Vanessa Selbst Wins $1 Million In Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout

Vanessa Selbst (cover image) recently won a special Super Highroller Celebrity Shootout, which has been airing on Poker Central the past few weeks, for a sum of $1 Million. The channel has been airing episodes of the event, which was an invite-only freeroll. The event had two single-table events, with one for celebrities including Hank Azaria, Don Cheadle, Brad Garrett, Norm Macdonald and Kevin Pollak and other table with poker pros, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Vanessa Selbst playing.

The event format had one winner each from the two tables, who were Pollack and Selbst. These two were then pitted against each other in a three-match challenge, with the best performer getting the top prize of $1 Mn. These final episodes were aired on Wednesday, Aug 12 showing Selbst overcome Pollack in the finale.

With this win, Selbst adds a third, seven figure score to her portfolio, taking her already considerable earnings to over $11.6 Million.

Speaking about Selbst’s win Clint Stinchcomb, CEO of Poker Central stated “The stories behind the players are just as interesting as their play. Poker’s popularity, with players and fans alike, crosses all ages and demographics.”

“Vanessa is a great example of how fascinating poker players are,” he added.

Selbst sure is one of the most well-known names, besides being a truly amazing player among a field of several top pros. Selbst hails from Brooklyn, studied a year at MIT, completed her graduation at Yale and spent a Fullbright scholarship-sponsored year in Spain. After returning to the US, she turned full-time pro and during the intervening years has collected several titles, as well as 3 WSOP bracelets.

Selbst is also extremely active in charity events and on September 29, she will host a charity event “Blinds & Justice 2015” in New York City. The event is being held to benefit a non-profit organization Urban Justice Center, which provides the impoverished with free legal support for human rights.

With the $1 Million earnings from this latest event, Selbst will be using some of it to fund her own organization, Venture Justice, which provides seed capital to various causes and non-profit groups.