Selbst is a Yale arts grad who took time off from poker to go to Law School. She is a Team PokerStars pro and one of the top players in the world after her amazing run over the last year.
"I have no words to describe how I feel right now," she said. "To be able to defend the title is amazing. They both meant tremendous things for different reasons, but this is really, really important to me."
The final table this year had several experienced players including hedge fun manager Dan Shak and NAPT Los Angeles winner Joe Tehan and Steve O'Dwyer."For some reason, Connecticut and poker agrees with me," she said.
"It's so incredible, I can't even describe it. Every time I leave law school to go and play a poker tournament, I have a joke that my friends expect me to win because I've literally just won every tournament that I've played in Connecticut the past two years."
When play got to heads-up, it looked like Dan Shak, who had better than 70% of the chips in play, had the advantage, but Selbst flopped a set of kings to take the lead she would never give back up."It's so incredible, I can't even describe it. Every time I leave law school to go and play a poker tournament, I have a joke that my friends expect me to win because I've literally just won every tournament that I've played in Connecticut the past two years."
Selbst had a banner 2010, after winning the NAPT title and $750k last year, Selbst then won the Partouche Poker Tour main event in France, bringing here total earnings on the year to more than $2.8 million.
NAPT Mohegan Sun final table results:
1. Vanessa Selbst - $450,000
2. Dan Shak - $254,000
3. Tyler Kenney - $170,000
4. Thomas Hoglund Jr. - $120,000
5. Vincent Rubianes - $90,000
6. Joe Tehan - $70,000
7. Aaron Overton - $50,000
8. Steve O'Dwyer - $32,330
