Selbst Giddy with Excitement at WPT Lucky Hearts!

Vanessa Selbst may have announced her retirement from professional poker at the beginning of the year, a game which she said has provided her with so much over the past 12 years, but it seems as though the “Women’s All Time Money Earner” still intends to keep entering the occasional tournaments whenever she can spare the time away from her Hedge Fund duties.
In fact, last week Selbst decided to take part in the 2018 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open currently taking place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida and on the 16th posted the following tweet:
“Will any friends be at the Hard Rock this weekend? It’s gonna be my first tournament as a rec and I’m actually giddy with excitement.”
While Selbst couldn’t contain her excitement at the prospect of playing live tournament poker again, it wasn’t long before the controversial pro was met with a certain amount of derision, with Daniel Shak, a part-time poker player and hedge fund manager himself, leading the foray after commenting:
“Why retire 2 weeks before you play a tournament kind of doesn’t make sense . Why not just wait till after this one. Kind of an insult to all the press and people that reached out to wish you good luck on your new journey. Seems the same as the old.”
Less scathing, but equally as dismissive were comments posted by a number of other twitter followers, including these:
Lekan Oyefeso
“Lol. I see a new designation in your future: Professional Rec! :)”
Alex Weldon
“Have you been taking retirement advice from Fedor?”
Unlike Fedor Holz, Germany’s top tournament earner who has been taking down numerous events since also announcing his retirement after the 2016 World Series of Poker, Selbst’s poker retirement has gotten off to an inauspicious start, and as she  later tweeted:
“Just busted close to the money QQ<KK”
Interestingly, for the two years prior to her announced retirement Selbst had recorded two of her worst results to date, having earned just $115,975 in 2016, followed by $8,231 for the whole of 2017. Obviously any payout that Selbst may have booked at the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open would have been significant in comparison, so she may feel that entering the occasional tournament will represent a potentially win-win situation for her. On the flip side, Selbst may still have to endure a certain amount of trolling and criticism from her detractors when she does, and as she wrote yesterday:
“People been giving me shit all weekend then Shak’s tweet was annoying.”