Vanessa Selbst and Kevin MacPhee Spat In Berlin

Anyone watching the European Poker Tour Berlin main event on TV the other day couldn’t help but get engrossed in the leveling war which took place between Vanessa Selbst and Kevin MacPhee whilst at the featured table. The €5,000 buy-in EPT8 originally took place in April this year, and the starting field of 745 entries had been reduced to 60 players when this bizarre hand occurred.
Good friends away from the table, rather than concentrating on tangling with less experienced competition,  Vanessa Selbst (4-4) raised to 17,000 only to have MacPhee (A-9) make it 37,000 from the button. What then ensued was a raising war resulting in Selbst eventually 6-bet shoving all-in despite holding her lowly pair.
Apparently, Kevin MacPhee had noticed Vanessa Selbst constantly re-raising pots earlier holding less than optimal hands and so on this occasion decided to make a stand. Nevertheless, he was probably expecting her to fold before it went too far and so took an extra 10 minutes to call her final shove.
“Do you have ace-jack?” asked Selbst, to which MacPhee responded, “No, ace-nine.”
The look on Selbst’s face spoke volumes as to what she thought of MacPhee’s decision and after the board rolled out A-8-6-Q-A turning MacPhee’s 425,000 stack into 870,000, Selbst sarcastically announced “Very nice hand.”
MacPhee replied “My plan was to call..just wanted to think it all through,” to which a stunned Selbst wasted no time walking over to her good friend Liv Boeree on the rail, who also happens to be MacPhee’s girlfriend, and declared:
“****ing  worst play I’ve ever seen..seemed to be after me at the time, I have no idea why..he’s a friend of mine..I don’t know why friends go after me but he does it every single tournament.”
Needless to say, poor Liv found herself in a middle of an explosive situation between two of her best pals and so remained pretty quiet while also appearing sympathetic as to Vanessa’s grievance.
The bizarre hand obviously had an effect on Selbst’s play and she subsequently was eliminated a short while later in 48th for €13,000, while MacPhee progressed a little further to a 19th place finish worth €20,000. Nonetheless, the hand went down as one of the main highlights of the 2012 EPT Berlin, and the incident seems to have since been forgotten by the trio of friends.