Four Cashes, One Roster: Chocolate Factory's Event #2 Haul

Frederic Normand's Chocolate Factory team cashed four players in WSOP Event #2, the $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold'em, and no other roster in the 25kFantasy contest came close.

Michael Gathy finished 77th. Joey Weissman took 104th. Frederic Normand himself landed 132nd, and Benny Glaser rounded it out at 133rd. Four names from the same fantasy roster, all collecting points from a single event.

That's not a coincidence. That's a construction choice.

Four names from the same fantasy roster, all collecting points from a single event.

Why Four Cashes in One Event Matters

Most 25kFantasy managers spread their rosters across specialties. A mixed-game grinder here, a PLO specialist there, a Main Event horse for the final stretch. The logic is diversification: cast a wide net, hope someone hits.

Chocolate Factory went the other direction. Loading up on players who all enter the same $5K event means you're concentrating variance instead of smoothing it. When the squad bricks, you get nothing. When they cash, the points stack.

Event #2 was the stacking scenario. Four simultaneous cashes generate scoring volume that a diversified roster simply cannot replicate in a single tournament. While other teams waited for one player to maybe sneak past the bubble, Normand's squad put four through it.

The Players

This isn't a roster built on unknowns. Benny Glaser owns five WSOP bracelets and has long been one of the most versatile tournament players on the circuit. Michael Gathy has three bracelets of his own. Joey Weissman added a bracelet in recent years and has consistently shown up in mid-stakes NLHE fields. And Normand, the team's namesake and manager, entered the event himself and cashed alongside his picks.

All four players profile as high-volume WSOP grinders. They don't skip events. They don't cherry-pick one or two shots. They fire, and they fire often. For a fantasy manager, that volume is the asset. More entries mean more chances to accumulate points across the summer.

The Concentration Tradeoff

Here's the honest downside: concentration amplifies both outcomes. If this same group of players goes cold for a two-week stretch, Chocolate Factory's leaderboard position stalls while diversified rosters chip away with scattered min-cashes from specialists in Razz, PLO, and Limit events.

The bet Normand is making is that his four NLHE-heavy players will enter enough events, and run deep in enough of them, to overcome those dry spells. Event #2 validated the theory on Day 1 of the contest.

It's early. One event doesn't make a season. But four cashes from a single roster in a single tournament is the kind of spike that puts you on the leaderboard before most teams have a single score posted. Other managers should be asking themselves whether their roster construction can produce a night like this, or whether they've optimized so hard for consistency that they've capped their upside.

The WSOP summer is 95 events long. Chocolate Factory just showed what happens when roster concentration meets a good draw.