WSOP 2025 – Mystery Millions Attracts Former World Champions, PokerStake Player Breaks All-Time $25k Fantasy Draft Record
The 56th annual World Series of Poker kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada tonight. With just two events on the ticket, the $1,000-entry NLHE Mystery Millions and $500 Industry Employees NLHE Event, many eyes were on the annual $25k Fantasy Draft, where a bumper 24 teams were registered, each costing $25,000 to enter. One particular PokerStake favorite broke records for the most expensive player ever drafted.
Mystery Millions Welcomes WSOP Greats
This year’s opening event was the $1,000 buy-in Mystery Millions, with 1,329 players taking on the million-dollar top prize and top bounty event on Day 1a. Just 70 players remained at the close of play as former world champions Ryan Riess and Huckleberry Seed were joined in the field by Jeff Madsen, John ‘Johnny World’ Hennigan, Sean Troha, Jeremy Ausmus, Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau, Daniel Zack, Adam Hendrix, and David ‘ODB’ Baker all took to the felt.
PokerStake players Cherish Andrews (182nd for $1,318), Kevin Theodore (128th for $1,384) and Max Pescatori (119th for $1,384), all cashed, with the aforementioned Hennigan (110th for $1,441), Matt Affleck (94th for $1,526) and Brian Borst (71st for $2,001) all making the money places slightly higher up the leaderboard.
Day 1b of the Mystery Millions takes place tomorrow, with more PokerStake players sure to make the Day 2 seat draw with hopes of taking home seven figures and perhaps the ultimate WSOP prize of the bracelet in the opening event.
| WSOP Event #1 $1,000 Mystery Millions Day 1a Top 10 Chipcounts: | |||
| Place | Player | Country | Chips |
| 1st | Konstantin Held | Germany | 2,485,000 |
| 2nd | Brian Yoon | United States | 2,410,000 |
| 3rd | Narcis Nedelcu | Romania | 2,335,000 |
| 4th | Zdenek Zizka | Czech Republic | 1,835,000 |
| 5th | Ryan Otto | New Zealand | 1,780,000 |
| 6th | Sohale Khalili | United States | 1,755,000 |
| 7th | Leo Lombardozzi | France | 1,740,000 |
| 8th | Daniel Pearlman | United States | 1,735,000 |
| 9th | Jeffrey Extor | United States | 1,655,000 |
| 10th | Joe Gardenhire | United States | 1,425,000 |
Industry Employees Event Scrapes into Money Places
This year’s Industry Employees event, Event #2 on the ticket, cost $500 to play and featured 914 total entries. That meant 138 players would make the money and Day 1 played right down to the money to close out the action in dramatic fashion.
As there were 139 players left and in the small hours of the morning, a thrilling final hand completed the day and busted Hergi Muci in the cruellest of circumstances. All-in with 
against Keegan Mccann’s 
, Muci was sweating on the 
flop but celebrated on the 
turn as he made top set. All hope of a reprieve was denied him, however, as an 
fell on the river to give Mccann a straight and take a crestfallen Muci out of the running, putting the remaining players into profit.
| WSOP Event #2 $500 Industry Employees Day 1 Top 10 Chipcounts: | |||
| Place | Player | Country | Chips |
| 1st | Shaun Colquhoun | United States | 895,000 |
| 2nd | Andrew Vodinh | United States | 686,000 |
| 3rd | John Vournas | United States | 593,000 |
| 4th | Rick Muniz | United States | 515,000 |
| 5th | Konstantin Polin | United States | 507,000 |
| 6th | Keegan Mccann | United States | 489,000 |
| 7th | Miguel Cardenas | United States | 460,000 |
| 8th | Keith Williams | United States | 394,000 |
| 9th | Angelo Perez | United States | 385,000 |
| 10th | Austin Hortaleza | United States | 365,000 |
Fantasy Draft Attracts 24 Teams, Breaks $140 Player Price
This year’s annual $25,000 Fantasy Draft was once again hosted by Daniel Negreanu as 24 teams chose eight poker players each and backed themselves to win a six-figure payout. Compared to the past two years where 19 and 20 teams took part, this year’s ‘auction’ style draft was intense from the opening bids.
As the action played out in real-time on the PokerGO YouTube channel, poker fans watched in awe. An early bidding war ended with a record bid of $141 for PokerStake player Jeremy Ausmus, who told us about his approach to the 2025 WSOP earlier this week. Bought by former Fantasy Draft winners Team DPMD, Ausmus was the only big purchase possible within their team budget of $200.
Other big names cost plenty too, with the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year Scott Seiver going for $125 to Team Frog Poison. Brazil’s Yuri Dzivielevski ($119 to Team Liaison) and Daniel Negreanu ($108 to Team Negreanu) went for big money, along with other poker legends such as Jesse Lonis ($103), Shaun Deeb ($99) and Phil Ivey ($95), with some stars of the felt such as Erik Seidel ($13) bought for bargain prices. The biggest surprise of the evening might have been the omission of Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler, who, despite telling us how he’ll be firing hard at this summer’s World Series, went unclaimed for only the second time in $25k Fantasy Draft history.
You can find out which players were bought by all the 2025 Fantasy Draft teams here.
With a bumper opening week featuring a dozen events you can check out in full in our preview, Wednesday will see players sit down in the $5,000-entry NLHE 8-Max Event #3 and $1,500 buy-in 8-Max Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Event #4. We’ll be following all the PokerStake team in action this summer and if you want to stake any of them, head to the official WSOP staking page now.