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
9 years ago6,621ThePokerAces,

Published 9 years ago

Vanessa Selbst - Sick Hand

Vanessa Selbst flops big and turns huge against unfortunate McClung

8 years ago3,488BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Vanessa Selbst - Reading Your Opponents

A short video with top poker pro Vanessa Selbst giving a few tips on what to look for when reading your opponents at the table

9 years ago9,558PokerTube,

Published 9 years ago

Vanessa Selbst - One Word

Vanessa Selbst - What's the first word you think of?

9 years ago6,191RPFC,

Published 9 years ago

Vanessa Selbst - An Image Game

A presentation given by Vanessa Selbst discussing the ways in which a players' image can affect their game.

15 years ago7,341

Published 15 years ago

Vanessa Selbst

Tiffany Michelle catches up with Vanessa whos currently the last remaining female and chip leader in\nthe $1500 Pot Limit Omaha. ...

8 years ago4,512BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Top Women in Poker - 2015 Edition

A feature on the Top 5 most successful female poker players in 2015, including Vanessa Selbst and Liv Boeree amongst others.

7 years ago5,554BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Top 5 WTF Moments

Whether it's a disastrous bluff, horrendous bad beat or a terrible slowroll there are some moments at the poker table that leave u...

9 years ago6,408welovepoker,

Published 9 years ago

Top 5 Vanessa Selbst Hands

5 of the most entertaining hands featuring Vanessa Selbst.

7 years ago12,402BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Top 5 Poker Table Nightmares

The poker table is a place where you meet people from all walks of life. Most of the time you'll be sat with fellow players who lo...

3 years ago2,086BestPokerVids,

Published 3 years ago

Top 5 Most Controversial Hands

PokerStars go back into the vault to showcase 5 of the most controversial hands in the history of live poker. Featuring some of th...

Vanessa Selbst $2M Prop Bet

Selbst accepted a bet from over-confident poker player Urbanovich. The Polish put on the line $10,000 to his cause: win three World Series of Poker gold-bracelets in his first appearance in Las Vegas.

The Bike Ride Worth $1.2M

​Once upon a time, the King of Instagram Dan Bilzerian had a dream life spending most of his time alongside countless female friends with no worries whatsoever. Proof you ask? Well, what you’re about to see is only a glimpse of Bilzerian’s boss life.

The Top 3 Female Poker Players

The reality nowadays is that there are many women involved in poker – and the best of them are very, very good players indeed!

Will a Woman Ever Win a WPT?

No woman has ever picked up a WPT title in the history of the event, thus there were absolutely no representatives of the fairer sex in the inaugural WPT champions event.

Mercier Sees Chance To Cash In On Huge Prop Bets

The stakes got a lot higher though when Vanessa Selbst joined the sweat party. She gave 180-to-1 odds to win three WSOP bracelets this summer. If Mercier takes down three events, he will get $1.8 million.

Vanessa Selbst Is Having Serious Regrets About Her Massive Prop Bet

Selbst made mistakes. Both involved massive prop bets against two poker players and the possibility to win three WSOP bracelets in one summer. And now, having the sweat of her life, she regrets them.

Live Poker Events, 7 years ago

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.

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.

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…

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