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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10 years ago12,700ThePokerAces,

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Selbst vs Ruffin - $475 k pot

Selbst vs Ruffin - $475 k pot

10 years ago4,284ThePokerAces,

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PCA 2013 High Roller - Vanessa Selbst vs Shaun Deeb

Vanessa Selbst makes a big call against Shaun Deeb with Ace King.

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Vanessa Selbst vs Prahlad Friedman - sick hand

Selbst Friedman Vanessa Prahlad bluff sick aggro AA "season 2" "cash game" "big game" pokerstars "texas holdem" "blows up" Vane...

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Vanessa Selbst Highest Earning Female Player Ever

Vanessa Selbst Highest Earning Female Player Ever.

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Selbst vs MacPhee - Levelling War EPT Berlin

Vanessa Selbst Vs Kevin MacPhee - EPT Berlin - Selbst gets angry at Macphee here - Pondering why he's apparently 'Bullying' her.

11 years ago4,656

Published 11 years ago

EPT9 London: Vanessa Selbst

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst is now the highest earning female poker player of all time.

11 years ago4,075

Published 11 years ago

PCA10: Switching from No Limit to Mixed Games with Selbst and Greenstein

PokerStars hosted a Q & A with Vanessa Selbst and Barry Greenstein.

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Published 11 years ago

PCA10: Vanessa Selbst Gets Engaged!

Sarah talks to Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst about playing the PCA Super High Roller for the first time and getting engaged!

11 years ago5,449LaoTze,

Published 11 years ago

Vanessa Selbst slowrolls Peter Eastgate

Vanessa Selbst slowrolls Peter Eastgate

11 years ago5,945Arnas1254,

Published 11 years ago

EPT 8 Barcelona - Nikov vs Selbst

Dobromir Nikov (Bulgaria) and Vanessa Selbst (USA) in action at EPT Barcelona, September 2011

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.

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.