Vanessa Selbst Wins $1 Million on Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout
If you've been watching NBC Sports on Wednesday nights the past few weeks, you've no doubt seen episodes of the Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout. The event, which took place this past summer, featured two single-table events: a table of celebrities (Hank Azaria, Don Cheadle, Brad Garrett, Norm Macdonald and Kevin Pollak) and a table of pros (Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Vanessa Selbst).
The winner of each – Pollak for the celebs and Selbst for the pros – then faced off in a best-of-three match with $1 million going to the winner. On Wednesday, August 12, the final episodes aired and saw the pro best the celebrity.
“Vanessa is a great example of how fascinating poker players are,” said Clint Stinchcomb, CEO of Poker Central. “The stories behind the players are just as interesting as their play. Poker’s popularity, with players and fans alike, crosses all ages and demographics.”
Selbst is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished and interesting poker pros in history. Raised in Brooklyn and Montclair, New Jersey, Selbst attended MIT for a year before transferring to Yale. After graduating, she then spent a year in Spain on a Fulbright Scholarship before returning to the states, where she took up poker full time. That was in 2010, when she amassed $3 million in tournament earning.
The three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner followed that up by graduating from Yale Law School in 2012, all the while making a name for herself in the poker world. The latest win marked Selbst's third six-figure score behind the $1,823,430 she won in the 2010 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event and $1,424,420 after winning the 2013 PCA $25,000 High Roller.
Selbst, the only female player in the Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout, has more than $11.5 million in lifetime earnings, putting her on top of both the Female Poker Player and New York all-time money lists. Selbst is also the only female poker player to ever rank first on the Global Poker Index.
According to the organizer of the event, Poker Central, Selbst plans on using part of her $1 million winnings to help fund Venture Justice, her foundation that provides seed money for a variety of non-profits and social causes.
Speaking of which, on September 29, Selbst will host the “Blinds & Justice 2015” poker charity tournament in New York City. The event will raise funds for the Urban Justice Center, a non-profit that helps New York City’s most vulnerable residents through direct legal service, systemic advocacy, community education and political organizing. You can learn more about that event by clicking here.
While the Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout is over, poker on TV is not as the $500,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl will premiere on NBCSN on August 28th.
“This will be some of the toughest poker playing on earth with some of the world’s best players,” Stinchcomb said of upcoming episodes. “This nail-biting, non-stop, high pressure poker will have you glued to the game.”`
Be sure to check your local listings.
*Lead photo courtesy of Poker Central and Joe Giron.
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