WSOP Fantasy News and Reviews

We got 15 players to put up $25,000 each for this years WSOP Fantasy Auction Draft at Aria Casino. Aria hooked us up big time, with a full bar and an excellent room for the draft, complete with a projector screen. The draft works like this: each team gets 200 to spend on 8 players. A player is nominated, then goes to the highest bidder. So if you want Phil Ivey, you would have had to spend 108 of your 200 bankroll to get him, leaving you just 92 left to fill out the rest of your team. Here is a look at the teams, with comments:

Team #1 Joe Cassidy/Huck Seed

1: Tom Dwan 62
2: Vladimir Schemelev 33
3: Alexander Kostritsyn 58
4: Jennifer Harman 19
5: Sam Trickett 7
6: David Pham 1
7: Vitaly Lunkin 10
8: David Bach 1

Comments: Best value here may be David Bach who is set to play a full schedule of mixed game events, and also is a previous winner of the $50,0000 Players Championship. Sam Trickett is a no limit specialist, and 7 seems like a bit of a steep price for a specialist, but he is a good one. This team will rely heavily on a big series from Dwan, a repeat performance from Schmelev, and the always dangerous Kostritsyn. With Harman it's always a question of number of events played, if she plays 12+ then 19 is a fair price.

Team #2 Barry Greenstein
1: Barry Greenstein 64
2: Phil Ivey 108
3: Chau Giang 19
4: John Pham 2
5: Ralph Perry 3
6: Ted Forrest 1
7: Joseph Serock 1
8: Jimmy Fricke 1

Comments: Go big or go home! Barry chose to draft the most valuable player in the draft, Phil Ivey, to complement his own full schedule of events then fill the team with whoever he could get really. best value could be Jimmy Fricke as he's been playing mixed games more and will likely play a full schedule. Chau Giang at 19 seems a bit high as he is hit or miss in terms of events played. Ralph Perry and Ted Forrest are both potential superstars, but will they play?

Team #3 Robert Mizrachi, Greg Meuller, Jared Bleznick, "Crazy" Mike
1. Daniel Alaei 80
2: Robert Mizrachi 51
3: Josh Arieh 26
4: Hoyt Corkins 5
5: Chad Brown 24
6: Marco Trani