Vanessa Selbst Gives Poker Talk To Science Camp

Poker pro Vanessa Selbst, the most successful female tournament player in history, last week gave a talk on poker and the math behind it to a science camp in New Jersey that she went to as a high schooler, according to a report from dailyrecord.com.

The three-week long program was Drew University’s summer Governor’s School of the Sciences, and this year 85 high school seniors participated. Drew University is located in Madison, NJ.

“Some of the alumni speakers we bring in give science talks,” Adam Cassano, associate professor of chemistry and co-director of the Governor’s School, told the Daily Record. “Vanessa is one of our distinguished alumni, and we thought we would bring her in to give a different kind of story.”

Selbst, who recently obtained her law degree, has more than $10.7 million in career tournaments. She told the students that her foundation in math, specifically probability, helped eventually launch her poker career, which is Hall of Fame worthy. Selbst is 31 years old and will have to wait until 40 to be eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame.

She did advise students not to pursue poker as a profession because the game has become very tough over the years. Still, she didn’t say it was impossible.

In 2014, Selbst won her third WSOP bracelet. The 2015 summer poker festival wasn’t as great for her, as she cashed for three times but didn’t record a final table.

Back in May, Selbst garnered some mainstream media attention when she appeared on the Steve Harvey Show and gave the program’s host a quick poker lesson, though it didn’t seem to stick very well for him.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which Selbst once attended before going to Yale Law School, has been giving some of its students a poker education. The school recently put a handful of lectures from one of its many poker courses over the years online for the public to watch for free.

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