Vanessa Selbst Tells New York Times Poker 'is a Very Insular World'

In an interview appearing this weekend in the New York Times, the biggest female money earner in the world of poker says she has no regrets when it comes to "retiring" and joining the prestigious hedge fund, Bridgewater.

“You have no job security, no health insurance. You’re traveling constantly. You have no stability in terms of your life,” Ms. Selbst explained. “And there are huge swings because if more people now have a chance to win, it’s very easy to have a losing year," she tells the Times.

It was also hard in Selbst's personal life.  She goes onto describe the drain it had on her relationship with wife Miranda Selbst.

“A lot of poker spouses are put in the awkward position of having to give up their passions to just support this other person,” Miranda Selbst, 37, said. “It’s very hard to explain to your friends at home who have 9-to-5 jobs and think you are on vacation all the time. People don’t really know how lonely and boring that can feel.”

Still, we would be remiss in not pointing out Selbst has won $12 million in live tournaments.

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She made her move from poker to hedge fund management a little under a year ago, much to the surprise of the poker community.  Selbst has since made a reappearance at the World Series of Poker in Vegas.

The Times writes:

Ms. Selbst was impressed to learn that Bridgewater — which has $160 billion under management from more than 300 pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors — makes its money for clients not by trading individual stocks but by betting on shifts in a wide range of macroeconomic international data. As her Twitter profile now slyly alludes — “I used to gamble and wake up late; now I gamble and wake up early” — her poker skills could apply.

READ MORE OF THE NYT PIECE HERE

- Ace King, Gambling911.com