Last Woman Standing at the WSOP Main Event

Barbara Enright

Here's every Last Woman Standing and runner-up among those who cashed.¹

The "Last Woman Standing" title is traditionally bestowed only if the player has made the money. It's really "Last Woman Sitting", but "Last Woman Standing" is more idiomatic, playing off the phrase "last man standing", whose origin is unknown.
Note: The "%" columns show the percent of the field remaining.

Last Woman Standing at the WSOP Main Event

Year	Last Woman	Place	Prize	%	Runner-Up	Place	Prize	%
1986	Wendeen Eolis	25	$10,000	17.7%			$0
1993	Marsha Waggoner	19	$12,000	8.6%	Wendeen Eolis	20	$12,000	9.1%
1994	Barbara Samuelson	10	$26,880	3.7%	Annie Duke	26	$16,000	9.7%
1995	Barbara Enright	5	$114,180	1.8%			$0
1996	Lucy Rokach	26	$19,500	8.8%			$0
1997	Marsha Waggoner	12	$33,920	3.8%			$0
1998	Susie Isaacs	10	$40,000	2.9%	Kathy Liebert	17	$30,000	4.9%
2000	Annie Duke	10	$52,160	2.0%	Kathy Liebert	17	$39,120	3.3%
2003	Annie Duke	47	$20,000	5.6%			$0
2004	Rose Richie	98	$20,000	3.8%	Lucy Rokach	159	$15,000	6.2%
2005	Tiffany Williamson	15	$400,000	0.3%	Sarah Bilney	63	$145,875	1.1%
2006	Sabyl Cohen-Landrum	56	$123,699	0.6%	Annie Duke	88	$51,129	1.0%
2007	Maria Ho	38	$237,865	0.6%	Kelly Jo McGlothlin	95	$67,535	1.5%
2008	Tiffany Michelle	17	$334,534	0.2%	Lisa Parsons	76	$77,200	1.1%
2009	Leo Margets	27	$352,832	0.4%	Nichoel Peppe	75	$68,979	1.2%
2010	Breeze Zuckerman	121	$57,102	1.7%	Dorothy Von Sachsen	273	$41,967	3.7%
2011	Erika Moutinho	29	$242,636	0.4%	Amanda Musumeci	62	$130,997	0.9%
2012	Gaelle Baumann	10	$590,442	0.2%	Elisabeth Hille	11	$590,442	0.2%
2013	Jackie Glazier	31	$229,281	0.5%	Beverly Lange	86	$71,053	1.4%
2014	Maria Ho	77	$85,812	1.2%	Mikiyo Aoki	83	$72,369	1.2%
2015	Kelly Minkin	29	$211,821	0.5%	Diana Svensk	83	$68,624	1.3%
2016	Gaelle Baumann	102	$49,108	1.5%	Melanie Weisner	127	$49,108	1.9%
2017	Yuan-Yuan Li	105	$53,247	1.5%	Jessica Ngu	108	$53,247	1.5%
2018	Kelly Minkin	50	$156,265	0.6%	Natalie Teh	120	$57,010	1.5%
2019	Jill Bryant	116	$59,295	1.4%	Sandra Postelwait	173	$50,855	2.0%
2020	Maria Ho	43	$35,194	3.1%	Liyingxue Ji	96	$22,334	7.0%
2021	Dragana Lim	64	$95,700	1.0%	Fatima Nanji	90	$68,900	1.4%
2022	Efthymia Litsou	18	$323,100	0.2%	Shelby Wells	97	$73,100	1.1%
2023	Estelle Cohuet	68	$130,300	0.7%	Nikita Luther	96	$78,900	1.0%
2024	Kristen Foxen	13	$600,000	0.1%	Shundan Xiao	28	$300,000	0.3%

Notes:

No women played in the World Series of Poker Main Event until Barbara Freer broke the ice in 1978.

In 1979, Betty Carey joined and outlasted Freer.

The 1980 Main Event set a record for the highest percentage of women with 4.1% (3 of 73) as Colette Doherty also played.

Wendeen Eolis became the first woman to cash when they went from paying only 9 players out of 140 in 1985 to 36 of 141 in 1986, although she only won her entry fee back. A drought of six years followed until 1993 when Eolis became the first woman to cash twice, and Waggoner also made the money, albeit for just $12,000 each.

In 1983, Barbara Freer was the unofficial Last Woman Standing but only placed 60th of 108 (Betty Carey was 82nd).

In 1984, Cyndy Violette outlasted every other woman and about two-thirds of the field but didn't cash.

Enright and Isaacs both won the Ladies World Championship (in Seven-Card Stud) the year before they were the Last Woman Standing, and it was the second title for each (having won in 1986 and 1996, respectively).

No women cashed in 1999, 2001, or 2002, the last year that will ever happen.

In 2011 Erika Moutinho outlasted her then-boyfriend Doc Sands by one spot. They got married two years later.

The 2013 Main Event had the highest percentage of women in history at 4.7% (298 out of 6,352).

In 2020, Maria Ho finished 22nd in the U.S. section, and Liyingxue Ji finished 49th. Their listed finishes are approximate after combining the U.S. and International sections.

Maria Ho (2007, 2014, & 2020) is the only three-time Last Woman Standing champion. Marsha Waggoner (1993 & 1997), Annie Duke (2000 & 2003 plus two runners-up finishes), Gaelle Baumann (2012 & 2016), and Kelly Minkin (2015 & 2018) have each reigned twice.