The Queen Of Concentration: Maria Lamprópulos A Force At The Poker Table

‘Focus’ seems to be the key word for Maria Lamprópulos when it comes to preparing for a big tournament. She enjoys a nice, relaxing shower, with music to add to the atmosphere. A cup of hot coffee is a must, a bit of caffeine giving her a jolt to get the betting and bluffing started.

Most importantly, she enters the day with a positive attitude, which makes being ready to engage in some chip battles a bit easier for Lamprópulos than some others.

“Before going to play I like to take my time,” Lamprópulos said. “I’m lucky that in general I wake up in a very good mood and it’s easier to start the day like this. I enjoy my life a lot and I feel thankful about it.”

That approach and mindset seems to be working, with Lamprópulos racking up more than $3.6 million in live tournament winnings. That’s good enough to just sneak inside the women’s all-time money list top 10 neck and neck with notables such as Loni Harwood, Kitty Kuo, Cherish Andrews, J.J. Liu, and Annette Obrestad.

Lamprópulos recently spoke with Card Player about her life in poker and some of the key traits that have helped her excel and score big wins.

Getting In The Game

Although she is Greek by heritage, Lamprópulos was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her father is a doctor, her mother is a teacher, and one of her brothers is an engineer in informatics while the other has a degree in business management. It’s no surprise that her family put a strong emphasis on education, and she followed through with a degree in business management from the University of Buenos Aires.

Growing up, Lamprópulos described herself as easygoing, but at the same time quite extroverted. She also competed in rhythmic gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, and hockey, perhaps giving her the stamina and the concentration needed to succeed at poker.

Card games have always interested Lamprópulos, having played at family gatherings since childhood. As she got older, poker was put into the mix. She began playing five-card draw with her brother and then learned the rules of no-limit hold’em.

When she started dating Ivan Lucá, a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and fellow Argentinian, she started playing more than just the family home game. Lamprópulos began jumping into small-stakes online tournaments and began to rail him while he played. That sped up her learning curve and it wasn’t long before she was beating the game herself.

The couple started traveling to events, with Lucá jumping into the big buy-in tournaments while encouraging her at the low stakes. It started with a win on the Latin American Poker Tour in Chile, taking down a $600 buy-in tournament  for $12,347. But then things got serious with a runner-up finish at the WPT National in Brussels for $75,020, and then another second-place showing at the Eureka Poker Tour in Rozvadov for $104,944, plus a fourth-place finish at the France Poker Series for another $59,782.

Seven-Figure Scores

Suddenly Lamprópulos had a bankroll, which would grow astronomically with a win at the 2017 PartyPoker Millions in Nottingham for a life-changing $1.3 million.

It wasn’t supposed to happen. Lamprópulos wasn’t actually planning to play in the main event. She had some friends and her brother over to visit the previous week and had not been getting much sleep. She tried a satellite, but an unfortunate turn of cards left her one spot short of the tournament entry.

“If I didn’t get in through the satellite, then my plan was to not play,” she told Card Player after the win. “I bubbled the satellite, losing after getting all-in preflop with pocket aces, so I was not going to play the main event. The next day was day one of the main event and I just rested, but registration was still open through the start of day two and Iván was trying to convince me to play it. I went to the casino to finally decide what to do, and everybody there was talking about how great the tournament was and that I should play it. I jumped in.”

Even the payout was bigger than it could have been when her opponent refused a chop during heads-up play.

“He didn’t want to make a deal,” she revealed at the time. “He was convinced that he could win. Perhaps because I am a woman and he didn’t want to deal with a woman, but I trusted in my game. I just thought, ‘Let’s play!”

A year later, Lamprópulos proved she wasn’t a fluke. She scored another $1.1 million for winning the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event. Not only did she top a big field, but the final table included the likes of Adrian Mateos (four WSOP bracelets, 2024 Card Player Player of the Year), Koray Aldemir (2021 WSOP main event champion), and Shawn Buchanan (WSOP bracelet winner, WPT champion).

“I would really have preferred not to have to compete versus them,” she admitted. Nevertheless, she got the job done, and in the process cemented her place as a force to be reckoned with on the tournament circuit.

Grinding The Circuit

Lamprópulos followed that up with a victory in an 888poker Barcelona event for $62,614. In 2019, she went deep at the WPT UK main event, finishing fifth for $98,500 and then another $100,000 score followed in 2020 at the PartyPoker Millions UK main event. She then grabbed a WSOP Circuit ring at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic in 2022.

Another victory came just last November, when she took down the PokerStars Live Women’s Winter Festival main event in London. The series turned out to be the biggest event in Europe for women, and Lamprópulos said she loved the atmosphere and was thankful to find the winner’s circle.

“The experience was amazing, even more than I expected,” she said. “I really enjoyed it. At the beginning, it was such a friendly atmosphere, good vibes. Later, during a deeper run, the environment turned more competitive and all of us were trying to give our best to win it. I’m so happy to have won this main event. There were some tough spots during the final table that I was able overcome and I’m proud that I didn’t lose my focus.”

Poker is more than a strategy game for Lamprópulos. She enjoys the social dynamics of the game, especially the relationships she’s built with fellow grinders traveling the circuit.

“Poker is a passion for me,” she said. “I find it so interesting and complex, especially playing live poker, the interaction between people at the table, dynamics, and behaviors. But I also get along so well with so many players from all over the world. You can’t imagine how many people I have met playing poker. It’s amazing! I travel by myself now, so I spend my time with different groups all the time, depending on the event.”

Lamprópulos considers herself more of a live tournament player, but occasionally plays online, depending on her schedule. Adding some more cash game play may also be on the horizon.

“I focus more on the live game and play online sometimes,” she said. “But traveling a lot makes it harder to play online. I have played cash games a few times, but I really would like to play more cash games in the future. More freedom, less variance. And one of the most important things I like about playing poker is the freedom you feel.”

The Key To Her Success

Lamprópulos lists patience and focus as two of her best traits that translate well to the table. She has a real ability to zero in on the game and opponents for long periods of time, setting distractions and emotions aside.

When it comes to getting in the tournament action, the poker champ offered a bit of advice to stay focused and avoid undisciplined play that might be costly over time.

“Especially playing tournaments, poker could be considered more as an emotional challenge than an intellectual challenge,” she said. “Resilience is the key to success.”

Away from the game, dancing is a big part of her routine and helps her stay in shape. She also enjoys reading about psychology, traveling, and getting to know and experience different cultures.

She would love to see more women at the tables and more women’s events at series around the world in general, like the event she won in November, noting that “many women feel more comfortable playing between each other.”

While you might think that moving up the women’s all-time money list would be among her goals, Lamprópulos says she doesn’t think about it too much.

“I don’t think about anything specific,” she says of her goals. “I would like to improve as much as I can and try to be the best version of myself, and enjoy every moment of my life in general. Poker gives me a lot of satisfaction and I feel so grateful about it.”

“A bracelet would be the cherry on top, though.”

• Photos by PokerStars