The midway point in the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been achieved, and that means it’s time for an update on the $25k Fantasy Draft standings.

Entering Saturday’s action, it appears many teams that went heavy on no-limit hold’em crushers are in good position heading into the second half of the series.

The draft took place in late May and the usual suspects — Daniel Negreanu and Shaun Deeb — received the highest bids. Deeb’s off to a strong start to the 2023 WSOP, including adding a sixth bracelet to his resume. “DNegs,” however, has yet to reach a final table and is down more than $700,000 overall.

Two Bracelets No Help to $25k Fantasy Team?

In the $25,000 buy-in fantasy sports style draft, each of the 20 teams were given $200 to spend on bids and were required to draft eight poker players. Points are based on WSOP performance from the players on each roster. The winning team will take home $250,000.

If you’ve been following our 2023 WSOP coverage, you could probably already guess most of the players who are racking up $25k Fantasy points for their respective teams.

Chad Eveslage, the only multiple bracelet winner thus far this summer whose titles came in non-hold’em events (both dealer’s choice), is doing quite well for Team Fort Lauderdale. He’s provided that team with 167 points, which might surprise you that he only ranks eighth best overall. And the team he’s on, well, his points aren’t doing much good considering the rest of the team has done virtually nothing this summer.

NLH Running the Show

Team Fort Lauderdale is in 19th place with just 264 points, perhaps already out of contention at the WSOP midway point, although anything can happen. There’s a close race going on between the top two teams, however, and every team in the top five appears to have a good shot at winning.

Team Lada Gaga, owned by Ren Lin, leads the way with 743 points. Sean Winter has provided the team with the most points (159) thanks to two final table appearances, both in NLH events. Biao Ding (154) and Lin himself (151) are also carrying the team, and those two have combined for 13 cashes this summer, 11 of which were in, you guessed it, no-limit hold’em tournaments.

In second place is Team DPMC, owned by Donnie Peters, with 734 points, just nine off the lead. The no-limit hold’em theme doesn’t hold true as much for this team, however. Shaun Deeb (223 points) has been the team’s top performer but only has three NLH cashes. But a chunk of Sam Soverel’s 110 points have come from NLH scores, and 80% of Stephen Song’s cashes — he is worth 106 points — were in NLH events.

Not too far off the pace in third place is Team Fleyshman (Dan Fleyshman), with 649 points. This team is almost exclusively being carried by some no-limit hold’em crushers, starting with Chance Kornuth whose 261 points are most in the league. Kornuth has eight cashes at the 2023 WSOP, including four final table appearances, all in no-limit hold’em events.

Joe Cada, the 2009 world champion who was picked up for an absolute steal at $2, has given Team Fleyshman a solid 105 points thanks to three cashes in NLH events, most notably a seventh place finish in Event #39: $1,500 Monster Stack.

Maria Ho’s team is the defending champion. This year, her team (Team Maria’s Homies) is hanging in there fifth with 542 points, well within striking distance.

2023 WSOP $25k Fantasy Top 5 Teams

2023 WSOP $25k Fantasy League Top 10 Teams