The 2026 WSOP Ladies Championship gets underway at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas today, and that means the entire poker world is asking one question: Can Shiina Okamoto do it again?
It’s a question that should feel absurd. In an event once again expected to draw more than 1,000 entrants, the idea that one player could emerge from the riffled din of tournament poker year after year defies logic.
Yet not when it’s the WSOP Ladies Championship. And not when it’s Okamoto.
2nd. 1st. 1st. That’s how the form book reads. Think Secretariat, then make the field 1,200 strong.
But as the crowd watches on, tantalized by the prospect of witnessing a historic three-peat, Okamoto has little interest in noise from the grandstand.
Catching up with PokerNews ahead of this year’s championship, the Japanese star discussed her chances of making history once again in Las Vegas, dealing with the weight of expectation, and how she plans to navigate another packed field to find 2026’s winner’s circle.
No Predictions, Just Process
When asked about how her game is right now, Okamoto offered a characteristically measured assessment, saying, “I haven’t had particularly strong results this season. However, over the past year I’ve been focusing heavily on improving my mental game, and because of that I feel that I’ve been playing well overall.”
Japan’s first female bracelet winner has more than $1.2 million in live earnings according to The Hendon Mob, with her biggest score of the year coming in the record-breaking WSOP Europe Main Event in Prague, where she finished 37th for just over $46,000.
“As for my chances of winning, honestly, I have no idea.”
Despite the growing attention around her return to Las Vegas and another potential deep run in this event, Okamoto was quick to temper any sense of expectation.
“As for my chances of winning, honestly, I have no idea,” she said. “When it comes to tournament poker, I fully understand how much variance and luck can influence the outcome. Because of that, I’ve never really felt confident about winning a tournament, no matter how well prepared I am.”
The Power of Pressure
Okamoto was happy to acknowledge that external pressure does exist, even if she actively tries not to let it shape her mindset or affect her performance at the table.
“I wouldn’t say that I feel no pressure at all, but I do try not to let myself feel it,” she admits. “If poker were a game where skill alone determined the outcome, then I think I would feel much more pressure. But poker is a game where luck also plays a significant role. Because of that, it feels a little strange to put too much pressure on myself. Ideally, I wouldn’t want to feel any pressure at all.”
Still, she accepts that the noise surrounding her unprecedented run in the Ladies Championship is impossible to ignore, adding, “That said, I can definitely feel the expectations that people have for me, and because of that it’s impossible not to feel at least some pressure.”
However, the pressure that comes with the reputation she has built in this event is not solely negative, far from it. With repeated deep runs and back-to-back titles, almost every opponent in the field is aware of who they are up against, something Okamoto believes can work to her advantage once cards are in the air.
“The more success I have in this event and the more people become aware of that success, the more they tend to adjust their strategy against me,” she explained. “In that sense, I actually think it can work in my favor. If I can anticipate how people are adjusting to me, it gives me more opportunities to make adjustments of my own and use those dynamics to my advantage.”
Preparation and Performance
That analytical, cerebral approach is typical of how Okamoto approaches poker, and she explains that her preparation remains grounded in routine work and mental discipline ahead of events such as this.
The two-time Ladies champion is a proud ambassador for GTO Wizard and said, “I do preflop drills on GTO Wizard every day. Whenever I have enough uninterrupted time, I also study postflop ICM situations.”
“My goal is to give myself the best possible chance of performing at 100% when it matters most.”
However, for Okamoto, the technical side is only part of the equation. “No matter how much you study, if you’re unable to perform at your best during a tournament, all of that preparation becomes meaningless,” she said, alluding to the work on her mental game. “My goal is to give myself the best possible chance of performing at 100% when it matters most.”
Ultimately, it’s clear she is unfazed, even in the context of the magnitude of what she could achieve this week. A third straight WSOP Ladies Championship title would be unprecedented in the event’s modern era, an achievement comparable to Johnny Chan’s epic Main Event run in the late 1980s or Adam Friedman’s mastery of the Dealer’s Choice Championship in more recent years.
Whether that approach holds up against the weight of history remains to be seen. For now, she is not predicting anything. Okamoto is simply playing.
Eliot Thomas
Editor, Poker & Casino