Vanessa Selbst
“Selbst”
Widely regarded as the greatest female poker player of all time. Three WSOP bracelets, top 10 all-time female earnings, and a fierce, aggressive playing style that dominated the mid-2000s tournament scene.
via Wikipedia
Career Earnings
$12M+
Playing Approach
Highly Exploitative
Plays On
HISTORY
Career & origins of Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst is widely regarded as the greatest female poker player of all time. With three WSOP bracelets, multiple final tables in the most competitive fields in the game, and a peak ranking inside the global top ten, she competed at the highest level of tournament poker on completely equal terms with the best male players of her era.
A Yale Law School graduate who brought exceptional intellectual rigor to her study of poker strategy, Selbst combined aggressive LAG play with deep theoretical preparation to build one of the most accomplished records of her generation. Her success came during a period when the barriers facing women in high-stakes poker were substantial, making her achievements all the more significant.
She largely stepped away from professional poker in 2018 to pursue a career in finance and quantitative research, but her legacy in the game is secure: she proved definitively that gender is no predictor of poker ability, and her example has inspired a generation of female players.