Leo Margets – The Barcelona Pro Who Made WSOP History
Leo Margets has never fit the narrow picture of a tournament poker specialist. Her route to professional poker ran through Barcelona and London, with study and endurance shaping a career that never depended on table theatrics. Along the way she won a WSOP bracelet, wrote a book about decision-making, and tested herself on reality television. Then, in July 2025, she walked into the World Series of Poker Main Event final table as the first woman to do so in 30 years.
- In this article
- Highlights
- Beginnings
- Poker Career
- Net Worth
- Where Is He Today?
- FAQ
That run changed the scale of her story. Serious followers of the game respected her long before Las Vegas put her under its brightest light, but seventh place in a 9,735-entry Main Event made her visible well beyond the established poker audience. Her experience meant the result never felt like a novelty. It came out of a long career built on patience, fitness, emotional control, and the ability to stay present when the room starts pulling attention away from the cards.
Leo Margets Highlights
- Born in Barcelona on August 10, 1983.
- Finished 27th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $352,832 and became the last woman standing that year.
- Won her first WSOP bracelet in 2021 in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em The Closer event.
- Reached the 2025 WSOP Main Event final table, the first woman to do so since Barbara Enright in 1995.
- Finished seventh in the 2025 WSOP Main Event for $1,500,000, the largest Main Event score ever recorded by a woman.
- Built live tournament earnings above $3.6 million.
- Won the Spanish version of The Traitors in 2023 and competed on Supervivientes in 2014.
Those habits trace back further than poker. Margets was born on August 10, 1983, in Barcelona, and nothing about her early path suggested a casino character chasing quick money. She moved to London for university and graduated in Business Studies from the University of Roehampton, then took a year off to travel through South America and Australia before returning home to complete a master’s degree in Communication Business Management.
Her first professional stop was IMG, the sports management giant, where she worked in management and communications. That job shaped how she approaches poker – the way an athlete’s agent approaches a season, with preparation, routines, and a clear separation between performance and noise. She has run ten marathons and later trained in behavioral science with Paul Ekman International, the group best known for its work on reading facial expressions.
The timing of her biggest moment says as much as the résumé does. Margets was 41 when she reached the 2025 Main Event final table, so this was not a teenage breakout or a sudden online-era spike. It was a mature result from a player who had spent years learning how to manage pressure, fatigue, attention, and expectation.
Leo Margets Poker Career and the 2009 Breakthrough
The Leo Margets poker career began drawing serious attention in 2009, when she ran deep in the WSOP Main Event and finished 27th for $352,832. She became the last woman standing in the most-watched tournament in poker, at a time when televised coverage still shaped reputations quickly.
She did not fade into a one-summer story. Margets kept grinding live events across Europe, from the European Poker Tour to the Estrellas circuit and the Irish Open, while becoming one of Spain’s most recognizable poker personalities. Her style has never depended on table theatrics. She waits for the right pressure point, then acts with enough conviction to make the decision look simple. In 2018 she came within one spot of a bracelet, finishing runner-up to Denis Timofeev in the $1,000 Double Stack event.
The bracelet finally arrived in 2021, when she won the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em The Closer at the WSOP for $376,850, beating a field of 1,903 entries. The win gave her something every tournament player understands immediately: a permanent line in WSOP history, and it gave her career a second anchor beyond the 2009 run.
How the 2025 WSOP Main Event Changed Her Public Profile
The defining run came in July 2025. Leo Margets WSOP Main Event history now shows a seventh-place finish from a field of 9,735 players, worth $1,500,000. More importantly, she became the first woman since Barbara Enright in 1995 to reach the final table of poker’s world championship.
Nobody could write the result off as a feel-good story. Margets arrived with a bracelet already won, a previous deep Main Event run behind her, and enough career credibility to make the moment feel earned rather than decorative. Poker has produced plenty of last woman standing headlines over the years. This was bigger. She crossed a final-table line that had held for three decades.
The hand that ended her run was a genuine cooler. She called off her last 39.6 million chips with ace-ten against Kenny Hallaert’s pocket sixes, spiked an ace on the turn to take the lead, then watched the river complete Hallaert’s flush. It was not a quiet exit. She left the Horseshoe Event Center to a standing ovation, and Hallaert crossed the stage to console her before she had even gathered her things.
Her reaction afterward gave the result more depth. Margets spoke about the emotional aftershock, the size of the support she had gathered without realizing it, and the difficulty of returning to ordinary routine after nine days of total focus. That honesty showed the physical and mental cost behind a result most casual observers would reduce to prize money and a finishing position.
Books, Television, and Life Away from the Table
Margets has always carried more than one identity. Poker made her famous, but she has also written books, appeared on Spanish television, and built a public image around discipline rather than celebrity. Her 2017 book, Play Your Cards Well, treats decision-making as part of ordinary life, not only as a way to win pots, and she runs a consultancy that applies poker and elite-sport thinking to business.
Her reality television record says something about her personality too. Supervivientes in 2014 was not a perfect fit, because the format rewards exposure as much as strategy. The Traitors, which she won in Spain in 2023, made far more sense. A game built on deception, reading groups, withholding information, and managing pressure sits much closer to poker than most entertainment formats.
“I’ve enjoyed every single hand I’ve played. It’s been amazing.”
Leo Margets Net Worth
Leo Margets net worth is estimated at $4 million. Her live tournament earnings sit above $3.6 million, with the largest single result being the $1,500,000 she collected for seventh place in the 2025 WSOP Main Event.
The rest of the figure comes from a longer professional base. Her 2021 bracelet added $376,850 and her 2009 Main Event run paid $352,832, while sponsorship income, online poker, book royalties, television work, and corporate speaking add commercial layers beyond the tracked live results. The number fits a career that has run through several eras of professional poker without depending on any single score.
Where Is Leo Margets Today?
Margets entered 2026 with a far larger public profile and no sign of slowing down. Her tournament record shows fresh cashes through mid-2026, from WSOP Circuit stops to the summer series in Las Vegas, so the final table clearly did not close a chapter. It raised the stakes for the next one. She now stands as a bracelet winner, a Main Event finalist, and one of the clearest examples in poker of longevity mattering as much as early breakout talent.
FAQ
What Is Leo Margets’ Net Worth?
Leo Margets’ net worth is estimated at $4 million, supported by more than $3.6 million in live tournament earnings plus sponsorship, online poker, books, and media work.
How Old Is Leo Margets?
Leo Margets is 42 years old. She was born on August 10, 1983, in Barcelona.
What Is Leo Margets Best Known For?
She is best known for reaching the 2025 WSOP Main Event final table, becoming the first woman since Barbara Enright in 1995 to do so.
Has Leo Margets Won a WSOP Bracelet?
Yes. She won the 2021 WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em The Closer event for $376,850, beating 1,903 entries.
What Has Leo Margets Done Outside of Poker?
She wrote the 2017 book Play Your Cards Well, competed on Supervivientes in 2014, and won the Spanish version of The Traitors in 2023. She also runs a consultancy that applies poker thinking to business decision-making.