Vanessa

In the past 40 years, poker has come a long way. There have been many changes in the game worldwide, especially when it comes to women.

When I started playing poker in the 1960s, there were only a handful of females who played poker professionally. Most of them hung out in Gardena, CA., then known as the 'poker capital of the world.' They were usually older women who had developed a passion and skill for the game. Some of them were good, but they had their problems when it came to playing against men.

After the poker explosion that came with the invention of the under-the-table camera that could let television audiences see a poker player's hand, women began joining the poker scene. One of them was Vanessa Selbst from Brooklyn, N.Y.

Vanessa came from a Jewish family and she was gay.

She was also brilliant. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at Yale University and studied law at the Yale School of Law. She followed that up by attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She graduated from Yale and was preparing to take her bar exam. That was when she discovered poker.

It changed her life and her career.

Her talent for playing poker was incredible. She began winning at cash games and tournaments and she delayed taking the bar exam. It wasn't that she gave up dreaming of becoming an attorney. She had simply found a profession that seemed to be much more satisfying than practicing law.

She started playing poker seriously at Foxwood in Connecticut and quickly built a reputation as one of the toughest poker players in the casino. After moving to Las Vegas, she continued playing and began winning tournaments.

I have never met Vanessa and have never played against her, but from what I hear, she is a formidable opponent.

A growing number of poker players -- many of them male -- are convinced that if a woman ever wins the World Series of Poker, it will be Vanessa Selbst.

To date, she has won over $12 million playing poker and she has accumulated three WSOP bracelets. She also 'married' her girl friend to make their status legal.

Vanessa is a member of several civil rights groups and is active in promoting civil rights for gay organizations.

After placing her career as a lawyer on hold, she announced that she is postponing that career while she decides what she wants to do with her life. Right now, she said, poker is just too exciting a career to drop it for a law office.

Short-haired, attractive and intense, Vanessa has what it takes to win at poker. She is a fearless player who won't let anybody intimidate her. She averages more than $1 million a year in poker earnings and travels around the world to play in all the major tournaments.

Other players think she is formidable. One well-ranked male player said, 'If I was facing any single person at the final table, I would rather it be anyone but Vanessa Selbst. She is tough and wants to win at all costs. You have to admire anybody who plays the way she does.'

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).