Every summer, a handful of players outperform their price tags and swing the $25,000 WSOP Fantasy Draft. Last year it was Viktor Blom, snapped up for $22 and delivering 310 points. The year before, John Racener and Robert Mizrachi carried budget rosters to the championship. This year, the poker world is asking whether the steal of the entire draft might be its greatest living player.
The 2026 WSOP 25k Fantasy Draft takes place on 25 May in Las Vegas, just before the start of the World Series of Poker. Poker fans around the world will use the bids from that draft to build their own fantasy rosters, with each team allocated a $200 budget to assemble eight players in an auction-style format. And the name generating the most pre-draft buzz as a potential value pick isn’t a grinder quietly accumulating mixed-game cashes. It’s Phil Ivey.
The Case for Ivey
With 11 WSOP bracelets and total live earnings surpassing $54 million, Ivey is widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in history. He secured bracelet No. 11 at the 2024 WSOP in the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship, ending a ten-year bracelet drought that had some observers wondering whether his best days were behind him. They were not.
The fantasy case for Ivey rests on three pillars: elite versatility across formats, a schedule that typically spans both no-limit and mixed-game events, and a price tag that may not yet reflect his recent resurgence. At last year’s draft, Phil Ivey commanded $95 — a substantial but not outrageous sum given the player involved, landing with Team Glue Factory. The question heading into 2026 is whether the market will reprice him upward or whether the recency bias against older players keeps him accessible.
According to Daniel Negreanu, who has been sharing his WSOP Fantasy strategy ahead of the May 25 draft, a player’s schedule is everything. “No matter how good a player is, if they’re not putting together a full schedule, they’re not worth too much in terms of an investment,” he said. Ivey, when fully committed to a WSOP series, plays a deep slate — no-limit hold’em, PLO, and the mixed-game events where bracelet opportunities are abundant and fields are thinner.
How the Draft Works — and Why Value Matters
The 25k Fantasy Draft operates as an auction where each of the competing teams bids on players in real time, with a hard $200 ceiling across eight picks. Points are awarded based on tournament performance across all WSOP bracelet events throughout the summer. The scoring system rewards volume and depth runs, not just wins — meaning a player who consistently goes deep in multiple events can outscore someone who wins a single bracelet and disappears.
Last year’s champion, Team BTG, built its winning roster without a single player drafted for more than $38, squeezing value out of names like Dylan Linde ($36), Isaac Haxton ($6), and Nick Guagenti ($38). The message from recent champions is consistent: resist the urge to overpay for the marquee names, and find players who will put in the volume.
That insight is precisely why Ivey is attracting attention. If he commits to a full summer schedule — and his stated ambition to chase bracelet No. 12 suggests he will — he represents rare elite quality potentially available at a price that doesn’t reflect it.
Negreanu’s Picks — and the Broader Value Hunt
Daniel Negreanu, who hosts the 25k draft and has more cumulative fantasy points than any player since the league’s inception, has been candid about where he sees value ahead of the auction. He flagged Alex Foxen — who went for $66 last year — as a player he does not consider a Tier 5 pick. “Alex Foxen, I do not see as a Tier 5 player. He plays PLO now, he plays no-limit. He’s good. He’s a hard-nosed grinder,” Negreanu said.
Beyond Foxen, other players generating pre-draft interest as potential value picks include Nicky Palma, Brock Wilson, and Chino Rheem. But none of them carry the ceiling of Ivey, who at his best remains capable of running deep in every format on the schedule.
Negreanu’s broader strategic advice is worth heeding: recency bias means a big 2025 doesn’t automatically translate to a big 2026 — and the inverse holds true. Players who disappointed last year are often underpriced heading into the next series. Ivey, whose numbers have been trending up since his bracelet return in 2024, fits that profile almost perfectly.
Why This Matters Beyond the Draft
The fantasy draft conversation is, in part, a proxy for a deeper question: where does Phil Ivey stand among the active elite in 2026? There was a period — roughly 2010 to 2020 — when whispers circulated about his motivations, his absences from the circuit, and whether the legal battles with Borgata had taken something from him. Those whispers have been firmly answered. He came back, won a bracelet, and has been a consistent presence at the highest levels of both tournament and cash game poker.
A strong 2026 WSOP — one that translates into high fantasy points and, ideally, another bracelet — would cement an argument that doesn’t actually need much cementing anymore: that Ivey isn’t just the greatest of his generation, but one of the most durable competitors the game has ever produced.
The draft takes place live on 25 May and can be watched on the PokerGO YouTube channel. Fantasy managers, whether playing in the elite $25k league or one of the more accessible versions run by David “ODB” Baker, will spend the next week running their numbers. The question is whether Ivey’s price climbs to reflect his current form — or whether the market hesitates just long enough for a smart team to steal him.
Legends rarely come cheap. Sometimes they come at exactly the right price.