The Women in Poker Hall of Fame will be marking its 10th anniversary this summer and what better way to celebrate than to induct two new members into the ranks. This went down on Tuesday at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas where Maria Ho and Lupe Soto were welcomed into the ranks of the Hall of Fame thanks to their unique and distinct legacies in the poker world.
Maria Ho
Maria Ho is perhaps best known for her roles as a commentator and a host for a variety of poker productions within the past decade but her accomplishments in the poker industry go well beyond that. She has racked up $2.78 million in career tournament earnings and hangs out with some of the biggest names in the poker industry including Daniel Negreanu who was the one who inducted her into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame last week. Ho still regularly plays for millions.
“I think poker is actually very very lucky to have someone like Maria in it because she’s the best ambassador you could ask for. She’s always doing everything possible to promote the game. I can’t imagine in the last few years, there has been anyone that’s worked harder than Maria,” Negreanu said during the induction ceremony.
In her induction speech, Ho spoke of how she initially got into poker simply because she was told that she could not. She has since found success in the poker industry and is very grateful for all it has given to her.
“I’ve learned to critically think about things, and approach situations with logic and rationale,” she said. “I’ve cultivated a greater independence from playing a single-player game where I can only rely on myself to make important decisions, and trusting that I have all the tools that I need to achieve my desired outcome. And most importantly, the way this game has taught me to navigate failure, in all aspects of life, whether it be career or relationships.”
Lupe Soto
Even though she is not recognizable as a pro poker player with huge earnings to her name, Lupe Soto contributions to the poker industry fit and even exceed all the requirements set by the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. Not only was she one of the founders of the Hall of Fame, but she is also an innovative trailblazer in the world of poker with other creations that include the Senior Poker Tour that was started in 2013 and the recently launched Women’s Poker Association.
In addition to all this, she continues to advocate for female poker players.
“Bringing women into the game – the ones who had never played before live, and then they enter into their very first tournament and they get hooked. They get the interaction with these other women, the social part of it, the caring part of it, because there are women who met through LIPS tour that are besties to this day, and it’s been years. They travel together in packs; it’s just the most beautiful thing I could have ever expected to happen,” she said after the ceremony.
