People have been wondering why we have been focusing so much on the all-time money leaders in the world of poker. The reason is that this is the way that we keep score in this endeavor. Sure, you can also go by the number of World Series of Poker bracelets won, or World Poker Tour or European Poker Tour final tables, but that isn’t quite as indicative of long-term success. That is why, over the past couple of months, we have been looking at the all-time money leaders in every state in the U.S. and the provinces of Canada.
But there is one breakdown we have not done yet…female poker players. Approximately four percent of the field at the 2025 WSOP Main Event was female and, for the first time in thirty years, a woman reached the final table of the tournament, Leo Margets. After picking up $1.5 million for her seventh-place finish, we here at Poker News Daily began to wonder…does that put Margets in the Top Ten for women? Come with us as we answer that question and perhaps some history elsewhere on the rankings that could happen quite soon.
Under the Radar Players in Bottom Five
To answer the big question up front, no…Leo Margets did not get into the Top Ten of the all-time money leaders among women. She would come up just short of the mark, landing in thirteenth place behind Hui Chen ‘Kitty’ Kuo (twelfth place) and JJ Liu (eleventh) with her $3,590,705 in career earnings. Considering that before the 2025 WSOP Main Event, Margets wasn’t even in the Top 25, we should at some point see Margets move into the Top Ten, however.
That does not mean there aren’t some surprises at the top of the ladder.
The only woman to ever win the (now defunct) PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, Maria Lampropulos, has a four-THOUSAND-dollar lead over Liu for the tenth-place slot on the all-time list. The Greek superstar had a decent WSOP but didn’t make any final tables during her stay in Las Vegas. She did add to her resume, though, moving up to $3,885,265 in career earnings.
A “blast from the past” is still remembered in the #9 slot on the leaderboard. Annette ‘Annette_15’ Obrestad, the Norwegian wunderkind who shocked the poker world in winning the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event back in 2007, put together enough of a resume in her eleven-year career (that’s right…she hasn’t cashed in a tournament since 2018) to remain in the Top Ten. Her $3,942,232 is in danger of being passed by several women so, without a cash in a tournament, Obrestad’s time in poker will fall by the wayside.
One of the most consistent poker players in the business lands in the #8 spot for the all-time money leaders amongst women. Loni Hui (née Harwood) has consistently been in the mix of the tournament poker world since 2008 and, unlike Obrestad, retirement doesn’t seem to be anywhere on her horizon. Over six cashes at the 2025 WSOP, Hui (a two-time WSOP bracelet winner) was able to tack on about $73K to her bankroll, putting her in eighth place overall with $4,063,348 in career earnings.
Some Controversy on the List?
Our next entry on the women’s all-time money leaders list is going to be a controversial one. Annie Duke was one of the most popular poker players two decades ago during the “Golden Age” of poker, torturing none other than Phil Hellmuth in the WSOP Tournament of Champions when it was revived in 2004. That was not the only claim to fame for Duke, however.
Many might forget that Duke was also a WSOP bracelet winner (2004, Omaha Hi/Lo Eights or Better) and, in 2010, defeated Erik Seidel in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship to win the title. While those achievements were noteworthy, Duke has been beset by several controversies in her poker career (the Ultimate Bet fiasco and the fall of the Epic Poker League, just to name two) that drove her away from the game. Still, Duke amassed $4,270,548 in her career, and she won another tournament at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles in July of this year…is a comeback on the way?
In sixth place on the list is a player that, to be honest, I had never heard of until December of last year. While Sosia Jiang has had a decorated decade-plus career, it has mostly been online and overseas, as with her victory at the WSOP Paradise last year. In that tournament, Jiang finished in eighth place for her largest-ever tournament score of $1.605 million; not like Jiang’s career before that had been middling, but the payday catapulted her to $4,737,237 in her career and a spot just off the Top Five.
The Top Five? We are going to get into those players in the concluding part of this listing. What we will find there are two things. All the players have earnings over five million dollars, and we could see a change atop the list in the near future!
The post Who Are the Top Ten All-Time Money Leaders Among Female Players, Part One appeared first on Poker News Daily.
About The Author
