Vanessa Selbst(credit: Poker Stars Blog)
Vanessa Selbst played field hockey and varsity tennis at MIT before moving on to Yale University. Selbst is a formidable poker player as well. Since 2006 she’s made two WSOP final tables and finished fourth in the Heads-Up NLHE Championship at the 2007 World Series. She also made headlines for taking the title at the WPT Ladies’ LA Poker Classic event.
Selbst is in the lead at the World Poker Tour Ladies championship. The first part of the event was played over two days at The Bellagio on the Las Vegas strip. 150 women paid the $1,500 buy-in to play in the tournament. Some high-profile ladies such as two-time WSOP Ladies champ Susie Isaacs actually cancelled plans to attend the event after learning that 15% of the buy-in was set aside as a donation to event partner, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.
Wendeen Eolis, Chairperson of the World Poker Association (WPA) said “the furor has centered on the WPT’s insensitivity to the varying financial means of ‘working players’ and more broadly on the decision to compel a charitable donation in an event labeled as a championship.” She asked the WPT to “reverse this mistake.”
WPTE Chairman of the Board, Lyle Berman, announced that “The WPT has re-evaluated its decision to make a charitable donation a condition for participation in the WPT Ladies Championship. In the future there will be no such requirement in a WPT championship event.” He went one step further and joined the WPA as a professional member.
This year’s event will remain unchanged, however. The final table is set to be played on April 25th, 2008 as part of the World Poker Tour Championship. Joining Selbst at the table are Nancy Todd Tyner, Janice Kim, Cindy Kerslake, Donna Varlotto and Van Nguyen. Nguyen is the wife of poker pro, Men “The Master” Nguyen. She became the first lady to win a WPT open event when she took down the Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce Casino in March 2008.
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