When Linda Ngo entered Event #1: $1,000 Mystery Millions at the 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP), she had only two recorded cashes on her Hendon Mob profile for a total of just under $5,000 in career earnings. After three long days of play, Ngo added a third score to her resume – this one worth $154,140 for a seventh-place finish. Still, despite the significant boost to her earnings, the result hasn't quite sunk in yet.
"For some reason, it hasn't really hit me," Ngo told PokerOrg. "I saw myself on TV, so that was kind of amazing."
Ngo, a recreational poker player, wasn't the most experienced competitor in the field – far from it, in fact – but she wasn't a complete amateur either. With years of home game play under her belt, Ngo knew she had the requisite chops to battle it out at the WSOP and was excited at the prospect of challenging herself – she just needed a little nudge in the right direction. That's where her partner, Minh Nguyen, stepped in.
"He's my inspiration, for sure. We've been friends forever and play home games together," she told us. "He's like a wizard. GTO Wizard? That's him.
"I'm a recreational – I play home games, it's more social for me," Ngo continued. "I love challenges and having a new challenge like this definitely makes me want to learn more about all of that. And my boyfriend's really good at telling me which events to play."
'It felt like a home game'
Ngo certainly rose to the challenge – reaching the final table with a level of confidence and coolness most professionals would envy. "I was not nervous, that's the funny thing. It was crazy to me," she explained. "I was more nervous with two tables left. I think my rail helped me, they came and supported me. It felt like a home game."
"They're [her opponents] just people," she continued. "I know they all have way more experience than I do. My rail didn't tell me anything about them – they didn't want to mess up how I was playing. And I didn't want to overthink things. I just played how I normally would, you know?"
Ngo's run wasn't a pure-luck heater. Throughout the first two days of play, her skills were on full display – much to the detriment of one her table mates. "I made a lot of people go on tilt," Ngo said. "I thought I was going to go home on the second day, to be honest."
When she peeled deuces in the face of an open from the table chip leader, Ngo shoved the rest of her short stack in the middle. "I was just thinking he's not going to call because I was pretty much getting dealt good hands, I was on a good run," Ngo recounted. "Everyone was staring at him and he folded. I kind of wanted to show him, but I didn't want to rub it in. Then another player at the table asked if she could see the cards, so I flipped them. I was like, 'What? You can't bluff in this game?'"
"It was just confidence. I stared him right in the eye. I feel like we have that edge against men – when we stare at them, men can't lie; it's harder for them."
Ngo encountered the same player later in the tournament – this time armed with a substantially larger arsenal of chips. With a short-stacked player already all-in ahead of her, Ngo peeled pocket aces and opted to play her hand sneakily with just a call. "I didn't raise it," she explained. "So, the guy who was on tilt, he moved all-in and I snap-called. He had jacks, I had aces. He was so mad. He left the building without talking."
'I always overcome my challenges'
While Ngo's run ultimately ended just short of a WSOP bracelet, she outlasted 19,648 of the event's 19,654 entrants. With $154,140 extra in her bankroll, Ngo will return to the WSOP in June – don't be surprised to see her take another run at a bracelet.
It's not all about the money for Ngo, however. "My son is the reason I'm doing what I'm doing. I had cancer, breast cancer, a while back – it was actually during COVID, not very long ago," Ngo shared. "It was devastating, but it's a challenge. I always overcome my challenges. I'm a fighter."
"And he's my everything," she added.
