Just how good is Vanessa Selbst?
Barry Carter pays tribute to Vanessa Selbst's victory at the WSOP and makes the case for her being one of the best players in the world.
2014 is fast shaping up to be a great year for women in poker, as two of our top female ambassadors are making waves and breaking records. First Vicky Coren became the first double-EPT champion and now Vanessa Selbst has won the first open bracelet event of the 2014 WSOP.
Selbst is a player who seemingly breaks some sort of record every time she cashes in a poker tournament. Last week she claimed her third career bracelet, tying her with Barbara Enright for the most bracelets won by a woman. Most notably, this took her career earnings above the $10 million mark after her $871,148 win.
Coren’s achievement is a great story and advert for poker, but for me the bigger accomplishment for female poker is Selbst becoming the first women over the $10 million mark. The all-time money rankings (Where Selbst is currently 21
That is, of course, with the exception of all those players topping the money rankings because of a single victory in the WSOP Main Event. Thankfully we have an even better (but still not totally perfect) way of deciding consistency in the form of the Global Poker Index rankings, where Selbst currently sits in 4
Best in the world contender?
I always feel a little bit conflicted when I talk about Selbt’s success being ‘good for female poker’ or her being the all time leading female money winner. I am worried that framing it in these terms somehow excludes her from the overall ‘best in the world’ discussion, of which she clearly is a contender.
However, it is important in my opinion to celebrate her success as a woman, because the poker industry can benefit so much from leveraging her achievements in this way to promote the game (Could you imagine how huge it would be if she won One Drop?).
If doing so has the unintended consequence of discounting her from the overall ‘best of’ discussion, it shouldn’t, because I believe she is one of the best overall live tournament players in the world right now. Top ten at least, and top five probably (Her 4
It is fitting that she has just leapfrogged Jason Mercier in the money rankings because I see them as almost identical in their accomplishments at the felt. They are both simply two of the ‘winningest’ players of the last six years, who simply have a knack for winning something major every year.
Consistency and versatility
Selbst has won a title with at least a six-figure first prize every year since 2008, with the exception of 2009. This includes three bracelets, two NAPTs, an EPT High Roller and the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event. The last five years have seen her cash for around a million each year, and the last two years over $2 million.
Her three bracelets have proven her versatility too, as she has claimed the gold in PLO, 10-game mixed and No Limit Mixed Max, so literally every format of tournament poker has been played on her way to winning them.
Perhaps most amazing of all, she has done all this at a young age, while juggling a number of other responsibilities including getting a Political Science degree and a Law degree at Yale, as well as working for a non-profit organisation.
That in itself is perhaps the most inspirational part of this whole story; that she can become an elite player while still finding the time to do other very meaningful and challenging things.
So how good is she? It is a complete no-contest that she is the best female player in the world, that ship sailed many years ago. I genuinely think she is top five in the world at tournament poker and right up there with the likes of Phil Ivey in the ‘best of’ conversation.
Is Vanessa Selbst one of the top five tournament players in the world right now? Let me know your views in the comments box.
 Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. He has been working in the poker industry for nine years and in 2013 won the APAT Award for Best Poker Media Provider. You can learn more about his work here.
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