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.

Read More
8 years ago9,368BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Vanessa Selbst vs Steve Harvey on Steve Harvey Show

Vanessa Selbst playing a hand of poker against Steve Harvey

8 years ago2,440BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

EPT Prague - Kanit at Risk vs Vanessa Selbst

Mustapha Kanit at risk but ahead against Vanessa Selbst

9 years ago4,754BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Poker Night in America - Vanessa Selbst in Bad Spot

Vanessa Selbst gets in an ugly spot with Ace-King

9 years ago3,763BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Poker Night in America - Vanessa Selbst vs Ebony Kenney

Vanessa Selbst and Ebony Kenney playing interesting pot

9 years ago5,097BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Vanessa Selbst vs Lauren Billings Cooler

Cooler flop in a hand between Lauren Billings and Vanessa Selbst (Poker Night in America Ladies Night)

9 years ago7,555BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Vanessa Selbst Confuses Lily Kiletto

Vanessa Selbst with an interesting river play against Lily Kiletto

9 years ago10,836BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Prahlad Friedman vs Vanessa Selbst - The Big Game Biggest Pot

Vanessa Selbst gets the money in the middle way behind

9 years ago4,495BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Barry Greenstein Picks Bad Time to Get Aggressive

Barry Greenstein picks a bad moment to get aggressive against Vanessa Selbst

9 years ago5,233BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

PokerStars Bonus Cut - Dan Shak vs Vanessa Selbst

Vanessa Selbst and Dan Shak featured in a special edition of PokerStars bonus cut

9 years ago4,431BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Vanessa Selbst Making a Play vs Esfandiari

Antonio Esfandiari facing some serious aggression from Vanessa Selbst

Live Poker Events, 9 years ago

​WSOP 2014: Player Plans

Every World Series is primarily about making money and winning titles. But during every Series, many players set their own personal goals and aims of different nature. We bring you couple of

WSOP 2014: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not

With nearly one third of World Series of Poker behind us, it is time to stop and see what has happened so far. What players are hot, and who is not having such a great time so far? Most of them have

Live Poker Events, 9 years ago

Vanessa Selbst Tops the GPI300 Rankings

On Wednesday, June 18, Vanessa Selbst surged on top of the Global Poker Index 300 Rankings. In doing so, she has become the first woman to ever achieve this and joins the elite group of only eight

Introducing the Most Successfull Women in Poker

Some years ago, a woman at the poker table may have been somewhat rare occurrence, but in today’s time not only that it is perfectly normal to see a woman at the table, but there is quite a number

Live Poker Events, 9 years ago

"All In" for Kids: WPT Charity Poker Tournament Raises $910,000

By Alexandru PetrovanuBig:G;iving back at least a little bit is important, so we’re happy to report today on a charity event that took place recently, the All In for Kids WPT tournament. Those

Live Poker Events, 9 years ago

Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Winners Through History - Part 2

The 2009 PCA saw a $25,000 High Roller event added to the schedule. A record 1,347 players came out to the beautiful Atlantis to attend the biggest festival of poker aside from the WSOP. The Main

Vanessa Selbst Passes Bar Exam

Vanessa Selbst passed the bar exam and looks forward to practicing law in addition to playing poker professionally.

Vanessa Selbst Makes Appearance on Steve Harvey Show

Vanessa Selbst appears on the Steve Harvey Show, featured as part of a "Female Ground Breaker" segment that highlights successful women.

Live Poker Events, 8 years ago

Vanessa Selbst Wins Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout

Vanessa Selbst won $1 million in the Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout, defeating Hollywood star Kevin Pollack heads-up.

Vanessa Selbst Wins for Charity

Poker players are often generous to the charity campaigns they support, but Vanessa Selbst stands out as one of the highest contributing poker players around.