Vanessa Selbst Makes History at the WSOP

The World Series of Poker is always the exhilarating centerpiece of the entire year in the world of tournament poker, and the electricity can be felt in the air when the first cards are dealt each summer at the Rio.

The first open event of the 2014 WSOP proved worthy of that excitement. The $25,000 buy-in mixed-max no-limit hold’em event turned out to be both thrilling and historic.

From a field of 131 of the best players in the game, Vanessa Selbst emerged victorious with her third gold bracelet, earning $871,148 for the win.

The 29-year-old pro is the first female ever to win three open events (Barbara Enright has also won three, but two came in segregated women’s events.) Only 63 players have ever won three or more bracelets in the prior 44 years of WSOP action. Here is a look at how this gripping event played out.

Mixing It Up

In case you aren’t familiar with the format, a mixed-max event features no-limit hold’em throughout but mixes up the number of players at the table at different stages throughout the event. On Day 1 of the event the 131 players who put up the $25,000 buy-in took their seats at nine-handed tables. Spread across 15 tables in the Amazon Room were many of the games greatest players, along with accomplished businesspeople.

Day 2 saw the 60 survivors of Day 1, including Selbst and other superstars like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth, return to the tables to play six-handed poker. On that day 44 players hit the rail, with John Juanda being eliminated on the money bubble. The five-time gold bracelet winner moved the last of his chips into the middle with the Q 6 after it folded to him in the small blind (SB), only to run into the A Q of Robert Tepper in the BB. Juanda failed to draw out and was eliminated in 17th place.

With that, the remaining 16 players bagged up their chips for the day, having locked up at least a $54,945 payday. They were to return for Day 3 to four-handed tables and continue to play until only four remained. At that point, the format would once again shift, this time to heads-up matches, with the shortest stack playing the chip leader and the two medium stacks facing off. Restaurateur and amateur poker player Al Decarolis would enter the final sixteen as the chip leader, with top pros JC Tran and Vanessa Seblst just a few BBs behind him in the counts.

Shorthanded Showdown On Day 3

It took less than six hours to thin the field from 16 to the final four on Day 3, with fast and furious action at each and every table. With only four players per table, the under-the-gun player is also in the cutoff, so there is no such thing as early position and with the BB coming out of a player’s stack every four hands, there’s no time to wait for premium hands.

Among those who hit the rail throughout the afternoon were Noah Schwartz (16th – $54,945), Calvin Anderson (14th – $63,158), Nick Schulman (13th – $63,158), Richard ‘Nutsinho’ Lyndaker (11th – $72,617), Darren Elias (9th – $85,342), Aaron Jones (8th – $112,752) and Matt Giannetti (5th – $171,461).

When the dust settled, the final four were set. Al Decarolis would take a roughly 7-to-1 chip advantage into his match with Vanessa Selbst, while WSOP bracelet winner and 2013 November Niner JC Tran would face off against heads-up no-limit hold’em specialist Jason Mo. Despite the latter match being far more even in terms of chip counts, with Tran starting with 3,350,000 to Mo’s 2.5 million, it was the first to come to a conclusion as a result of a huge flip the two played.

Mo opened to 110,000 from the button and Tran three-bet to 275,000. Mo responded by moving all-in for 2.84 million with the A K and Tran called with the 10 10.

If Tran’s hand held up he would advance to the final match, but if Mo caught he would take a massive lead and leave Tran crippled. Mo took a commanding lead in the hand after the flop brought the K J 5. The turn brought the 6, leaving Tran drawing to one of the two remaining tens in the deck. The 5 on the river secured the massive double for Mo and left Tran with less than four BBs. Just a few hands later he was eliminated, earning $290,622 for his efforts. Mo moved onto the final day with 5.8 million in chips.

The other match battled on for roughly two hours longer, with Selbst grinding away at the huge chip disparity to essentially tie things up. The two traded leads for a while, and by the time the final hand of the match arose, Selbst had nearly three times as many chips as Decarolis, who raised to 250,000 from the button with the A K. Selbst defended her blind with the 9 8. The flop brought the 9 7 4 and Selbst checked. Decarolis continuation bet 275,000 and Selbst moved all-in for roughly a million total. Decarolis made the call and found out that he was behind. The turn and river did not pair either of his overcards and he joined Tran on the rail with $290,622.

Selbst Heads-Up For History

Vanessa Selbst came into the final match with 3,960,000 in chips. Already a two-time bracelet winner with roughly $9.6 million in lifetime tournament earnings, Selbst was clearly the more accomplished live tournament player. But even though Jason Mo may not be a household name, he has plenty of experience playing heads-up no-limit hold’em for high stakes online and also fell just short of winning his first WSOP bracelet in when he finished second to Brian Hastings in the 2012 $10,000 no-limit hold’em heads-up championship.

With the bracelet and the $871,148 first-place prize up for grabs there was already plenty to motivate the final two, but Selbst’s desire to win may have been strengthened even more by comments Mo made on Twitter during Day 3. Selbst had eliminated Mo’s friend Ryan Fee in seventh place, opening from the button with the 9 8 and then four-bet shoving over Fee’s three-bet from the big blind with the A K. Fee made the call and was in the lead until Selbst flopped a pair, which held up, sending Fee to the rail.

Afterwards Mo Tweeted “lol Vanessa is so bad, poor Fees.” If the comment caused any bad blood between the two, it didn’t show at the table. Both were quiet and intently focused on their play during the 72-hand battle. Mo began with a 3-to-2 advantage and was able to stretch out the lead to more than 5-to-1 at one point during the match. Selbst was able to double up and close the gap a bit more before the pivotal hand of the match arose.

Selbst opened to 250,000 from the button with the Q Q and Mo three-bet to 750,000 with the A Q. Selbst made the call and the flop brought the J 10 5. Mo checked and Selbst fired a smallish bet of 580,000. Mo made the call and the turn brought the Q, the case queen, giving Mo top pair and Selbst top set. Both players checked, and the 2 hit the river. Mo bet 1,315,000 and Selbst just called with her set, winning the pot and taking a nearly 3-to-1 lead.

Nine hands later it was all over after Selbst’s K J held against Mo’s 9 7. Mo earned $538,308 for his second runner-up finish at the WSOP while Selbst wrote her name in the history books as the first female ever to win three open events at the World Series of Poker. Only 63 players have ever won three or more bracelets.

“There’s no feeling like having your first gold bracelet,” said Selbst after the win. “But there’s no feeling like having your third, either. They’re all pretty incredible.”

Selbst was already the highest earning female tournament player by a healthy margin, but with this win her live tournament earnings grew to more than $10.5 million, moving her into 19th place on the all-time live tournament money list. With this win Selbst has further proven that she is one of the best players in the game. Only time will tell how many more major titles she will win. ♠

Selbst Continues To Crush Tourney Circuit

For the past five years, Vanessa Selbst has contended for the Card Player Player of the Year title.

Less than 24 hours after her historic win, Card Player caught up with her to learn more about her record third gold bracelet and this momentous win.

Erik Fast: Congratulations Vanessa for joining the short list of players with three bracelets or more and moving inside the top twenty on the all-time earnings list. Your win really resulted in a lot of awesome stats, but how did it feel?

Vanessa Selbst: It feels amazing, but it’s still not quite real at this point. It hasn’t really sunk in, but I can say that I feel really fortunate and grateful. I ran well, and just am very happy that I was able to come out on top.

EF: Over the past few years you’ve had an incredible record. You finished third, fourth, 20th and 31st in the past four years in the Card Player Player of the Year race, and half of that time you were at Yale Law getting a degree. You already had two bracelets and plenty of other big wins, but what does this most recent bracelet mean to you?

VS: This bracelet is awesome because it was such a tough field. In a $25,000 buy-in there are a lot of players who really know what they’re doing, so it really takes a lot of focus and concentration at a high level. So to win a bracelet against this field is just really sweet.

EF: The social media world and the poker media both made a big deal about Jason Mo’s tweet disparaging your play. Did that serve as motivation at all to you, or did you try to sideline all of the stuff away from the felt?

VS: You know, honestly I didn’t even look at his Twitter or anything like that. I was just trying to stay as positive as possible and keep negativity out of my world. Generally that is the approach I am trying to take now. But having heard about it and knowing that he likes to run his mouth, I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t make the win a little sweeter. But, for the most part I try to just focus on my own game and my friends and family who are supporting me.

EF: You ended Day 1 as the chip leader and Day 2 essentially tied for the lead, but made it to the heads-up segment as the short stack. You managed to overcome some big chip disadvantages in both matches. What were your thoughts on the heads-up segment?

VS: It felt really great to overcome those really big chip disadvantages. In the semifinals I was very short, but doubled right away and then just played small ball poker against a less experienced heads-up opponent. I was lucky to get that draw and get some cards as well and not run into any huge coolers. Against Jason, I knew he is a great player, so I was trying to mix it up and unfortunately early I ran into a couple of big hands when I was making moves. Luckily, when the blinds got big, I made some hands and was able steal some pots. It just worked out.

EF: With this win you became the first female player to win three open WSOP events and roughly doubled the live tournament earnings of the next highest female player on the all-time money list. What are your thoughts on these records?

VS: It feels great to keep pushing the records, but at the end of the day I would just really love to see more women out here competing. We are seeing more and more women at these tournaments, and looking around the Rio today I see a woman at almost every table, which is awesome. I just hope [female participation] continues to grow in the future. ♠