It took until the final days of this year’s WSOP for the real fun to start. Firstly

The Grinder was on fire and, having already won his FOURTH Players Championship a few weeks earlier, he battered his way to the final table of the Main Event with such a big lead there was an air of inevitability about the outcome. An unbelievable achievement.

The final table would have been boring had not the charismatic Spanish star LEO Margets become the first lady for thirty years to reach it. It was no fluke either. Leo had previously finished a very creditable 27th in the Main Event. AND she’d won a bracelet and €350k in a €1,500 Closer event and had almost €2 million in lifetime cashes according to the Hendonmob website. The full Leo Margets story goes back way further than her Hendonmob profile. It goes back to Maidstone in Kent and Galway in Ireland. 888poker, partypoker and the Irish Poker Championship (now part of the Irish Poker Tour) all played their part. Jesse May and I had seats in the front row.

In the noughties partypoker decided to sponsor and televise the IPC and asked me to play, comment, do a little hosting and get name players with personality from territories they were interested in developing to play. This was going to be great for Irish poker and 888, with whom I had an arrangement, saw the benefits to them of me being involved and approved so I was in.

A few months later I was in Maidstone for a fortnight working 9 hours a day commenting on the 888 UK Open. Every evening we had to suffer an hour of Mad Marty Wilson’s Play Your Cards Right or, if we were very unlucky, Win With Wilson. Then, after beer, we’d play £10 or £20 sit and go till late with 888 staff, TV crew members, online qualifiers and random walks. It was hilarious stuff.

One evening Jesse May, 888 and Australia’s favorite son superstar Shane Warne and I had a bunch of beers before we sat down in the bar to play. Hanging out with Warney was always great fun especially in Vegas! Jesse could be good value too unless hot whiskey was involved. We were joined by a young lady 888’s Jonny Natas had introduced me to a few hours earlier as 888’s Spanish marketing person. Her name was Leo Margets. She had a great personality and confessed that she loved playing poker. The usual suspects completed the table.

I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I spotted quite quickly that Leo not alone played well but had a great table presence as she studied every move her opponents made. Her sense of fun made for a happy table. After an hour or two I began to think she would be great on TV as I was pretty sure the cameras wouldn’t blunt her personality. It was her lucky day. Spain was one of partypoker’s target markets and I was on the lookout for a Spanish girl who could play well and entertain a TV audience. In poker, as in life, being in the right place at the right time can speed things up a bit!

I told Jonny Natas that if 888 paid her €2k IPC entry fee I would make sure she got TV coverage. It was a no-brainer. I told partypoker big boss Neil Barrett and IPC owner Fintan Gavin what was going on. They were both smart enough to trust my judgment especially when I said Jesse agreed. Then I told Jesse he had agreed. Within 24 hours Leo had a seat in the IPC, a room for her and her boyfriend in the Radisson Hotel and was even on the VIP list for collection by a driver from Shannon Airport. I didn’t hear anything about how they were supposed to get back to the airport to go home. Ah well. It was one of those rare deals where everyone was a winner.

Just after New Year Leo and her boyfriend arrived in Galway. They loved it and Galway loved them. Galway is like that. As I suspected Leo was a great ad for herself and for the game she loved. People started to pay attention. 888 stuck her into more tournaments and sponsors came calling. I told you she was smart. She grabbed each opportunity and brand Leo was born.

I bumped into her a few times over the years in Vegas. She was still the happy girl we met in Maidstone. The only difference was the unmistakable confidence you can see in those who are living the dream.