Leo Margets: Focus, Balance, And Perspective

At the highest levels of performance and competition, the very best players step up and ‘lock in’ when the moment gets big.

‘Locking in’ manifests in many ways, depending on the environment and conditions, but there are common themes. It often comes down to tunnel vision, shutting out all distractions to hyperfocus on a rare opportunity for greatness.

For Leo Margets, it happened on day 6 of the 2025 World Series of Poker main event. On the cusp of her 42nd birthday, the Spanish poker pro found herself in a familiar position. Sixteen years prior, Margets reached day 8 of the 2009 WSOP main event. That brought her to the final three tables before she bowed out in 27th place. Back then, she wasn’t even sure how big a role poker would play in her future.

Margets is in a drastically different place in her life and career in 2025. She’s now a WSOP bracelet winner and a successful, long-time sponsored pro for one of the biggest online poker sites in Europe, Winamax.

This time around, she was prepared. She knew how bright the lights would be and how to handle the extra attention, especially as the last woman in the field. There was a tremendous outpouring of support through social media, to be sure. But there was also an added external pressure to do what no woman had done since 1995 – make the WSOP main event final table.

A Place In Poker History

And so, with a second bite at the apple, Margets locked in. She focused on everything she could control at the table, and blocked out as much of the outside noise as she could.

“I was super disconnected with what was happening while I was in Vegas, which ended up being very good for me,” said Margets. “After day 6, I switched off my phone, not entirely, but I was not getting onto social networks. I was hardly answering messages, because I was so focused. I knew that was going to be better for me.”

Her run continued through day 7, officially pushing Margets the furthest she’d been in the WSOP main event. One day of poker separated her from poker’s promised land, and her own personal chunk of poker history. The drum beat of support grew louder on both the virtual and physical rail, and every poker media outlet covering the event was well aware of what was at stake.

But with the exception of a small group of friendly and familiar faces, Margets kept the circle tight. She says their love and support played a key part in feeling grounded.

“I was lucky enough to have my rail there,” said Margets. “Not just poker buddies, but true friends in my life. After day 6 or 7, they stopped playing anything else themselves, and they were just there for me, all day. Sharing that with them amplified the experience so much. I think we all have people in our lives that love us, but it’s not guaranteed that life is going to put us in a spot where the people that love us can show their love and support so deeply.”

The Final Table

By the end of day 8, it was clear that Margets’ choices were paying off. She’d made the final table, joining Barbara Enright (in 1995) as the only two women to ever accomplish the feat. Margets had also locked up a seven-figure payday, far and away her best live result. An opportunity at $10 million and the most coveted title in poker sat tantalizingly close, within Margets’ reach.

The messages of support became a deluge, and the excitement of the poker world spilled over. But Margets’ blinders held strong as she dreamed of finishing the job, and winning the whole damn thing. That’s not to say that Margets was unaware of her surroundings beyond her immediate circle. In every idle moment, she was taking in the energy of the room.

“It was the most amazing experience of my life,” Margets said. “Not just professionally, but overall, because of the intensity of everything I lived through. I could feel the support there, just walking around at Paris, whenever someone crossed my path.”

The dream ended in seventh place, in one dramatic runout. In a battle of the blinds, Margets limp-called off her stack with A♥10♥, and faced off against Kenny Hallaert’s 6♥6♠. The J♥7♠5♠ flop was clean for Hallaert, but the assembled crowd erupted as the A♠ landed on the turn. It wasn’t just Margets’ friends and family, but the otherwise neutral audience members as well. As popular as Hallaert is on the circuit, nobody wanted to see Margets go.

Margets was one card away from a double-up that would have had her in the thick of things with seven players left, but the 9♠ on the river gave Hallaert a flush.

The End

“I didn’t see it, but my friends told me that when the spade hit the river. The whole room was crazy, shouting,” said Margets. “And, I mean, that is so nice, right? While all of this was happening, I could feel people rooting for me. Feeling the vibe that they want you to do well, it was very nice.”

She settled for seventh place, and $1.5 million. Coincidentally, A♥10♥ was a key hand in the end of Margets’ first deep WSOP main event run as well, held by Warren Zackey when he eliminated Margets back in 2009.

In the moments after she walked away from the set in 2025, a lot of thoughts and emotions hit her all at once. And there was the inevitable exhaustion. It was a surreal, double-edged experience. Margets became aware of just how many supporters she had unknowingly gathered along the way, all the while experiencing the physical and psychological aftermath of nine straight days of increasingly intense poker.

“I wasn’t that aware of how big the whole buzz about my deep run was, beyond that room,” said Margets. “And then, the whole adventure was over, and I started to become more aware of the impact. Obviously, you are in an incredible spot when you are at the final table. I wish I had been able to go a bit farther, but fortunately, I had no regrets. It was strange, because I was super happy.”

The Come Down

“And then all of a sudden, I couldn’t find myself,” Margets continued. “I felt an emotional hangover. I was getting a lot of attention and interview requests, and it made me happy to remember and describe my experience. But at the same time, I felt like I also needed to disconnect from it.”

Margets is a creature of habit when she steps out of the poker spotlight, but she found it incredibly difficult to do even the most simple of tasks after returning home.

“I usually like my routine a lot, and all of a sudden I went back home and everything was hard,” said Margets. ‘I think there’s probably a physiological explanation. You are so high on dopamine for 10 days, and the goals are so clear. You just need to focus on one thing, which is play every hand the best you can, and then all of a sudden, it’s over.”

“I love training, and it was hard; I love reading, and it was hard,” said Margets. “I was not even enjoying chatting to people. Eventually, I gave myself license to be like this for a little while. I let myself experience this kind of emptiness that you feel after you’ve been ultra-hyper focused on one goal. And after a few weeks, it’s getting better.”

With the fog slowly lifting, Margets has largely returned to her regular day-to-day. For most people who make the WSOP main event final table, the money offers an opportunity to reshape a career.

A Massive Success, By Any Measure

Had this final table run happened earlier on in her career, it may have altered the course of Margets’ life or career. But at this point, the result and the cash that comes with it are simply a luxury. A chance to build upon a solid foundation that Margets has already established.

“I think I’m very lucky, because it was a good amount of money, but my life is the same,” said Margets. “There is nothing I was not doing that I’m going to do now. It is what it is. I don’t need much to be super happy and to have the life I want.”

Even if she’d never made a second WSOP main event run, Margets already positioned herself well within poker. Margets is a member of the Spanish Poker Hall of Fame, and her sponsorship agreement with Winamax sits at seven-and-a-half years, to date. In terms of her growth, Margets lays a significant amount of credit to the work she’s been able to do within that organization.

“Having a sponsor in this world is a luxury,” said Margets. “It’s not that they give me a present with no strings. When a brand sponsors someone, it’s because they think it’s worth it. But poker is such a lonely skill game, and I think it would be accurate to say that with Winamax, it feels so much like a family. I don’t want to ever change that. I probably should not say that, because my potential to negotiate will decrease. But they know already.”

“We are a real team,” she added. “Every time one of us has a deep run, we support each other. It’s incredible being able to chat and see different ways of thinking from some of the best players in the world.”

Fulfilling Interests Beyond Poker

While Margets plays a significant amount of poker every year, the flexibility that being a poker pro allows her to have is also crucial to how she balances her life. But Margets has also had the chance to take some big swings. She’s wrote a book (Play Your Cards Well, 2017), and starred in two separate reality competition shows in Spain.

The first, Supervivientes, the Spanish version of Survivor, didn’t work out so well in 2014.

“In Spain, Survivor airs on a channel that is all about gossip and stuff,” said Margets. “I did it, and I played horribly. I went there thinking I wanted to win. But then I realized that if you wanted to win, you had to share a lot of intimate life stuff, content, and things that I was not going to do. Could have played better, but I learned a lot.”

A decade later, Margets found redemption in a show and format that played far better to her strengths – The Traitors.

“I did Traitors, and that was the best show in the world. That was my show,” said Margets. “I had the time of my life. I think any poker player can thrive in Traitors. It’s basically like playing [the game] Werewolf in real life for 12 days.”

Margets won that first season of The Traitors in Spain, along with her teammate, Joana Pastrana Gallardo.

What Comes Next In Poker

While any future TV appearances beyond poker remain a possibility, there’s no doubt as to what Margets brings to the table in primary profession. She has over $3.3 million in career tournament earnings since breaking onto the scene in 2009. She proved herself more than capable of competing against some of the best tournament poker players in the world.

With this newfound $1.5 million windfall, some players might take it as a sign to step up the buy-in and level of competition to test themselves. But as in most other aspects of her life, Margets has a healthy perspective of where she stands, and where she wants to be.

“I’m not going to play a lot higher,” said Margets. “I don’t intend to just jump into Triton or anything like that. This is a nice bankroll addition, but we are all in poker for different reasons. I’m super competitive, but the main reason I love poker is because it gives me freedom. I’ve found a way to integrate poker in my life, to use poker so that I can have the life I want. I know that if I wanted to play something bigger, I would have to put an unbelievable amount of time into my game to be competitive against those fields.”

“Something itches inside, because I am competitive, and a part of me would like to do that,” Margets continued. “But realistically, I like my life the way it is now. I found an equilibrium where I put enough time in that I feel I am responsible enough with my level of competition and the amount of poker I play.”

Last Woman Standing – WSOP Main Event

Although the first WSOP was held in 1970, it wasn’t until 1978 that Barbara Freer broke the gender barrier. She was eventually joined by fellow pioneers Betty Carey and Colette Doherty, but it wasn’t until Wendeen Eolis in 1986 when a woman first made the money.

While Margets joined Barbara Enright as the second woman to make a WSOP main event final table, four women finished exactly 10th.

Photo credits: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.