The retired-from-poker Vanessa Selbst is back in action at the WPT Borgata Poker Open. And she’s back to her old tricks, making it to Day 3.
Selbst stepped away from the game, and her PokerStars ambassadorship, in 2018, to work for a hedge fund. But she’s back in action at the Borgata, the casino seeking $10 million from Phil Ivey, for the $3,500 World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open event, which drew 1,156 entries. After two days of play, that figure has dwindled down to 95 participants, one of whom is Selbst.
“It was close to home, and I love this tournament, so I decided to give it a whirl,” she told WPT.com’s Sean Chaffin of her decision to play some cards.
Selbst Chases First WPT Title
Selbst is the winningest female tournament player of all-time. She has nearly $12 million in lifetime cashes, and is guaranteed at least another $6,852 for her cash at the WPT Borgata Poker Open. The winner, however, will take home $616,186.
Selbst finished Day 2 on Tuesday with 318,000 chips, which is right around the average. Jonathan Jaffe, a WPT Champions Club member, held the chip lead at 1,035,000.
Selbst, who lives in nearby New York, is currently in between jobs. She decided to give poker another shot, albeit for just this one tournament.
The former PokerStars Team Pro member didn’t completely quit poker upon retirement. She made an infamous return to the WSOP in 2018, and had one of the most memorable bust-outs in history. On the Day 1 ESPN feature table, Selbst flopped a set of aces but Gaelle Baumann turned quad sevens to send her home early. She’ll be hoping for a better outcome in Atlantic City this week.
Stacked Field at WPT Borgata Poker Open
Selbst isn’t the only big name in attendance at the casino. Many other top pros made the trek to Atlantic City for the $3,500 buy-in tournament, and are already in the money.
Notable Day Two Chip Counts
- Victor Ramdin 1,016,000
- Maurice Hawkins 372,000
- Tony Dunst 314,000
- Asher Conniff 309,000
- Jonathan Little 280,000
- Cliff Josephy 149,000
Play resumed at noon ET on Wednesday. The final table is scheduled for Friday at 2 pm ET.
