The World Series of Poker is exciting enough as it is, even without a fantasy pool. However, by doing a Fantasy Pool, Ben and I will finally be able to prove that I am more knowledgeable than he is, or that he is luckier than I am (if he happens to win). Not that we need any kind of reason to make the World Series any more interesting than it already is, but now we have a big money prize at the end to be awarded to the winner - $50 Large.
Yup, $50. Enough for beer, a steak and a $20+2 sit n go buy-in.
Our Rules
- For every time a player finishes in the money: 25 points
- For every player one of our picks outlast once in the money: 1 point
- For every time a player makes a final table: 100 points
- For every time a player wins a bracelet: 200 points
- All points will be doubled for the Main Event, the H.O.R.S.E. 50K and the 10K buy-in events.
We wanted a point system that would reward the ability to continue to move up large fields even after the money bubble had burst, but at the same time, we wanted to place high value on both making the final table and winning a bracelet.
Ben was slightly more prepared for our draft than I was, but I wasn’t worried given that there are only two of us and at least a hundred draft-worthy players. Ben claimed first pick, seeing as how he got the ball rolling. The format of the draft was: Ben with first pick, me with the next two, and then alternating picks until we each had 12 horses. To add a final wrinkle, we then each got to assign our opponent a “mascot” that could also accumulate points for their team. The mascot had to be a former WSOP Main Event Champion from 1995 until present. Without further ado, the draft:
Round 1 & 2
Ben, with the first pick, took Daniel Negreanu. I’m sure this has more to do with Daniel being entertaining and a fellow Canadian than the heavy WSOP schedule Daniel takes on. Right.
With the next two picks I went with Mr. Consistently Great, Allen Cunningham, and “Durrrr”. Allen has won bracelets in the last three WSOPs and moneys consistently. As for Durrrr, I think he’ll play a lot of events and steer away from the big, distracting cash games.
On a side note, while in the online world, “Durrrr” is his only accepted name, when the WSOP starts Durrrr’s name will change to Tom Dwan, or more likely Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. ‘Internet’ players effectively get two names. I bet Tom Dwan wishes someone had told him this when he chose his screen name. He might’ve picked something more relevant/different than Durrrr.
Ben took Phil Hellmuth with his second pick. Ben likes tall guys. And, judging from his first two picks, easily noticeable players.
Round 3
In keeping with my draft strategy of internet tournament players I took Jon “PearlJammed” Turner and Ben followed suit with Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul. I think to myself that Ben got a good pick and curse myself for not being at least a little bit prepared for this draft. The bragging rights between us will be good until WSOP 2009.
Round 4
David Chiu, fresh off a big win at the WPT World Championship was my next pick, while Ben went with another tall guy, Huck Seed, someone I had hoped to get in a later round due to his proficiency at a variety of different games, willingness to play a lot of events and his cool name. Still, Ben’s girlfriend is going to wonder about him picking all these tall guys…
Round 5
In retrospect, I’m noticing how Hold’em-centric my team is and picking JC Tran only reinforces this. I guess if Ben likes tall guys, I like asian guys. Ben took Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke (who comes with his mother, as a package deal). This led me to an emotional impulse pick in Round 6.
Round 6
I took Gus. Crazy, flaky Gus Hansen. And only because Ben took Gobboboy in the last round, who I will always remember for his (and his Mom’s) second place finish to Gus in the Aussie Millions 2007 Main Event. Gus might be a reach here in Round 6, but shiiiiiii-it, I like cheering for him. I also think Ben got the best possible value of the whole draft by taking Erik Seidel, he of the multi-disciplinary card game skills and 8 WSOP bracelets. And Ben got him in Round 6 - what the deuce was I thinking?
Round 7
Bill Edler seemed like a good pick here, but any casual observer will see how NL Hold’em-centric my team continues to be. Even if my team plays other events, their main strengths are NL Hold’em, which at least comprises the majority of the events. On the other hand, the NLHE events also have the largest fields… Ben took Humberto Brenes, which I think was a sentimental choice along the lines of my Gus Hansen pick. That being said, I’ll take Gus over the Shark any day. Just remember, sharks choke when the pressure is on, just ask Greg Norman.
Round 8
Back to ‘internet’ players for me with Jon Little as my pick, while Ben takes his 3rd former Main Event Champion in Greg Raymer, which is a better pick than I originally thought, because Raymer will play in a variety of events (including HORSE), won’t be distracted by the cash games, and has shown a consistent ability to go DEEP in large-stack tournaments. I am officially jealous of Ben’s team.
Round 9
I went with Mike Binger, who had the most cashes in the 2007 WSOP (tied with Hellmuth with 8 cashes) and Ben took Phil Ivey. I really did want Ivey for a variety of reasons, but I really don’t know how many events he is going to play. I hear third hand that there are a lot of juicy high stakes cash games this time of year. If Ivey were to skip the cash games and play as many events as Daniel Negreanu, I’d draft Ivey first every time. Obvious Statements 101, my specialty.
Round 10
I took my first mixed games specialist, Barry Greenstein. I like having Barry on my team, he is well-documented for his charitable endeavours, is well-respected by other players, has bracelet winning potential in a number of games and has a cool name. Barry. Wicked. I’m glad I’m not a baseball fan anymore. Jen Harman was the first lady taken in our draft, hard to find fault with Ben’s choice.
Round 11 & 12
I selected Todd Brunson in a vain effort to improve my non NL Hold’em skills, while Ben selected Mike Matusow. Feeling the need for some of the karma that Ben likely got by being an equal-opportunity drafter and taking the only woman, I took Jesus with my last pick. Ben finished with dark horse Dario Mineri, who made big waves in the Main Event last year by value re-re-raising with J3os preflop all the way to a ginormous stack before other players caught on and busted him.
The Mascots
Feeling Ben needed more spirituality on his team, I assigned Jerry Yang to Ben’s team as his official mascot. The Jerry to my team’s Jesus. Ben really disappointed me and assigned Chris Moneymaker to be my mascot. Lets just say I was hoping for Noel Furlong.
Can’t wait for the WSOP to kick off. Lets hope unknown, undrafted players kick ass in the mixed games.
- Brendan
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