to running it back next year."
Pads also had a successful run in ODB fantasy, with 5 of his 8 teams making the cut, and the best finishing in 3rd place.
Daniel Negreanu traditionally left without prizes, his team took only 9th place. He also lost almost all of the numerous side bets. One of GipsyTeam's friends, Sergey Rybachenko, wrote about the dramatic outcome in his telegram channel:
– In such an unusual year, our traditional bets with Negreanu should not have ended in a routine way. Until the last day, everything was calm, two of my teams were beating him and one was losing. I was sure that nothing could change, but in the last major tournament of HORSE for 25k, two players from my lagging team suddenly went far. And before the last day there were 14 people left, mine had 10th and 6th stacks. In order to have a chance to overtake Negreanu, they needed to take no more than 9th place in total. That is, if one goes out 7th, then the other needs 2nd. If 6th, then the other needs 3rd. In short, they managed to do it, after one of them was eliminated in 7th place ( Ed. – Sergey was very unlucky here. John Hennigan lost the scoop in stud hi-lo, starting with KQQQ against Ryan Miller's 7342. They went all in on 6th street, Ryan's last card closed the gutshot on the wheel ), I was saved only by Brian Rast's 2nd place, and he managed to get there. This team eventually scored 807 points, against Daniel's 805. I don't remember a case in many years of our betting, when 2 points decided everything. In the end, for the second year in a row, we managed to take the scoop, winning 3 out of 3 bets.
Now it’s become somehow boring without WSOP, I’ve gotten used to watching at night.
At the beginning of the series, we talked about Allen Kessler holding a grudge against the fact that he, like Mizrachi Jr., was not selected in Negreanu's draft.
Allen offered a bet that he could score more points than each of the 10 drafted players he would name, which Martin Zamani accepted.
In the end, Allen made a really good choice. Only two players on his list – Andrew Lichtenberger and Esther Taylor – scored more than 100 points, while the rest had fewer than 24. Kessler himself scored only 20 points, but beat out six competitors:
– Here's the results of the 25k Fantasy prop bet.
I ended up 6-4 for a net $500 winner vs @martin_zamani. Shaun Deeb lucked out that I didn't accept his bigger offer on this same bet.
Name Final points
- Lucky Chewy 146
- Esther Taylor 103
- Matt Valeo 24
- Jon Shoreman 24
- Me 20
- Kyle Miholich 15
- Gus Hansen 13
- Max Pescatori 13
- Kevin Gerhart 7
- Tyler Moncek 6
- Cooper Feltham 2
Deeb offered Allen $5k versus $2.5k on five players on his list.
Kessler refused, but Sean had already made him a new offer :
– Here’s a nice bet for Allen next year my 100k to his 50k he picks 10 players drafted it’s their total score vs his score 10x Ill prove to him that his avg points is way worse than the worst 10 in the draft while laying 2 to 1
"Bad bet," Allen said again. "There will be one outlier.."
“I like Kessler's side,” John Juanda said with interest.
“We might have action next year then,” Sean answered.
"Any player worth a lick would take this bet in a heartbeat," marvels Nathan Gamble. "Amazing the prop bets that can come your way in this industry with the right personality."
The winner of the forum fantasy freeroll was Bredegard.
Bredegard – 1559
- Sean Deeb – 357
- Brian Rast – 292
- Ben Lamb – 228
- Chris Hunnichen – 69
- Mike Gorodinsky – 132
- Sam Soverell – 212
- Mike Leah – 84
- Huck Seed – 185
He was 110 points ahead of his closest pursuer, while the difference between 2nd and 10th places was only 43 points.
Evgengoden – 1449
- Daniel Negreanu – 269
- Arthur Martirosyan – 142
- Viktor Blom – 310
- Ben Lamb – 228
- Eric Seidel – 61
- Scott Bolman – 223
- Sergio Aido – 85
- Toby Lewis – 131
With a team like this, Bredegard would be in contention for the top spots in the ODB draft, even without the bonus player his points would be enough for 7th place ($9,000).
Of the players who paid more than 80 points in our freeroll, Shaun Deeb was the most popular pick. He was picked by 217 teams, with six participants placing in the top ten. In comparison, Viktor Blom was picked by three.
Cashmar, who took third place, was the only winner to take both, falling just one point behind second place.
Cashmar – 1448
- Sean Deeb – 357
- Arthur Martirosyan – 142
- Victor Blom – 310
- Dmitry Urbanovich – 30
- Maxim Pysarenko – 148
- Nick Pupilo – 100
- Isaac Haxton – 276
- Sergio Aido – 85
