Vanessa Selbst Wins WSOP Event #52: The $2,500 10-Game Mix
The $50,000 Poker Players Championship aside, this event is seen as one of the most difficult to win due to the calibre of poker player it attracts.
Vanessa Selbst has become the first woman to win a World Series of Poker bracelet event since she herself won her first bracelet back in 2008 after she took down Event #52 of the 2012 WSOP, the $2,500 10-Game Mix.
The $50,000 Poker Players Championship aside, this event is seen as one of the most difficult to win due to the calibre of poker player it attracts. Whilst many of today's budding poker players opt to specialise in one or two formats of the game, this event stretches everyone's knowledge by playing 10 different games in rotation and really tests a player's ability. The games playerd are No Limit Hold'em, Seven Card Razz, Limit Hold'em, Limit Badugi, Seven Card Stud, No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Pot Limit Omaha, Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball and Seven Card Stud hi/Low Split-8 or Better! How many of those can you play?
Selbst went into the six-handed final table armed with 1,008,000 chips with her nearest rival, Michael Saltzburg, holding almost half of that with a stack of 597,000 at his disposal. Although nothing is ever certain in poker this writer would have bet good money on Selbst emerging victorious in this event with the stacks how they were. She really is just too good to throw away such a chip advantage.
The popular Selbst first took out Mike Gorodinsky in sixth place during an Omaha round. The pair got their chips in on a Ks-4h-2h flop with Selbst holding Ah-9d-3h-4s to Gorodinsky's Kd-7c-6d-4c. The turn was the 5h gifting Selbst a steel-wheel (straight flush ace-to-five) and leaving her opponent drawing dead.
Now with over twice the number of chips as anyone else Selbst really started to turn the screw and apply constant pressure to her opponents. She busted out Thomas Chambers during one round of Razz then when the play switched to Limit Hold'em her Ad-7c bested the Kc-Qs of Chris Bjorin to leave play three-handed and her holding the majority of the chips in play.
Selbst took a short break from eliminating anyone who dare stand befor eher when Michael Saltzburg sent Tommy Hang to the rail during a round of Seven Card Stud but Saltzburg had his work cut out as he trailed Selbst 516,000 chips to 2,641,000; there really was never going to be any other result.
It took around 40-minutes for Selbst to hoover up the rest of Saltzburg's stack and it happened during a 2-7 Limit Triple Draw round. It was fitting that Selbst won the final hand by showing 7d-5c-4s-3s-2h which the eagle eyed amongst you will recognise as the nuts because this win showed that Selbst really is one of the game's greats. Some may say she is the nuts.
Event #52 Final Table Results
1st: Vanessa Selbst - $244,259
2nd: Michael Saltzburg - $150,849
3rd: Tommy Hang - $97,884
4th: Chris Bjorin - $64,649
5th: Thomas Chambers - $43,099
6th: Mike Gorodinsky - $30,169
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
