Wednesday January 3, 2018 at 5:58 pm
SCOOP

Another American pro is hanging it up in 2018. On New Year's Eve, Vanessa Selbst posted on Facebook her intentions to step away from the game on a professional level. Selbst took the poker world by storm when she was still a student at Yale law school. The 33-year old Selbst amassed $11.8 million in tournament winnings and won three WSOP bracelets. After 12 years in poker, Selbst will shift her focus to the financial world as a strategic analyst at a hedge fund.

VanSeldPartQuit
Vanessa Selbst at the 2010 Partouche Poker Tour

Vanessa Selbst is stepping away from the poker grind. Selbst earned the majority of her $11.8 million in tournament winnings in a key span from 2008 to 2015. On the last day on 2017, the former sponsored pro at PokerStars posted a brief explanation of her impending retirement on her Facebook account. Selbst indicated that she had been working at a hedge fund the last few months, which is where she will be focusing her time and energy in the future. Yup, the poker world lost another smart one to the world of finance.

During the peak of her powers, Vanessa Selbst was one of the top American pros in both the online and live realm. In 2010, Selbst won nearly $3 million including her second bracelet and a big win on the Partouche Poker Tour in France. Selbst's auspicious rise at the end of the glorious poker boom was another classic story about Ivy Leaguers who took a shot at the poker world. In Selbst case, she earned a reputation at the virtual tables while she was still in law school at Yale University.

Selbst first etched her name in the history books at the 2008 World Series of Poker, when she took down a PLO donkament for a $227K score. That victory marked the first of three overall WSOP bracelets she'd win between 2008 and 2014. All three of her bracelets were in open events. After locking up her first bling in PLO, Selbst won her second bracelet in 2010 in mixed games ($2,500 10-Game 6-Max). In 2014, Selbst won her third WSOP bracelet in the $25K buy-in Mixed-Max NL event, where she faded a tough field of 131 players to bank $871K.

Selbst's largest win to date occurred in France in November 2010. Remember the scandal-ridden 2010 Partouche Poker Tour? Selbst came out on top in the Main Event by winning $1.8M or approximately €1.3M.

In a post on Facebook, Selbst suggested that there was no specific or primary reason for her decision to step away from the poker grind and ending her sponsorship deal with PokerStars. Rather, it was a series of different things, but you can't escape the cloud of Black Friday, which still looms overhead between the arduous travel schedule and the fact that American pros had to become online exiles to continue their careers.

Vanessa Selbst

Many people will ask why I'm leaving – there's no one specific reason, but just a number of factors, big and small, that contributed to a general feeling I've had for a while that it was the right time. The most obvious reason is that Black Friday has meant that in order to do this job professionally, you either had to move out of the country or travel 90% of the time. That was really fun for a period of time in my life, but as my late 20s turned into my early 30s and my priorities changed toward building a stable home and community and starting a family, the constant travel is no longer tenable.

VanSelbWsopQuit2
Selbst at the WSOP (Pic courtesy of Winamax)

Selbst explained: “The most obvious reason is that Black Friday has meant that in order to do this job professionally, you either had to move out of the country or travel 90% of the time. That was really fun for a period of time in my life, but as my late 20s turned into my early 30s and my priorities changed toward building a stable home and community and starting a family, the constant travel is no longer tenable.”

Selbst has been in the poker biz for over a decade and anyone in poker knows that the “seven-year itch” is a legit phenomenon. The actual time frame might be less/more, but you look at poker through a different lens than when you first arrived. It's at that existentialist juncture when poker people double down on their ambition and devote more focus into the game, or they start to seek an exit strategy and begin to explore other ventures outside of poker.

In addition, Selbst cited the difficulty of making a living as a professional suggesting… “I can't tell amateurs they should come play online and it's beatable for them when I don't feel like it's true.”

Selbst also explained that poker became a legit job. “Whether because poker got more competitive or because we got older (or likely some combination of the two), poker recently turned into a real job, requiring hard work and discipline to succeed. I had never treated the game that way–I always kept a very light poker schedule–I showed up and played for fun and did other projects back home as my "real work." The shift in the nature of poker and what it requires put me at a crossroads and asked the question of me whether I would rather change my relationship to the game or move on.”

Yeah…. Selbst essentially cited the old adage: It's a hard way to make an easy living. I've heard that (catch-all) saying a lot ever since I stepped into the poker world. But there's a lot of truth to it. It's become harder and harder to be a pro in America in the wake of Black Friday. The state-by-state process of legalizing poker in the USA is too slow, so any serious online player must go overseas to earn a living (and incur more expenses in the process).

Like many other cardslingers, I got into poker because I wanted to be my own boss and have fun doing something I enjoyed, while shrugging off the rigid responsibilities of work life. After a while, poker became less and less fun and more and more work. It's a familiar scenario that many of us faced at different times in our poker lives. I took an extended break in 2012 and never looked back. My favorite line from The Highlander film was said by the Kurgan, “It's better to burn out than to fade away!” It's also a popular lyric from Neil Young, but it appropriate sums up how engaged experiences and being completely in the moment are more important than longevity.

Selbst closed the door on her “professional” poker career, yet she starts a new chapter in her life working in a hedge fund. Selbst's mother was a former options trader, so finance is in the family business. Selbst said that she was delving into the research and strategy end of finance, which she found both difficult and challenging. “The environment feels a lot like poker did back in the day – a bunch of nerdy kids collaborating to try to beat our opponents at a game. It's also really freaking difficult… there's so much to learn and figure out in a world that's completely new to me and every day I think I'm getting the hang of it, the next day I fail at the next challenge. It's exhausting, exciting, and completely humbling every single day.”

Read the entire post by Vanessa Selbst here.

Latest news
Tuesday March 7, 2023 at 9:52 pm
2023 SCOOP returns to US at PokerStars on March 17

PokerStars announced that the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) returns to American players in three states. The 2023 SCOOP has 42 events and the popular online tournament series will be available to PokerStars players on in Pennsylvania (PASCOOP) and a shared player pool in New Jersey and Michigan (MI/NJSCOOP) beginning March 17 and running through April 3. There's a total of $5 million in guanarteed prize pools.

Monday February 27, 2023 at 9:33 pm
Romana's Razvan Belea ships EPT Paris for €1.1 million

The European Poker Tour hosted the inaugural EPT Paris at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile. The €5,300 buy-in Main Event at the EPT Paris attracted 1,606 entrants with 447 re-entries. Razvan Belea from Romania parlayed a €530 satellite seat into a €1.1 million payday when he was the last player standing to become the first Romanian champion in EPT history.

Saturday February 4, 2023 at 7:35 pm
Aliaksandr Shylko wins 2023 PokerStars Players Championship for $3.1 million

Aliaksandr Shylko from Belarus shipped the second-ever PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) for a $3.1 million score after he worked out a three-way money chop with Germany's Max Menzel and Philipe Pizzari from Brazil. Nacho Barbero went deep in the 2023 PSPC with a fourth-place finish at Baha Mar in the Bahamas. Shylko outlasted 1,014 runners who generated a prize pool worth over $24.8 million

Wednesday January 25, 2023 at 6:21 pm
LAPT Returns: PokerStars brings back Latin American Poker Tour

After a seven-year layoff, PokerStars will relaunch the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). The LAPT returns to Brazil with a stop in Rio de Janeiro on March 2, 2023. There will be an event in Montevideo, Uruguay in April, plus two more events planned in Sao Paolo, Brazil in July and November. And there's other LAPT dates and locations that will be announced soon.

Thursday January 19, 2023 at 7:03 pm
PokerStars to Host Sunday Million 17th Anniversary on March 26

PokerStars wants you to save a special date on Sunday March 26, 2023. PokerStars s celebrating the 17th Anniversary of the Sunday Million. Yes, the Sunday Milly turns 17 in March! The buy-in is only $215, and this year's celebration will have a $7.5 million guaranteed prize pool. This year's winner will bank at least $1 million. Germany's Blackbeaty won the Sunday Million's 16th anniversary special.

Tuesday January 10, 2023 at 11:11 pm
PokerStars Launches PSPC Online starting Jan 13

PokerStars will launch a special virtual version of the PokerStars Players Championship for American online poker players in New Jersey and Michigan with the PSPC Online. The special series runs from January 13 through Jan 30 on PokerStars for a combined player pool in New Jersey and Michigan. The PSPC Online has 85 events and a guaranteed prize pool worth $2.5 million. Oh, and there's a special PSPC Online for online grinders in the state of Pennsylvania as well with 72 events.

Friday December 2, 2022 at 10:06 pm
PokerStars announces new EPT Season with stops in Paris and Cyprus

PokerStars announced their 2023 live tournament events schedule for the European Poker Tour which includes five stops including two first-time destinations. The EPT kicks off in February 2023 with their EPT Paris debut. In the fall, the EPT heads to the EPT Cyprus for the first time. There's also usual stops at the EPT Monte-Carlo, EPT Barcelona, and the EPT Prague.

Monday November 28, 2022 at 11:17 pm
Win PokerStars Platinum Passes at Gotaga Poker Night or at Resorts World La Vegas

The Road to the PSPC continues. Here's your chance to snag a Platinum Pass to get a free trip to the Bahamas to play in the PokerStars Players Championship at Baha Mar Resort during the return of the PCA in January 2023. You can win a pass through a freeroll hosted by Gotaga, aka France's #1 Twitch streamer. Americans have a chance to win a Platinum Pass at a $400 buy-in tournament at Resorts World Las Vegas.

Thursday November 17, 2022 at 11:07 pm
2022 WSOP Europe: Sweden's Omar Eljach wins Main Event for €1.38 million

The 2022 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event at the King's Casino in Rozvadov has come to an end with Sweden's Omar Eljach edging out France's Jonathan Pastore to win the bracelet and €1.38 million in cash. The €10,350 buy-in affair attracted 763 runners. The final table also included Shaun Deeb, Barny Boatman, Alexandre Read, and Tim Adams.

Tuesday November 15, 2022 at 2:12 am
2022 WSOPE: Turkey's Orpen Kisacikoglu wins €50K Diamond High Roller

Orpen Kisacikoglu from Turkey won his first bracelet with a victory in the World Series of Poker Europe Event #11 €50,000 Diamond High Roller at the King's Casino in Rozvadov. Kisacikoglu won €748K and outlasted a stacked final table that included Sam Grafton, Shaun Deeb, Nick Petrangelo, Timothy Adams, Daniel Pidin, and Daniel Dvoress. Last week, Paul Phua secured his first bracelet with a victory in WSOPE Event #8 €25,000 Platinum High Roller for a €482,433 score.

Friday November 4, 2022 at 8:12 pm
2022 WSOP Europe: Anson Tsang Ships Event #4 €2,000 PLO

The 2022 World Series of Poker Europe is underway at the King's Casino in Rozvadov, and Yan Shing 'Anson' Tsang was the last player standing in 2022 WSOP Europe Event #4 €2,000 PLO to win €95,461 and his third-career bracelet. Tsang outlasted a final table that included Tomasz Gluszko, Shawn Stroke, Dario Alioto, Oswin Ziegelbecker, Vivian Saliba, Farid Jattin, Pavel Izotov, and Jorryt van Hoof.

Saturday October 8, 2022 at 5:44 pm
Daniel Negreanu wins 2022 Super high Roller Bowl for $3.3 Million

After whiffing in numerous high rollers, Daniel Negreanu outlasted 23 runners to win the $300,000 buy-in 2022 Super High Roller Bowl VII in Las Vegas. Negreanu banked $3.3 million for the victory, which marked the second-highest payout of his illustrious career. Negreanu edged out a final four at the SHRB VII that included Nick Petrangelo, Justin Bonomo, and Andrew Lichtenberger.

Free tournaments and added prizes

The Club Poker organizes freerolls and special tournaments with added prizes.
To qualify for free, register on our poker partners websites:

Tournaments Club Poker
6-MAX
$2.20
Big Poker League
Thursday March 23, 2023 at 7:04 pm
$125 added
6-MAX
$2.20
Big Poker League
Thursday March 30, 2023 at 7:04 pm
$125 added