Women in Poker 2025: From Leo Margets’ WSOP Breakthrough to the WPT® Ladies Championship

Key Takeaways

• Leo Margets made history as the first woman in 30 years to reach the WSOP Main Event final table, earning $1.5 million and signalling a breakthrough moment for women in poker.
• Participation is climbing fast: the 2025 WPF Ladies Weekend drew 1,500+ women across nine countries, and women’s entries at the Irish Open jumped 20% year over year.
• Top female players such as Kristen Foxen, Maria Ho, Vanessa Kade, and WPT® Global Ambassador Andressa Lincoln are consistently cashing in elite global events.
• The upcoming WPT® Ladies Championship at Wynn Las Vegas (Dec 13–14, $1,100 buy-in, $250K guarantee) stands as the next central stage for women’s poker in 2025.
• With record participation, strong results, and new flagship events, 2025 marks a defining year where women’s poker moves from “hope” to “happening.”

The 30-Year Gap Ends — What Margets’ Run Signals

Leo Margets’ deep run at the Main Event was a historic moment, alongside the 2025 Main Event attracting 9,735 entries at a $10,000 buy-in.

With her 7th place finish, she earned $1,500,000, and became only the second woman ever to reach the final table (after Barbara Enright’s 5th-place in 1995).

Her stacking into the final nine carried symbolic weight. It’s now a marker the game’s top level is now open. 

Luana Borges, President of the WPF Women’s Committee, summed it up: 

“For the first time in three decades, a woman sat at the WSOP Main Event final table.”

That breakthrough matters because it aligns with performance and participation shifts. When elite players cross the threshold it expands what is seen as possible.

Participation Is Rising

Signs of increasing female involvement appear in multiple metrics:

Global Pipeline: Women-Only Events

The 2025 WPF Ladies Weekend became the first women’s poker festival held simultaneously across nine countries. Over one weekend, more than 1,500 women played 2,200 entries, from São Paulo to the Philippines, marking a historic global showcase of female participation.

Brazil hosted one of the largest fields at São Paulo’s H2 Club, where 500 players generated 900 entries and doubled the guarantee. Thaís Salzer won the R$450 Main Event for R$30,000, defeating Larissa Bento (R$21,000) and Paula Katrynne (R$16,000).

Across the U.S., nearly 700 players joined, with strong turnouts in Texas and Nevada. 

Belgium and Taiwan added 300 and 120 entries, respectively. High-profile guests included Shiina Okamoto (two-time WSOP Ladies Champion), Lauriê Tournier (PokerStars Team Pro), and Kasey Mills (multi-time WSOP Circuit winner).

Live Festival Growth

In broader live-festival data, the Irish Open reported a women’s entry jump of +116% YoY in 2024, then another +20% in 2025.

This data from the Irish Open indicates pure growth: more women are playing live open-field events, not only women-restricted tournaments.

As the field deepens, the pipeline to televised final tables improves, which is exactly the environment Margets just leveraged. Though online casinos are adjacent rather than poker-specific, women account for up to ~40% of online gamblers in several markets, a tailwind for broader gaming engagement.

Elite Results in 2025: Women Delivering in Big Fields

While participation is on the rise, performance has been too. Top-tier women are now consistently finishing deep in elite fields.

• Kristen Foxen took 3rd place in the Triton Jeju $125K NLH 7‑Max (Sept 2025) for US$1.104 million.
• She cashed 2nd in the Poker Masters #9 $15.7K NLH (Oct 2025) for US$196,000.

These results show the elite tier is no longer an outlier for women, they are present, visible,  and succeeding.

Beyond Foxen: players like Maria Ho, Vanessa Kade and our ambassador at WPT® Global Andressa Lincoln, maintain consistent, high-volume tour results, amplifying the message that women are active across markets, buy-ins and geographies. 

Andressa Lincoln, WPT® Global Ambassador, has achieved some impressive results as a live and online poker player

December Spotlight — WPT® Ladies Championship at Wynn

As the summer narrative builds, the next milestone is December’s WPT® Ladies Championship in Las Vegas. 

This accessible buy-in opens the door for ambitious players of varied bankrolls. The guarantee signals serious legitimacy.

Positioning the event this way strengthens brand alignment: after the summer’s breakthrough, the locals get their shot, the scene deepens, the momentum continues in a major brand festival.

Key Numbers

What It All Means

For those of us following poker’s evolution closely, 2025 already looks like a hinge year. 

It feels like the next generation of women players isn’t waiting for permission; they’re already taking seats at the table.

The Margets moment was the spark. The participation data gave the fuel. The elite results show early ignition. And the December event represents the next gear.

For women in poker, this calendar year may mark the transition from “hope” to “happening”. When representation, pipeline and performance align, the narrative changes.

If you are a player, someone who supports women in the game, or just tracking poker’s evolution, mark Dec 13-14. It’s more than another Ladies' event. It may well be the next step in a promising trajectory for women’s poker, and for the game as a whole.

Updated 5 November 2025