Still undecided on your PokerOrg WSOP Fantasy Freeroll team? We've got you covered.
Or, rather, Chris Moneymaker has you covered.
In the video above, Moneymaker shares his thoughts on which players you should definitely add to your roster and which players you should avoid like the Hantavirus.
Moneymaker's faves and fades
First, Moneymaker covers the players he thinks you should avoid. On the surface, it's hard to justify fading any of these players, but Moneymaker digs a little deeper and clearly explains his reasoning.
- 'Texas Mike' Moncek: According to Moneymaker, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. While Moncek plans to play every event he can enter as he vies for the Player of the Year title, his volume doesn't outweigh his $130 price tag.
- Phil Hellmuth: At first, this one might sound counterintuitive. Why wouldn't you pick the all-time leader in bracelets? Moneymaker has only one reason: a lack of stamina. If you can't grind a full schedule, you're simply not a smart pick for this competition.
- Phil Ivey: As with the others on this list, Moneymaker's reasoning to fade Ivey has nothing to do with his poker skills. Instead, it's all to do with Ivey's lack of drive. When you've got nothing left to prove, it's hard to convince yourself to jump into the low-to-mid buy-in events to grind for the points.
Phil Hellmuth: not a pick for Chris Moneymaker this year. And then he gets to the players that he sees value in. In Moneymaker's eyes, the price tags on these players – when weighed against their history of results at the summer series – and the range of variants they compete in, makes them worthy picks.
- Benny Glaser: Moneymaker describes Glaser as "a phenomenal mixed games player." And he's right. Glaser's results last summer speak for themselves – and based on his price tag, he'll be playing everything.
- Chad Eveslage: While Moneymaker might not know how to pronounce his name, the bracelet ceremony emcees sure do. With four bracelets on his WSOP resume – three of which came in mixed game events – Eveslage is a slam dunk value pick at $89.
- Kristen Foxen: With a relatively inexpensive $16 price point, Foxen is a no-brainer value pick. As Moneymaker says, she's "a beast on the felt" and plans to be "grinding the entire summer." The only note of caution is that she's pretty much exclusively a NLH player, and that limits her upside.
Moneymaker's draft strat
Moneymaker's thesis on drafting a winning fantasy team boils down to a single concept: pick players with a contrarian mindset.
And he finds a reason to maybe draft Texas Mike after all – if you're brave enough to take Deeb on.
"You want to pick people that other people aren't picking," he explains. "So, maybe you don't take Shaun Deeb, and you do take Mike [Moncek] at $130 instead of Deeb at $133 because he's gonna be so much less owned. And if he does do well, it's gonna give you a chance. If Sean Deeb bricks off this summer and Mike does well, then you're already ahead of so many people in this draft."
Shaun Deeb is a clear favorite pick for many fantasy players – but do the pros of betting against him outweigh the cons?Moneymaker also covers the correlation between price tag and perceived volume – and why he relies heavily on the $25K Fantasy price tags to judge where the value lies. As Moneymaker sees it, the higher the price tag, the more likely a player is to put in a heavy schedule of events.
"These guys that did the $25K draft, they went out and they did the research for us," he says. "They paid the prices based on what people perceive their summer volume will be."
And then he offers up one final tip: draft the unknowns. Rather than take the high price tag, household name players, you can find value in the lesser known players. If even one of those picks puts up a summer of big results, you'll benefit enormously thanks to the edge you gain from a low-owned pick.
"I think that those people are gonna be putting in the volume and have a good chance. And they're undervalued because they don't have a name like a Phil Hellmuth or a Phil Ivey."
In Moneymaker’s view, the best fantasy rosters won’t look like everyone else’s – finding overlooked grinders may matter more than drafting the biggest names.
