Vanessa Selbst

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Vanessa Selbst has gone on to establish herself as one of the world’s most formidable tournament players.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Vanessa Selbst has gone on to establish herself as one of the world’s most formidable tournament players. Selbst developed her competitive spirit from a young age, as she excelled both academically and on the sports field playing tennis, field hockey and rugby.

After achieving excellent results in school, Selbst attended MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for one year, before transferring to Yale. Although she began playing poker in home games in high school, Selbst has credited much of her poker education to her time at Yale, where she began to discuss the intricacies of the game, and became involved in the 2+2 forum.

While still a student, Selbst began to dedicate her summers away from study to play poker, participating in her first World Series of Poker in 2006. Her first WSOP could be considered a success, as she final-tabled the $2,000 No-Limit Hold ‘Em event finishing 7th for $101,285. Selbst would continue her success at the WSOP in the following years as she finished in 3rd place in the 2007 $5,000 World Championship Heads-Up event for a $128,968 cash, before winning her first bracelet in the 2008 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. In the heads-up section of the Pot-Limit Omaha event, Selbst’s opponent Jamie Pickering, who had been drinking alcohol throughout the tournament, was shoving all-in blind and Selbst survived the madness to pick up her first WSOP bracelet.

Selbst managed to win her 2nd WSOP bracelet in 2012 when she won the $2,500 10 Game Six Handed event for $244,259. Selbst’s biggest career win to date is her first place finish in the 2010 Main Event of the Partouche Poker Tour, as she took $1,800,000 for her win.

In January of 2013 Selbst took down the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller event for $1,424,402. Selbst had proposed to her partner the night before the event began, making the tournament an extra special win for her. Unlike many other professional players who drop out of education after realising they can make money playing poker, Selbst is unique in that she has continued on with her studies.

Selbst returned to Yale after graduation to pursue a law degree, graduating in 2012. She has since stated that she would like to pursue a career in civil rights: economic equality, racial justice and against the government’s abuse of authority.

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9 years ago3,441BestPokerVids,

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Vanessa Selbst Claims Her Third Bracelet

Final hand of the $25k Mixed-Max Championship of WSOP 2014; Vanessa Selbst wins her third bracelet

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Vanessa Selbst Big Bluff Against Ole Schemion

Vanessa Selbst tries a big river bluff against the German high roller with the Cage looming

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Vanessa Selbst - Sick Hand

Vanessa Selbst flops big and turns huge against unfortunate McClung

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Vanessa Selbst on the Moment Podcast with Brian Koppelman

Arguably the best female poker player and one of the best players in general, Vanessa Selbst, on the Brian Koppelman podcast, talk...

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Vanessa Selbst vs Dan Colman: Bad Timing

Vanessa Selbst picks a bad moment to shove into Dan Colman

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Vanessa Selbst Valuetowning Dobromir Nikov

Vanessa Selbst owns Dobromir Nikov

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Meet the Pokerstars Proteges 2014

Joe Stapleton introduces the winners of the 2014 WCOOP protege competition who are also joined by the Pokerstars team pros.

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Scott Seiver busts Vanessa Selbst - Premier League

Scott Seiver knocks out his friend Vanessa Selbst during the PartyPoker Premier League.

9 years ago7,266ThePokerAces,

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Vanessa Selbst Sweat - PCA Super High Roller

Sweating with Vanessa playing a hand from her perspective during the PCA Super High Roller 2014.

9 years ago5,483welovepoker,

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Vanessa Selbst vs Fabian Quoss - PCA Bonus Cut

Big bonus cut hand involving Vanessa Selbst and Fabian Quoss - Two of the trickiest poker players around.

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

Justice is Blinds Returns With Vanessa Selbst, Olivier Busquet and Ingrid Weber

Vanessa Selbst will host the third edition of her Justice is Blinds, a charity poker event benefiting the non-profit advocacy organization Urban Justice Center.

Negreanu Versus Trump: Hurricane Edition

Negreanu had something to say about the Commander in Chief’s wildly solipsistic handling of the Texas hurricane disaster.

Patrick Leonard Responds to Angle Shoot Accusations

A reasonable explanation and much deeper than the simple ‘scummy angle shoot’ claims which were flying all over the internet.

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

Scott Blumstein Takes the WSOP Main Event title!

Scott Blumstein won the Main Event bracelet, $8,150,000 and a place in poker history!

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

WSOP Event #27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed (Live Updates)

Event #27 $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed will start its day one at 11:00 AM PST on 14th June 2017.

Hank Azaria And Vanessa Selbst Hangout

The all-time winningest female poker player on the planet rubbed elbows with one of the best voice actors of all time.

High-Stakes players Hacked - Doug Polk Explains How

Vanessa Rousso was not the only well-known poker player to have her account hacked this past week

Top 5 Players We Want To See VLOG In 2017

What if we could choose who produced a weekly vlog, or podcast? Who would we want to see and hear about on a weekly basis? Let’s take a look at what our top 5 might be…

Doyle Brunson’s Twitter War!

The reason for Brunson's bad feeling? The US presidential battle between Trump and Clinton of course, which has set friend against friend or – in this case –foe against foe.

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This Week at The WSOP

​If the first week of the 2016 World Series of Poker brought us the shock returns of both Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, and all the talk of recriminations and reprisals which went with it, then the 2nd week hasn’t let us down either.