New Rising Star In The Poker World

MSNBC news by Andrew Scott March 16, 2025

Who was the last woman standing in the World Series of Poker main event this year. Maria Ho, 24 year old, claimed $237,865 prize money for her 38th place finish, having competed against 6,358 starters this year. She now has bragging rights for the next year as the female World Champion of Poker.

Maria comes from the Los Angeles area, having been born in Taiwan. She enjoys many of the same things that other attractive girls do, dancing, singing, hanging out with friends. In one way though, Maria is quite different in that she is exceptionally adept with cards, as are other members of her family. Two years ago she turned pro poker and plays most of her games at the Commerce Casino which is the biggest card room in the world. She has played in approximately 20 card rooms throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, and Aruba. She definitely prefer playing live rather than online, as she feels one of her great strengths is her ability to read other players.

Maria has played for high stakes in cash games with her biggest win in a day being $42,000. She admit to some huge losses also. Maria usually plays the $100/$200 game. Since she is a cash game player, she usually avoids tournaments.

Maria's 38th place result, which beat 99.4% of the field, has given her overnight recognition, and it didn't hurt that she was the only female left at that time. Maria says she doesn't want the recognition as a woman, but would rather be known as a good player. She acknowledges having more confidence about her game, and having others see how she has improved.

Maria has decided she now wants to play more tournaments with the goal of getting better and better. She sees it as an opportunity to travel. The negatives she recognizes are an unstable income, sleepless nights, and inability to follow through with committments with friends sometimes. But she also states that it's a price that must be paid to be able to play a game she enjoys so much.

Maria says that chances that she will be playing poker online in 5 years is less than five percent. She's interested eventually in getting into real estate and trying her entrepreneurial interests.