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One win (so far). One second-place finish. Three final table appearances, all within the past three years … in the same event.

Let us introduce Japanese poker player Shiina Okamoto, the defending champion in the $1,000 Ladies Championship at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP), who will enter Sunday’s final table with the chip lead.

Michael Mizrachi made history on Saturday by winning his fourth Poker Players Championship bracelet. He not only became the first player ever to win the same major poker tournament four times, but he did so in what many consider to be the second most prestigious event in the world. Okamoto, regardless of what position she finishes at the final table, is making history of her own.

Making WSOP History

Okamoto is one of seven players still with a chance to win the bracelet and the $184,094 reward, a cash that would put her just a hair over $1 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, according to The Hendon Mob. She’ll enter play with 7,500,000 chips, approximately 94 big blinds.

Juliet Hegedus, who finished in 12th place last year, is in second place with 5,600,000 chips. Heather Alcorn, a well-known former dealer, is among the shortest stacks at 2,100,000. All players still standing have a guaranteed minimum payout of $26,131.

WSOP Ladies Championship Final Table Chip Counts

Every player at the final table is playing to win a gold bracelet and a bunch of money. But Okamoto is also playing to make history. What she’s already accomplished just by reaching the final table is rare. If she goes on to win the bracelet, it would go down as one of the greatest three-year runs in the same WSOP event ever.

Okamoto finished runner-up to Tamar Abraham for $118,768 in the 2023 Ladies Championship, a large-field tournament with 1,295 entrants. She one-upped herself last year by winning a heads-up match against Jamie Kerstetter to claim her first bracelet and the $171,732 first-place prize, outlasting a field of 1,245 entries.

That’s three straight years at the final table in a tournament with more than 1,200 entrants each time. The accomplishment is so rare that there are only a couple of comparisons, one being Adam Friedman winning the $10,000 WSOP Dealers Choice in three consecutive years (2018, 2019, and 2021). The other is Johnny Chan winning the 1987 and 1988 WSOP Main Event before finishing runner-up to Phil Hellmuth in 1989. Coincidentally, Hellmuth attempted to spoil another back-to-back-to-back chase in 2021, but lost heads-up to Friedman.

Okamoto is the favorite to win the bracelet on Sunday. She has the chip lead and the experience in this spot. A win would be historic. The final table begins at 4 p.m. PT, with PokerNews live reporting coverage and the PokerGO livestream starting on a one-hour delay at 5 p.m.

In this Series

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