$10.5M in Guarantees Over Nine Days: A Fantasy Roster Guide

Three tournaments totaling $10.5 million in guarantees fire between June 8 and June 17, and the optimal roster construction for each one looks nothing like what most managers are running right now.

The WSOP schedule just handed fantasy managers a gift: a nine-day stretch with three massive-field events stacked on top of each other. Event #26 ($1,600 NLH, $2.5M guarantee), Event #29 ($3,500 NLH, $5M guarantee), and Event #34 ($2,200 NLH Mystery Bounty, $3M guarantee) will produce a combined $10.5M in guaranteed prize pools. That's where your roster points live for the next two weeks. The question is whether you're building for all three or betting heavy on one.

That's where your roster points live for the next two weeks.

Event #26: The Volume Play

Event #26 is a $1,600 NLH with a $2.5M guarantee and multiple Day 1 flights. Flight 1B fires on June 8; Flight 1C fires on June 9. The $1,430 net buy-in makes this the cheapest of the trio, which means fields will be enormous. Expect 2,000+ entries across flights.

For fantasy purposes, this is the event where high-volume grinders earn their salary. Players who fire multiple flights get two cracks at bagging chips, and a deep bag on Day 1 sets up a long scoring runway. If your roster leans toward players who enter everything at the $1K to $2K level, this is their spot. The massive field also means top-heavy payouts, so a single final table run from a rostered player could swing your week.

The contrarian angle: most managers load up on name pros for the bigger buy-in events. Owning a low-cost grinder who bags Event #26 while the field chases Event #29 could be the pivot that separates you from chalk.

Event #29: The Main Attraction

This is the marquee. Event #29 is a $3,500 NLH with a $5M guarantee, firing its first flight on June 13. At a $3,175 net buy-in, the field will skew significantly more professional than Event #26. Recreational players thin out above the $2K threshold, and the ones who do enter tend to be the "once a summer" types who play tight and bust quickly.

That dynamic matters for fantasy. A field full of competent players compresses edges at the table, but it also means the players who do run deep are more likely to be the known quantities on your roster. High-salary pros earn their price tags in events like this because the recreational noise is lower.

The trap: everyone will roster for Event #29. Ownership percentages on the obvious $3,500 grinders will be sky-high. If your favorite pro busts on Day 1, you're stuck paying a premium salary for zero points while half the field holds the same dead weight.

Event #34: The Sleeper

Event #34 is a $2,200 NLH Mystery Bounty with a $3M guarantee, starting June 17. Mystery Bounty formats are fantasy wildcards. The bounty envelopes inject variance into the prize pool distribution. A player who busts in 200th place but pulls a fat bounty envelope scores differently in real dollars than in fantasy points (where finishing position and chips bagged tend to drive scoring).

Build your roster knowing that Mystery Bounty events reward survival over aggression. Players who grind deep stacks patiently and accumulate bounties along the way are the fantasy assets here. This is not the event where you want the "ship or bust" types.

The Nine-Day Plan

The smartest roster construction for June 8 through June 17 balances exposure across all three events rather than going all-in on Event #29. Allocate salary toward players likely to enter both Event #26 and Event #29 for double exposure. Then keep a budget slot open for a Mystery Bounty specialist in Event #34.

The schedule does the work for you: these events don't overlap on Day 1 flights, so a single rostered player could theoretically score in all three. Find the players who will fire all of them. That's your edge.

Full scoring projections and salary data for all three events are live at 25kfantasy.com.