Vanessa Selbst retires from poker

One of the most accomplished female poker players announced her retirement from the game and ended her sponsorship deal with Pokerstars.

Selbst with her fiancée

Vanessa announced her retirement on her Facebook page, where she gave a detailed explanation of her decision. The 33-year-old professional disclosed several reasons for her goal to change poker to finance, where she plans on trying herself. "My next career I’m giving a shot is at a hedge fund. I’m doing trading research and strategy. I’ve actually already been there for almost four months now, and the environment feels a lot like poker did back in the day – a bunch of nerdy kids collaborating to try to beat our opponents at a game."

In her post, she explained how her relation to poker changed in the past few years, mainly because of Black Friday. Selbst believes her age also has a lot to do with her new approach to her life goals. In her post, she said how the games getting tougher made her feel like poker was a real job, instead of a profitable passion.

Vanessa was focusing mainly on live tournaments, where she amassed $11,851,384 in lifetime earnings, her biggest score coming from 2007 when she took down the Partouche Poker Tour - Main Event for $1,823,430. She was famous for her reckless and aggressive style at the tables, which helped her accomplish great things in poker, even though sometimes it cost her a lot.

 
Vanessa being Vanessa in The Big Game

With her assertiveness and drive, it's safe to say she's going to go big in the world of hedge funds as well. Good luck, Vanessa!

(video credit: youtube/tolkachigor)

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