International poker pro Vanessa Selbst had the satisfaction of taking down a trash-tweeting Jason Mo Friday in the $25,000 buy-in Mixed Max event at the World Series of Poker, turning possible failure into certain victory by taking two major pots in the finale.
The event was one of the first to start at WSOP last Tuesday, when 131 entrants packed nine-handed tables at the Rio. Among them were big names like Phil Ivey and John Juanda, neither of whom survived long enough to cash.
By Thursday the field was down to just 16 as the survivors raced toward Friday’s heads up semi-finals. Selbst was prominent in the action, managing to reverse a seven to one disadvantage against chip leader Al Decarolis to head for the final, whilst Jason Mo beat JC Tran to earn his place.
With the Selbst vs. Mo final heads up in place, Mo used his 2 to 1 chip advantage to grind away at Selbst’s chip stack. Through disciplined skill she was able to stay in the game, and that enabled her to take two major pots that helped her claw her way back into contention and eventually eliminate Mo at hand 63 to claim her third World Series of Poker bracelet and the $871,147 first prize.
Selbst has enjoyed an outstanding year so far, earning over $1.3 million for a third placing in both the $25,000 and $100,000 High Roller competitions at the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure tournament.
The WSOP win boosts her career earnings to around $10.5 million, $2 million of that earned in world-class clashes in WSOP events.
But it was the prestige of winning a third WSOP bracelet that appeared to appeal most to Selbst:
“There’s no feeling like having your first gold bracelet,” she observed following her victory. “But there’s no feeling like having your third, either. They’re all pretty incredible.”