Vanessa Selbst Bids Farewell to Poker Career

In a surprise development to kick-off the New Year, Vanessa Selbst has announced her withdrawal from Team PokerStars Pro, as well as her retirement from the game of poker. The 33-year old New Yorker made her career choice change known via her Facebook page, before going into further details as to the factors which ultimately helped her to make the difficult decision.
From 2006-2017, Selbst has been one of the most high-profile professional player on the circuit, and for many years now has sat atop of the ‘Women’s All Time Money List’ with $11,851,383 in career earnings, placing clear daylight between herself and Kathy Liebert ($6,171,145), Annie Duke ($4,270,548), Annette Obrestad ($3,936,871), and Liv Boeree ($3,566,434).
Vanessa Selbst has also captured three WSOP bracelets during that time, tying her in first place with Barbara Enright for the most number of gold bracelets won by a female player. Despite her departure from full-time professional poker, however, Selbst hinted that she would not be totally distancing herself from the game, explaining:
“Anyway, whatever happens with my next career, I know that I’ll never truly stop playing poker (just ask Fedor Holz what happens when you retire)!”
One of the main reasons cited by Selbst for her decision was that she no longer wishes to constantly travel outside of the country in order to play online poker, with her priorities now focussed upon building a home and starting a family. Other reasons mentioned by the pro for her quitting includes her not wanting to promote poker as an ambassador anymore as she feels the game is no longer beatable by amateur players, and also the more competitive the game has become, the more she feels that it has turned into a real job for her.
As to where her next career direction lies, Selbst said that she was excited by the prospect of devoting more time to the hedge fund group she is involved with, and sharpening her trading skills and strategy. Elaborating further as to the feeling she gets from working with her new group of traders, Selbst stated:
“I’ve actually already been there for almost four months now, and the environment feels a lot like poker did back in the day – a bunch of nerdy kids collaborating to try to beat our opponents at a game. It’s exhausting, exciting and completely humbling every single day.”