Vanessa K. Selbst (born July 9, 1984) is a

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player, the only woman to ever reach the number one ranking in the world on the Global Poker Index. She has over US$11.8 million in live poker tournament earnings and used to be a member of Team Pokerstars Pro, where she plays under the username "V. Selbst". Selbst has three

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...

bracelets and is the first and only woman to win three WSOP bracelets in open field events. She is also the only poker player to win the same North American Poker Tour Main Event back-to-back.
Live Reporting , 2010 PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun , 2010 PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event , PokerNews
Live Reporting , 2011 North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun , Main Event , PokerNews In January 2013 Selbst won the PCA high roller for $1.4 million, which made her the highest-earning woman in poker history. Her results put her in the top 100 of the overall All Time Money List, with career tournament winnings just shy of $12 million. Selbst was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, New York, into a Jewish family. She attended the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

for a year before transferring to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, where she graduated with a degree in political science. After Yale, on a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

, she spent a year in Spain. On her return to the United States, she worked for consulting firm

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

. She later returned to

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

and received her J.D. degree in 2012. During her time at

, she was head of the Yale Queer-Straight Alliance. Selbst was a coach and executive producer for DeucesCracked, an

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

training site.

World Series of Poker bracelets

Other poker results

Selbst has 21 live poker tournament results equaling six figure paydays or above. Selbst has made five Main Event final tables of various poker tours and gone on to capture three titles. She attended her first World Series at Las Vegas in 2006. She won the 2010 North American Poker Tour $5,000 Mohegan Sun Main Event, earning $750,000 and returned the following year to successfully defend her title. She earned $450,000 for her 2011 1st-place finish and became the first and only person to win two consecutive NAPT Main Events. To date, Selbst's biggest purse was when she won €1,300,000 ($1.82 million) for her first-place finish at the 2010

Partouche Poker Tour The Partouche Poker Tour (PPT) was a series of poker tournaments held at casinos owned and operated by the Partouche group in France. The tour operated on a three-tiered structure, with two levels of satellites eventually feeding into the Main Event ...

. She has made four High Roller final tables, winning the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller in January 2013. She is the first woman to ever play in a Super High Roller event, taking third place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 buy in tournament in January 2014. As of 2018, Selbst's total live tournament winnings exceed $11,850,000. One year after her official retirement from poker in 2018, she played the WPT Borgata $3,500 event, ending in 14th place for a payday of $40,000. Not long after, she participated in WPT Fallsview Main Event, where she finished 22nd.

References

External links

Vanessa Selbst interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Selbst, Vanessa 1984 births American poker players 20th-century American Jews Living people LGBT people from New Jersey LGBT Jews People from Montclair, New Jersey World Series of Poker bracelet winners Female poker players Yale Law School alumni American LGBT businesspeople 21st-century American Jews