Vanessa Selbst

Vanessa K. Selbst (born July 9, 1984) is a poker 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 bracelets and is the 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. 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, New York, into a Jewish family. She attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a year before transferring to Yale University, where she graduated with a degree in political science. After Yale, on a Fulbright scholarship, she spent a year in Spain. On her return to the United States, she worked for consulting firm McKinsey & Company. . During her time at Yale University, she was head of the Yale Queer-Straight Alliance. Selbst was a coach and executive producer for DeucesCracked, an online poker training site.

World Series of Poker bracelets

Year Event Prize money 2008 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha $227,933 2012 $2,500 10-Game Six Handed $244,259 2014 $25,000 Mixed-Max No-Limit Hold'em $871,148

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 in a Super High Roller event, taking third place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 buy in tournament in January 2014.

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. In 2025, she participated in the World Series of Poker $10k Eight Game Mixed Championship.

As of 2026, Selbst's total live tournament winnings exceed $11,928,000.