Ghost Finalists Are Already Haunting the 2026 WSOP

Every single player at the first 2026 WSOP final table has zero bracelets, zero rings, and almost zero tracked earnings.

The event was WSOP Event #101, the $70 Mini Mystery Millions Landmark Mega Satellite at Horseshoe/Paris in Las Vegas. A $70 buy-in, a satellite structure, the lowest possible stakes on the summer schedule. And when the field collapsed from 54 players to a nine-handed final table on May 26, Charlotte's tracker flagged every single finalist as a ghost: no bracelets, no rings, no meaningful lifetime results in the database.

If you're playing 25kfantasy.com this summer, that pattern should be setting off alarms.

When the field collapsed from 54 players to a nine-handed final table on May 26, Charlotte's tracker flagged every single finalist as a ghost: no bracelets, no rings, no meaningful lifetime results in the database.

The Final Table, by the Numbers

Here's who made it:

• Kyle Strader (US): 0 bracelets, 0 rings, no tracked lifetime earnings
• Jared Henderson (US): 0 bracelets, 0 rings, no tracked lifetime earnings
• Ethan Hoang (US): 0 bracelets, 0 rings, $3,018 lifetime earnings (the highest on the rail)
• Fariborz Nessari (US): 0 bracelets, 0 rings, no tracked lifetime earnings
• Noah Thornton (US): 0 bracelets, 0 rings, no tracked lifetime earnings

Five more players filled the remaining seats. All ghosts.

The combined tracked earnings of the entire nine-player final table: $3,018. That is one player's single small cash. The other eight finalists have literally nothing in the database.

This Isn't Just a Micro-Stakes Fluke

Yes, Event #101 was a $70 satellite. You'd expect unknowns. The real concern for fantasy managers is that this ghost-finalist pattern has been repeating at the WSOP Circuit all year.

At WSOPC stops like Playground and Caesars New Orleans, Charlotte flagged final tables where the majority of players carried zero tracked credentials. Players like Saling Manayos (who appeared among the top stacks when Event #101 was still at 54 players, also with zero bracelets, zero rings, and no earnings) and Adam Brewster (flagged at the 27-player milestone with the same blank résumé) are not anomalies. They are the new normal.

The field data from Event #101 tells the story in three snapshots:

• 54 players remaining: All five named stacks had 0 bracelets, 0 rings, null earnings. Players included Saling Manayos (US), Simone Lipira (Italy), Riley Burgoon (US), Maxime Deshais (France), and Weifeng Wu (US).
• 27 players remaining: Same profile across the board. Adam Brewster, Deane Frankenberger, Brian Lam, Ren Xu (Canada), Armando Enrique Viramontes Serna. All zeroes.
• Final table (9 players): Still all zeroes. Not a single tracked credential among them.

From 54 to 9, the WSOP's own tracking system could not find a single bracelet, ring, or significant cash among any named player.

What Fantasy Managers Should Do About It

The buy-ins climb fast from here. The $500, $1,000, and $1,500 events will draw larger fields with more database-recognized pros. But if you're building rosters on 25kfantasy.com, the lesson from Event #101 and this year's WSOPC is clear:

Your scouting can't rely on résumé alone.

ODB projections and ownership percentages will anchor to known quantities. That's fine for chalk builds. But the edges in a salary-cap format live in the cracks between name recognition and actual table performance. When ghost finalists keep showing up at final tables across multiple series tiers, the players priced at near-minimum salary who actually run deep become enormous value.

A practical framework for the first full week of bracelet events:

• Track the satellites. Players who cash in the $70 and $200 sats and then fire the $500+ events are self-selecting for form.
• Flag the repeaters. A ghost who shows up at two final tables in the same WSOPC stop, or who satellite-wins into a bracelet event, is no longer truly unknown.
• Discount the zeroes less. A player with $3,018 in tracked earnings (like Ethan Hoang) might be the most experienced person at a final table full of blanks. That reframes his floor.

The ghosts are not going away. Build your roster accordingly.