Maria Ho: Conquering the Poker World

Maria Ho has been taking the poker world by storm for almost two decades now. She is a force of (poker) nature and those who haven’t heard of her yet must have been living under a rock.

With that said, in case you’re just joining the show, we’re going to give you a bit of backstory on Maria – from her humble beginnings all the way to the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame.

The Beginning

Maria Ho was born on March 6, 1983, in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

Her family moved to a small town near Los Angeles when Maria was just four years old. In this new place, her parents managed to build their business from scratch and provide their daughters with a solid education.

Partially as a result, Maria’s younger sister Judy is now a well-known United States neuropsychologist, speaker, and author of several psychology books. She has guessed started in several popular TV shows as an expert and writes for various popular magazines.

Let’s bring the story back to Maria now. She was a unique child from early on. Like most kids, she went through a rebellious stage and a few growing pains here and there. At a certain point, her parents opted to enroll Maria in a private Catholic school. This was a new stage in her life, one that took a bit of adjusting to. However, ultimately, Maria said she is grateful to her parents for this decision.

Maria Meets Poker

While she already experienced much of the world during her childhood, going to university was a turning point for Maria. It was during her college years that Maria began playing poker and, maybe more importantly, realized she enjoyed it. She once said:

“It was in my first year. I think there are a few people who will want to appropriate that fame. I had three friends who had a home game several times a week.“

She liked poker so much that she started going to the local casino to play. Initially, she played for fun, but it soon began to generate some income, which she would later share with her sister. 

After graduation, Maria had the opportunity to move to more professional tables, where she quickly shined. With this said, Maria didn’t actually plan to start a professional poker career, expecting to continue the family real estate business. However, her first major poker achievements (as well as the prizes that came with them) made her change her mind and focus on poker.

The WSOP

Maria’s first notable win came in 2007 at the WSOP, where she was named the top female player. Ho finished 38th out of over 6,000 professional players and earned over $237,000.

Her parents hadn’t been aware of the magnitude of her poker career up to this point, to which Maria says:

“Yeah, that’s about the dialog we had. My mom didn’t realize that poker could be a job, she thought it was some hobby that brought money by chance. She advised me not to play anymore and to move on. And Dad was against it – he played at the amateur level and knew what the atmosphere in the casino was like.”

However, this didn’t stop her. In 2010, Maria made it to the WSOP final table twice, once in Italy and once in South Africa. She finished in 10th and 6th place, respectively.

In 2011, Maria came close to securing a WSOP bracelet again but stopped one step short of victory. She still managed to place second, earning more than $73,000.

If we talk about her career in general, many poker professionals can find something to envy:

Achievement	Tournament
1 title, 4 final tables 14 ITMs	WPT
10 final tables and 80 cash prizes	WSOP
18 final tables	Other events

Over the years, regular success in tournaments brought Maria both popularity and recognition within the poker community. She was nominated three times for the “Favorite Professional Player Among Women” award. Maria was also inducted into the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame in 2018.

Maria Ho’s top achievements

In addition to winning over $237,000 in 2007 and becoming a household name in live poker, there have also been other notable wins in Maria Ho’s career. The list below should give you a glimpse at what Maria Ho has been up to for the last couple of years:

Tournament	Year	Prize
World Series of Poker – WSOP Paradise, Paradise Island	2023	$ 200,000
Poker After Dark: Game of Gold, Seoul	2023	$ 456,000
53rd World Series of Poker – WSOP	2022	$ 131,655
The Wynn Summer Classic, Las Vegas	2021	$ 97,274
50th World Series of Poker – WSOP	2019	$ 91,211

By 2023, Maria Ho has earned more than 4.5 million dollars in live poker. Apart from dominating the poker tables, you can also catch Maria commenting on the WSOP and as an ambassador for WPT Global.

As for what’s Maria Ho’s been up to during WSOP 2024, check out our latest article and follow us on our socials to find out!

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