Leo Margets Makes History as 2025 WSOP Main Event Final Table Kicks Off

^{The 2025 WSOP Main Event final table is set, featuring Leo Margets (center), the first woman in 30 years to reach poker’s biggest stage, alongside a stacked international lineup competing for $10 million. (Photo: WSOP)}

LAS VEGAS -- The final table is set at the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event, and it's one for the history books. Spain’s Leonor Margets has become the first woman in three decades to reach the most prestigious final table in poker, joining a stacked group that includes four-time Poker Players Championship winner Michael Mizrachi, Belgian veteran Kenny Hallaert, and American high-stakes pro Adam Hendrix.

At stake is poker’s biggest prize: $10 million and the title of World Champion, to be decided over two final days of play beginning Tuesday night at the Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. There's also a pretty sweet bracelet to boot. 

Margets’ run is historic. Only one woman has ever reached the Main Event final table -- Barbara Enright in 1995 -- and while several others have made deep runs since, none have cracked the top nine until now. Margets, who was also the “last woman standing” back in 2009, outlasted a field of 9,735 players to punch her ticket to poker’s biggest stage.

Joining her are some of the most accomplished names in the game. Mizrachi, aka "The Grinder," earlier this Series won poker’s most difficult challenge, the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship for his fourth time. This future hall of famer had been lurking for most of the Main Event before making a stirring run in Day Eight to arrive at his first WSOP Main Event final table. 

Hallaert, a former November Niner from 2016, returns to the final table after leading much of the way in the late stages of the tournament before the final table. 

Add in Hendrix, and the final table of the 2025 WSOP Main Event is looking to be one of the best in history.

Final Table Chip Counts

There is going to be plenty of play left in this final table, as even the short stack Minghini, started the day with 15 big blinds, meaning he wouldn't have to go bonkers the first time he saw an ace. He faces a tough task, however, starting on the button with Margets and Hallaert in the small and big blinds, respectively. (They are not going to let him build a stack unless he earns it.) 

Play resumes with a plan to play down to the final four Tuesday night, with the champion to be crowned Wednesday.

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A Side of Chaos: Kassouf’s Final Act

This year’s Main Event wasn’t all pristine poker. Much of the attention during the late stages was pulled toward British pro William Kassouf, whose polarizing table talk escalated into full-blown controversy before he was ejected and suspended by WSOP officials.

Kassouf, long known for his verbal tactics and needling behavior, crossed several lines during the tournament. His nonstop chatter -- sometimes aimed at women, foreigners, or fellow players -- drew multiple penalties. He called one opponent a “prick,” then later referred to the entire table as “little bitches,” earning back-to-back one-round penalties. Eventually, after busting in 33rd place for $300,000, Kassouf was escorted away by Caesars security and told he was suspended from all remaining 2025 WSOP events.

WSOP officials are now under pressure to address table conduct more explicitly, whether through shot clocks, stricter speaking rules, or even outright bans for repeat offenders like Kassouf and Martin Kabrhel.

Bracelets and Big Numbers

This year’s WSOP has been one of the most competitive in recent memory. Alongside Margets' trailblazing run, several legends added to their legacies: Nick Schulman, Brian Rast, Shaun Deeb, and Michael Mizrachi each won their seventh career bracelets, while the UK’s Benny Glaser claimed three titles this summer to push his total to eight.

The 2025 Main Event itself was the third-largest in history, with 9,735 players generating a $90.5 million prize pool (paying out 1,461). That field was built from four Day 1s and a flood of late entries in the Day 2 sessions.

Now, just nine players remain. 

And with Leo Margets among them, the 2025 WSOP Main Event may end not with chaos, but with a more memorable dose of history.