Poker Writer
Japanese poker player Shiina Okamoto won a High Roller tournament at last week’s Taiwan Millions, adding another title to her rapidly-growing resume. Okamoto came out atop a 32-player field to win the grand prize. Due to the Taiwanese exchange rate, the “High Roller” victory worked out to the equivalent of just $16,425 in US currency. However, it’s more impressive in light of the fact that she’s also coming off a WSOP bracelet win.
The 29-year old from Tokyo became one of the breakout stories of the summer after winning the WSOP Ladies Event for the second straight year. Those back-to-back wins came immediately after a 2023 second-place finish in the same event. Given that the event has attracted over 1,000 players in each of those three years, Okamoto is on one of the most statistically improbable single-event streaks in poker history.
Okamoto’s performance has earned her a following. Given her apparent knack for women-only events, her next stop will be the PokerStars Women’s Summer Festival, kicking off in London in a couple of weeks. This will be the second iteration of the Women’s Summer Festival, following its successful debut in 2024. Okamoto’s status as the two-time WSOP Ladies champion will help shine a spotlight on that event, which will run from August 12-17.
I’ll be playing in the PokerStars Women’s Summer Festival in London starting August 12th!
It’ll be my first time joining a poker tournament in London — can’t wait!8/12からロンドンで開催されるPokerstarsのWomen’s Summer Festivalに参加します！… https://t.co/xq94oVmTco
— Shiina Okamoto / 岡本詩菜 (@shiina_pkr) July 23, 2025
While the majority of Okamoto’s best results have come in Ladies’ events, her win in Taiwan shows that she has the ability to win in open field events as well. Her results to this point in her career have largely been in Asia and at the WSOP, though she has some cashes at the EPT Barcelona as well.
According to the Card Player results database, her best result in an open-field event came last year in Jeju, South Korea, when she finished first out of 356 players for $64,564.
Is Okamoto Underrated by GPI?
You might expect a player with two bracelets in as many years to rank highly in the Global Poker Index. However, Okamoto is still just #15 in GPI women’s rankings and barely makes the top 1000 overall, at #872.
That’s a little surprising, given that she’s made more headlines this summer than any other woman in poker except, perhaps, Leo Margets, the first woman to make a WSOP Main Event final table in the modern era.
The reason is that GPI rankings, like many Player of the Year races, only count open field events. In Okamoto’s case, that means the most impressive feat on her resume doesn’t factor into her ranking at all. Her performance in the Women’s Summer Festival will also not count, even though she’s likely to square off against many of the 14 women currently above her in the rankings. It’s probably fair to say the GPI rankings undervalue her at present. They’re certainly out of proportion to the amount of press she’s been earning herself.
After her 2024 bracelet win, Okamoto visited the EPT Barcelona, Taiwan Millions, and WPT Korea in the second half of the year. The series in London is a new stop for her, so it will be interesting to see if that indicates a desire to play more international events this year.
