VANESSA SELBST AND THE PROBLEMS OF LUCK
Vanessa Selbst taking part in the Nations Cup last November
The skill versus luck argument, with a little help from Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst…
Selbst was lucky to win her first tournament in 2008, after two years of learning how to be a solid tournament poker player by scoring four cashes (including two final tables) at the World Series of Poker.
Selbst was lucky when, using this experience, she won her first WSOP bracelet in a pot-limit Omaha event, less than six months later.
Selbst was lucky when, just days later, she finished third in the WSOP heads-up championship.
Selbst was lucky when, before the year was out, she’d won the World Poker Finals event in Mashantucket, a tournament she was lucky to win again a year later.
Selbst was lucky when, in 2010, she won the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) main event at the Mohegan Sun, not far from Yale University where she studies law.
Selbst was lucky when, five months later, she flew to the south of France to win the Partouche Poker Tour main event.
Selbst was lucky when, a year later almost to the day, she won the NAPT Mohegan Sun main event again, the first player to win two NAPT main events.
Selbst was lucky when, in December 2011, she came third in the prestigious World Poker Tour Five Diamond Poker Classic.
Selbst was lucky most recently last week, when she won the Los Angeles Poker Classic.
In fact the only way Selbst is unlucky is that, while being one of the best poker players in the world, people still think her game is all about luck.
At the IFP we’re not so sure that “luck” is going to run out.