Leo Margets became the first female player to win an open event at the 2021 World Series of Poker Sunday night at the Rio. The 38-year-old Spanish pro defeated a massive 1,903-entry field in one of the final events of the series, the $1,500 no-limit hold ‘em dubbed ‘The Closer.’ She bested Alex Kulev heads-up and topped a final table that featured bracelet winner Stephen Song , east coast grinder Cherish Andrews , and the recent addition to the Americas Cardroom team of pros, online poker legend Chris Moorman .
It was the first bracelet for the Winamax team pro and she took home $376,850 for her efforts. The score was the largest of her career, topping her 2009 WSOP main event 27th place finish for $353,832, and bumping her career total to $1.45 million.
“Usually, it’s going to be harder for a woman to get a bracelet because we [make up less of the field],” Margets told WSOP live reporters after her victory. She went on to say that she hoped her victory could spark the interest of more women to play the game.
Three years ago, at the 2018 WSOP , Margets fell just shy of a bracelet win after a runner-up finish in the $1,000 no-limit hold ’em double stack with 30-minute levels. When she started heads-up play with Kulev, it looked likely that she would earn another second-place finish when the Bosnian held a 5.5-1 chip lead over the Barcelona native.
“He had a massive chip lead,” Margets said of the chip disparity. “He actually did all the hard work.”
And ultimately a misclick early on in the match against Kulev, Margets was three outs away from a repeat of 2018. She got all in with 9-4 against Kulev’s A-9 but drilled a four on the turn to stay alive. Margets told media after the tournament that she miscounted her stack and thought she somehow had 2.5 big blinds instead of the seven she actually possessed.
Like Margets alluded to, Kulev dominated the final table. He came into the unofficial 10-handed final table with the chip lead, scored the majority of […]
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