Poker has a way of sorting people out. You sit at a table long enough, and the cards will find whatever weakness you carry. The women on this list sat at those tables for years, sometimes decades, against fields that were overwhelmingly male, and they won. Not occasionally. Repeatedly. Their names appear on final table results, on bracelet counts, and on earnings lists that would rank them among the best players of any gender. This is a record of who they are and what they did.
Some of the most accomplished female poker players include Kristen Foxen, Vanessa Selbst, Barbara Enright, Leo Margets, Xuan Liu, and Kathy Liebert. Their achievements span different eras of the game, but their results continue to place them among the most successful competitors in poker history.
Kristen Foxen and the Top of the Earnings List
Kristen Foxen holds the top position on the Women’s All-Time Money List with over $13.3 million in live earnings as of January 2026. She passed Vanessa Selbst’s previous record of $11,928,958, and she did so while accumulating a record 5 WSOP bracelets among women. In 2025, she won her 5th GPI Female Player of the Year title, finishing more than 700 points ahead of runner-up Cherish Andrews. The year before that, she was inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.
What separates Foxen from the rest of the field is consistency. Winning a single large tournament can push anyone up an earnings list. Winning across years, formats, and buy-in levels is a different thing entirely. Her results suggest a player who performs well under pressure and adapts to the table conditions in front of her.
What the Money List Actually Tells Us
Lifetime earnings offer a useful but incomplete picture of ability. Kristen Foxen and Vanessa Selbst are the only women above $10 million, and Kathy Liebert follows with over $7.1 million. These numbers separate them from the rest of the field, but they also reflect longevity and volume of play as much as raw skill.
Comparing poker players by earnings alone leaves out those who competed in fewer events or played in eras with smaller prize pools. Barbara Enright’s 1995 run, for instance, came when payouts were a fraction of what Foxen and Selbst have collected across their careers.
Vanessa Selbst
With nearly $12 million in live tournament earnings and 3 WSOP bracelets, Vanessa Selbst built one of the most complete resumes in the game. She played an aggressive, high-variance style that worked because she read opponents well and committed to her decisions at the table.
Selbst stepped away from professional poker, but her results remain firmly in place on the all-time lists. For a long stretch, she held the top spot on the women’s earnings list, and even after Foxen passed her, the gap between Selbst and the next name below her remains large. Kathy Liebert, at $7,129,540, is nearly $5 million behind.
Barbara Enright and the Main Event
Barbara Enright finished 5th in the 1995 WSOP Main Event. For nearly 3 decades, she was the only woman to reach that final table. The size of the fields in 1995 was much smaller than what players face now, but a Main Event final table is a Main Event final table. Enright earned her seat there through a full tournament’s worth of correct decisions, and she did it in a period when women at the table were far less common.
Her accomplishment stayed singular until 2025.
Leo Margets at the 2025 Main Event
In 2025, Spain’s Leo Margets made it through a starting field of 9,735 players to reach the WSOP Main Event final table. She finished 7th for $1,500,000. She became the 2nd woman in history to reach that stage, 30 years after Enright did it.
A field of 9,735 is enormous. Surviving that many opponents requires sustained, accurate play over multiple days, along with a fair amount of favorable variance. The payout she received reflects both the size of the field and the buy-in level, but her finish itself is the more notable detail. Reaching a final table against that volume of competition is rare for any player.
Xuan Liu’s Triton Poker Win
Xuan Liu became the first woman to win a Triton Poker title, taking down an event in Montenegro for a career-best $860,000. Triton events feature high buy-ins and fields composed largely of professionals and wealthy recreational players. The competition at those tables tends to be concentrated and tough.
Liu’s win there puts her in a category that few players, male or female, have reached. Performing well in high buy-in events requires a specific kind of composure and technical precision, because the margins at those levels are thin.
Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert’s career earnings of over $7.1 million place her 3rd on the women’s all-time list. She has been competing at a high level for longer than most players on this list, and her total reflects decades of consistent finishes. She won her WSOP bracelet and collected results across a wide range of buy-in levels over the course of her career.
Liebert belongs to a generation of female players who built their records before prize pools expanded to their current levels, which makes her earnings total all the more notable in context.
Where Things Stand
The women listed here played in different eras, under different conditions, and at different stakes. Comparing them directly is difficult. Foxen’s earnings dwarf what Enright collected, but Enright played in a period when the money available was smaller by orders of magnitude. Selbst retired with a record that still ranks among the best. Margets waited years for her defining result and found it in the largest Main Event field a woman has ever survived. Liu proved she could win against the highest-level competition in the game.
These are the players whose results hold up when you look at them plainly, without sentiment or qualification. The numbers, the bracelets, and the final table finishes are there. They did the work.
Conclusion
The history of poker includes many skilled competitors, but the players on this list stand out because their achievements are measurable and lasting. Their tournament wins, bracelet counts, and career earnings demonstrate a level of consistency that places them among the most accomplished players in the game.
Each of these women competed in different eras and under different conditions, yet their records remain significant within the broader history of poker. As the game continues to grow and prize pools increase, new names may eventually rise through the rankings. For now, however, the accomplishments of these players continue to define what the best female poker players of all time look like in practice.
FAQ
Who is the best female poker player of all time?
Many rankings place Kristen Foxen at the top based on her career earnings and record number of WSOP bracelets among women.
Which female poker player has the most WSOP bracelets?
Kristen Foxen holds the record among women with five WSOP bracelets.
Has a woman ever reached the WSOP Main Event final table?
Yes. Barbara Enright finished 5th in 1995, and Leo Margets reached the final table in 2025.
Who are the most successful female poker players by earnings?
Some of the highest-earning female poker players include Kristen Foxen, Vanessa Selbst, and Kathy Liebert.
