Vanessa Selbst’s Net Worth & Poker Career Earnings

Discover everything about Vanessa Selbst’s incredible poker career and transition away from full-time poker into the equally competitive world of finance. Also read how she became the most dominant female player in history and about Vanessa Selbst’s net worth.

For many years, Vanessa Selbst was widely regarded as the greatest female player the game has ever seen.

The Yale‑educated lawyer turned high‑stakes crusher has amassed a live tournament career record of $11,928,957 with three WSOP bracelets, despite building her reputation as one of the finest cash game players in the world.

Selbst has racked up multiple seven‑figure scores in the live arena, and is still the only woman ever to hold the No.1 spot on the Global Poker Index.

During her peak years between 2008 and 2015 she routinely battled the toughest minds in the game, while also building a reputation as a fearless, outspoken competitor.

Below you’ll find everything you need to know about Vanessa Selbst’s net worth, career earnings, poker achievements, early life, playing style, personal life, and latest news.

Quick Facts Table

Vanessa Selbst’s Net Worth

Vanessa Selbst’s net worth in 2025 is widely estimated at around $7 million. This figure, similarly agreed upon by many sources, reflects both her poker results and her off‑the‑felt career.

The Hendon Mob database shows $11,928,957 in live tournament earnings going back to 2006, recording 20‑plus six‑figure results. These include three seven‑figure scores such as her €1.3M Partouche Poker Tour win and $1.42M PCA $25K High Roller title.

While these numbers do not represent pure profit, Selbst’s cash game career will have paid out handsomely, too.

Post-poker career, Selbst has also built a lucrative professional life away from the felt. After announcing her retirement from full‑time poker at the end of 2017, she joined Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, working in trading research and strategy.

Taken altogether, an estimated net worth of around $7 million is both plausible and conservative.

Career Earnings & Highlights

Vanessa Selbst’s live tournament earnings total in 2026stand at $11,928,957, putting her in second place on the women’s all‑time money list behind Kristen Foxen and ahead of many of the most successful tournament pros of her era.

Key milestones include:

• Career‑best cash of $1,823,430 for winning the 2010 €8,500 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event.
• $1,424,420 score in the 2013 PCA $25,000 High Roller, which cemented her status as the all‑time leading female money winner at the time.
• Back‑to‑back NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event titles in 2010 and 2011 for a combined $1.2 million in winnings.
• Three WSOP bracelets and $2.2 million in WSOP cashes.

During her absolute peak, Selbst consistently posted results considered world-class by any player, male or female. This quality of results cemented her legacy as the most dominant female pro of her era.

Early Life & Background

Vanessa Selbst was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 9, 1984, and raised in a Jewish family.

She spent her early years in the Big Apple before moving to Montclair, New Jersey where she began to show strong academic promise.

Selbst’s high school grades were good enough to earn a place at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) but she only stayed for a year before transferring to Ivy League Yale University where she would major in political science.

It was at Yale where Selbst would get introduced to poker for the first time, playing casual home games with her friends.

After completing her undergraduate degree, Selbst received a Rhodes Scholarship interview and later returned to Yale to attend Yale Law School, one of the most prestigious law programs in the world.

During this period she balanced intense academic work with an equally serious poker grind, setting the stage for what would become one of the greatest poker careers of the boom years.

Selbst worked with Student/Youth Against Racism and other civil‑rights and social‑justice causes, and for a time envisioned a future as a public‑interest lawyer or civil‑rights litigator.

Ultimately, the challenge of high‑stakes poker pulled her toward the felt, but her academic and activist roots would continue to shape both her image and future once poker fell by the wayside.

Vanessa Selbst’s Poker Career

Vanessa Selbst began her poker career as an online and live cash‑game grinder before turning her attention more towards live tournaments.

While studying at Yale, she cut her teeth in online No‑Limit Hold’em and Pot‑Limit Omaha games as well as live games around New York and New Jersey.

Even around the time she won her first WSOP bracelet she still described herself as more of a cash‑game pro than a tournament specialist.

Her live tournament breakthrough came right away in her debut at the World Series of Poker in 2006. Selbst final‑tabled a $2,000 No‑Limit Hold’em event for $101,285, followed by two more WSOP final tables the following year.

In 2008 she picked up her maiden gold bracelet in the $1,500 Pot‑Limit Omaha event and then took third in the $10,000 Heads‑Up Championship. There was no doubt about Vanessa Selbst’s quality by now.

From 2010 onward, Selbst went on a historic tear. She won the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event in 2010 for $750,000 and then defended the same title in 2011 for another $450,000.

In between those titles she took down the 2010 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event in Cannes for €1.3 million (about $1.8 million), and in January 2013 she added the PCA $25,000 High Roller for $1,424,420 to become the most successful female live tournament player of all time.

Her WSOP record kept pace with her overall success. She won a second bracelet in 2012 in the $2,500 10‑Game Six‑Handed event, then a third in 2014 in the $25,000 Mixed‑Max No‑Limit Hold’em for $871,148, becoming the only woman ever to win three WSOP bracelets.

At her peak in the early to mid 2010s, Selbst’s consistency pushed her to No.1 on the Global Poker Index, becoming the only female player ever to hold that ranking.

Alongside her playing career, Selbst coached and produced training content for DeucesCracked, a leading poker education site in the pre-Black Friday era.

At the end of 2017, Selbst announced she was stepping away from professional poker, leaving Team PokerStars and later joining Bridgewater Associates to pursue a career in finance.

Since 2019 she has made occasional visits to the live circuit, racking up just a handful of cashes.

Playing Style & Reputation

Vanessa Selbst is one of  the new breed of players who rose to the top of the game in the poker boom era.

This hyper‑aggressive, fearless, and intellectually rigorous style of play began to roll over the previous generation, most of whom failed to adapt.

Like most of the new crushers, she combined strong theoretical foundations with a willingness to put opponents to the test in massive pots, often running bold lines that many players would never dare to attempt.

At the table, Selbst is intense and highly competitive. She has never been shy about confronting opponents, calling out what she sees as poor behaviour.

This abrasiveness turned Selbst into a polarising character but overall she is seen as one of the good people at the tables.

Controversies & Legal Battles

Vanessa Selbst’s career has been completely free of scandal. There are no credible accusations of untoward behaviour attached to her name in poker circles.

Most of the “controversies” involving Selbst relate more to on‑table blow‑ups or social‑media debates than to any wrongdoing.

She is known for being outspoken on issues such as sexism in poker, politics, and social justice, which has occasionally led to heated social media exchanges.

Some fans admire her for this candor while others find her confrontational, but there is no black mark against Selbst for any of this.

Personal Life & Relationships

Off the felt, Vanessa Selbst has built a life that extends far beyond poker. She is openly gay and has long been a visible LGBTQ+ figure in the game, frequently speaking about representation and inclusion.

She married her wife Miranda Foster in 2013, and the couple have two children together.

Selbst remains active in various progressive and social‑justice causes, including criminal‑justice reform and anti‑racism work, tying back to her earlier activism and legal education.

She has also done mentorship and public speaking aimed at encouraging more women and under‑represented groups to enter poker and other male-dominated competitive spaces.

Latest News & Updates

Although she retired from the full‑time grind in 2018, Vanessa Selbst has not completely disappeared from poker. That said, fans who are interested in tracking her down at the tables will struggle to pin her down due to her low volume and random appearances. Maybe she will reappear on award-winning show Billions.

But any time she decides to sit down in a major event, she is still one of the most respected and closely watched players in the room.