WSOP 2025 Day 1 Recap: Jeremy Ausmus Breaks $25k Fantasy Record, Mystery Millions Welcomes World Champions

The 2025 World Series of Poker has begun. The 56^th annual WSOP is poised to be the biggest and best series of all, and with two events kicking off on the opening day, along with the legendary $25k Fantasy Draft, records were broken before a card even hit the felt.

Jeremy Ausmus Breaks All-Time Fantasy Draft Price

The annual $25,000 Fantasy Draft puts those in the poker know to the ultimate test as teams featuring bracelet winners, media members, commentators and high rollers alike all pick eight players to form their fantasy teams. Each team costs $25,000 to enter into the draft, with only the top four winning money in 2024. Hosted by Daniel Negreanu, the $25k Fantasy Draft has become the curtain raiser for those already in Las Vegas.

Last year, 19 teams made the draft, with Team The Dinkers, featuring players such as Brian Rast, John Racener, Bryce Yockey and Chris Brewer winning the top prize of $225,000. This year’s draft saw 24 teams in the PokerGO Studio as the draft played out live for poker fans around the world on the PokerGO YouTube channel.

The biggest shock on the 2025 Fantasy Draft night was the most expensive player. No-one has cost more in $25k Fantasy history than Jeremy Ausmus, who went for an astonishing $141 to Team DPMD, especially when you consider that the total budget for teams is $200. The only player who got close to that eye-watering total was the reigning WSOP Player of the Year, Scott Seiver, who went for $125 to the amusingly named Team Frog Poison. Brazilian Yuri Dzivielevski ($119 to Team Liaison) and Daniel Negreanu ($108 to Team Negreanu) put some early pressure on Kid Poker to perform for his draft team’s benefit as well as his personal WSOP ambitions.

While some players went for around half a team’s budget, such as Jesse Lonis ($103), Shaun Deeb ($99) and Phil Ivey ($95), there were some real bargains at the other end of the spectrum, with Aram Zobian, Andrew Moreno, Joe Cada and Anson Tsang all added to teams for just a single dollar. It’s going to be a great summer... especially for whichever team wins the $25k Fantasy Draft - check out all the 2025 Fantasy Draft teams here.

Mystery Millions Sees Legends Play

There were several big names involved on Day 1a of the $1,000-entry Mystery Millions, the opening event of the 2025 World Series of Poker. The value was obvious in the $1,000-entry Mystery Millions event, which has a million-dollar top prize and top bounty at the minimum, with two seven-figure sums won as bounties in last year’s corresponding event. Stars of the felt such as Jeff Madsen, John ‘Johnny World’ Hennigan, Sean Troha, Ryan Riess, Huckleberry Seed, Jeremy Ausmus, Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau, Dan Zack, Adam Hendrix, and David ‘ODB’ Baker all arrived on Day 1a to play.

Few of those luminaries survived the day, however, as a total of 1,329 entries took part in the opening event of the summer and just 70 survived to make the Day 2 cut. Among them were the chip leader, German player Konstantin Held (2,485,000), with Brian Yoon (2,410,000), Narcis Nedelcu (2,335,000) Zdenek Zizka (1,835,000), and Ryan Otto (1,780,000) completing the top five.        

Players such as Yuri Dzivielevski (197^th for $1,318), Cherish Andrews (182^nd for $1,318), Jeff Madsen (142^nd for $1,384), Max Pescatori (119^th for $1,384), and Matt Affleck (94^th for $1,526) all made the money, but will be looking to take their profit and invest it in the next event at this year’s WSOP.

WSOP Event #1: $1,000 Mystery Millions Day 1a Chip Counts

Employee Event Sends Muci Straight Out

There were 914 players in this year’s $500-entry Industry Employees Event, as 138 players made the money and Day 2. With 139 players remaining in the midnight hour, an all-American clash saw Hergi Muci move all-in with pocket jacks against the king-five offsuit belonging to Keegan Mccann.

The flop of 7-6-4 gave everyone at the table a serious sweat. A jack on the turn improved Muci’s hand to top set but his cheers died in the air moments after he made them, as an eight on the river landed to give Mccann the straight and send Muci home. His exit meant everyone else made the money places, with former WSOP employee Shaun ‘The Dealer’ Colquhoun top of the pile.

WSOP Event #2: $500 Industry Employees Day 1 Chip Counts

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