Leonor Margets

Born Leonor Margets in Barcelona, Spain, Leo is fast becoming a well-known name in the world of professional poker. Margets worked for IMG, an International talent agency and production company. She then became marketing manager for 888.com, an online casino.

Margets also enjoys sports, particularly athletics and she has run three marathons. Leo Margets has grown from an amateur poker player to a professional within a short amount of time and her most recent win may be a sign of what we have to look forward to.

Poker Background

Margets has been playing poker for the past four years and in 2009 entered her first major poker event – the World Series of Poker (WSOP). She came to Las Vegas, sponsored by 888.com, to play in a few of the preliminary events, despite the fact that she did not have any major wins under her belt. With a bit of persuasion, she managed to convince 888.com to send her back for the Main Event. She reports promising that she "would crush it." Neither she nor 888.com will ever regret that decision as she went on to be the last woman standing!

In 2008, Margets won the University Poker Championship and it was thanks to this win that she was noticed by 888.com who decided to sponsor her in national tournaments. She won $8,570 in this event. In May 2008, she won $2271. In April 2009 she won $3571 and in June 2009, she won $912. These were all in European tournaments. Since her 2009 WSOP success, she has won $15,678 for 6th place in a $1,500 no limit hold'em (Full Tilt Series).

25 years old, Margets began playing poker by accident in 2005. Out for the night, Margets asked a guy if he wanted to go for a drink and when he refused because he wanted to go and play poker, she asked if she could join. She found that she quite liked the game and starting looking into it more – reading up on it, learning as much as possible and playing with people who knew the game. She has been playing ever since.

Poker Career

In 2009, playing in her first ever major event, Margets won the title of the last women standing in the WSOP Main Event - $10,000 no limit hold'em event. Her stack of 3,410,000 chips in front of her helped win the "last Woman Standing" cup and put her in league with great names in women's poker such as Annie Duke, Barbara Enright, Marsha Waggoner and Susie Isaacs. The cup that she won is gold and engraved with the names of all the "last women standing" since 1986. It is awarded by wickedchopspoker.com. She finished up in 27th place to win $352,832.

A Woman in Poker

Leo Margets claims that the fact that she is a woman makes no difference to her game, as she says that once the cards are dealt it does not matter if you are a woman or not – you just play to do your personal best.