newjerseynewsroom.com

BY JERRY MILANI

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The sport of poker has been under siege the last few months, as regulators and online businesses go back and forth in the courts, with talk of wire fraud, tax evasion and criminal mischief of all sorts. Meanwhile, the online poker industry is counter-charging harassment and is issuing a call to action to legalize online wagering of all kinds.

Lost in the middle is a thriving poker business that has become spectacle in recent years, from ESPN’s highly successful World Series of Poker to NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” and now “Epic Poker,” the latest entry into the television poker wars. The explosion of the game created stars of a generation used to video games, action sports, and high action. It has also touched off another debate on the dollars states, especially New Jersey, can bring into the nearly empty coffers through the legalization of online gambling, especially poker.

With all the controversy many of the leaders of the sport are looking not just for reform but for education of a public that is of the opinion that poker as a business is now and should always be, confined to the casino or the backrooms. That education will take another step forward in the coming weeks when the International Poker Federation hosts The Nation’s Cup, a country-by-country competition of the game of duplicate poker, which will be played in The London Eye on November 18-19.

It will be the latest step in trying to establish poker as a mind sport, along with other games of skill like chess, bridge and draughts (known here as checkers). There will be 12 countries represented in the two day event with a poker style (duplicate) lending much more to skill and less to luck than the traditional game. The goal is to link poker with the other Mind Sports for a quadrennial competition, similar to the Olympic Games in style.

Heading to London for the United States will be a six person team, four men and two women, all established high stakes poker players with a passion for the mental aspect of the game as much as the financial side. One of the elite members of the U.S. team is Montclair resident Vanessa Selbst, arguably not just one of the best female players, but one of the fastest rising stars overall in the game today.

Selbst, a Yale University graduate now completing her studies at Yale Law School, began playing in high school and quickly increased her skill level, eventually winning an elite WSOP event at Mohegan Sun in 2010. The Montclair High graduate has played all over the world, and is known for her analytic and aggressive style that makes her one of the best in the sport.

We caught up with Vanessa as she wrapped up school and prepped for The Nation's Cup.

NJNR: The Nation’s Cup and the International Poker Federation are the latest steps to try and change the image of the sport. How do you feel about being involved?

VS: There is a natural assumption that all poker is about gambling, and that is not true. Poker is 95 percent skill and five percent luck, and many who are involved on the professional side work hard to improve that skill set. It is what makes good players great in any sport. However the gambling aspect is what people associate most with poker, and that is what these efforts are looking to change. I agree that it is a game of skill and practice and am pleased to be involved.

NJNR: How did you get involved playing poker?

VS: I started like many others, playing with friends in high school in Montclair and it just grew from there. I played online and in games throughout college and kept improving and raising my level of play. It is something I have always enjoyed doing.

NJNR: You graduated from Yale with a degree in political science and are now finishing Law School at Yale. Do you ever get any unusual looks when you tell people you are a professional poker player?