Posts Tagged ‘Vanessa Selbst’

Poker Player Newspaper ends Print Magazine just as GPI launches One

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

With a wealth of poker news and information now available on the internet, many printed poker magazines are having a rough go of it these days. For Poker Player Newspaper, the pressure became too much as they ended their print edition after 30-plus years in the business.

Owner Stan Sludikoff said that the costs of printing and distributing a magazine “have escalated past a point of feasibility in our current business model.” He added, “Accordingly, effective immediately, we will be publishing Poker Player Newspaper exclusively on the Internet at pokerplayernewspaper.com.” Sludikoff, who’s 78, also mentioned that he’s open to selling the business with the following statement:

At this point in my life, given my desire to pass the mantle as well as to work through the economic pressures as expeditiously as possible, I am looking for a working partner/investor or alternatively for a full buyout of my family-based Poker Player business which has operated since 1982.

Just as Poker Player Newspaper is getting out of the print magazine business, the Global Poker Index will be launching a free printed mag. As an official partner of the World Series of Poker, the GPI will have a booth at the Rio this summer and distribute their magazine. In addition to the Rio, the free publication will also be handed out at other Las Vegas casinos like the Aria, Bellagio, GoldenNugget, Venetian and Wynn.

The company’s CEO, Alex Dreyfus, is extremely excited to venture outside the bounds of their internet presence. “This is our first full-scale foray outside of the digital,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier to take this step and keep our growing momentum going in time for the 2014 WSOP.”

Some of the content that’ll be in GPI’s June edition includes a feature on Vanessa Selbst and her WSOP plans, Top 1,500 GPI US Rankings, and a guide of Las Vegas for WSOP out-of-towners. If you’d like to read the first edition of GPI’s magazine online, you can do so here.

Vanessa Selbst discusses Link between Poker Players and Investors

Monday, October 28th, 2013

Thanks to the fact that she’s the women’s all-time leader in poker tournament winnings with $8 million and has a Yale Law School degree, Vanessa Selbst gets a lot of mainstream attention. So it was little surprise when Bloomberg TV interviewed her in a segment dedicated to the link between poker players and investors.

The reason for the sudden interest in poker on Bloomberg’s part is due to their new show, Poker Night on Wall Street. Rather than having pros compete against each other, this TV show pits successful hedge fund managers like Bill Perkins and David Einhorn against each other.

When asked why she thought these Wall Street guys could be good at poker, Selbst said, “Absolutely, there’s so many similarities, cross-overs between the two industries. You’re taking calculated risks, processing a world of information that’s at your disposal.”

Selbst also discussed how the math aspect of poker favors investors. “It’s a game of numbers, it’s a game of pushing small edges,” she said. “Another skill that is important is to take the downswings, and not go on tilt as we say, and really be OK with losing for a long time in a row. You know, just like investments that were maybe a good idea at the time, and they just went the wrong way.”

Moving away from the investors, the two-time WSOP poker champ also had some advice on what the average player does wrong. “I would say that they don’t play their hands aggressively enough. They kind of get scared that they don’t have the best hand, so they don’t capitalize – they don’t maximize their gains when they have the best hand.” She added that players really need to go after it when they think that they’ve got the top hand.

Vanessa Selbst has certainly never been afraid to go after a pot when she thinks that she’s in the lead. And the $8 million-plus that she’s earned certainly indicates this fact. Seeing as how Selbst has collected over $2.4 million in tournaments this year, you can count on seeing her in the winner’s circle plenty more in the future.

Allyn Shulman wins WSOP Event #29 – Breaks Women’s Losing Streak

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Many people who’ve been following the 2012 WSOP are well aware that it’s been a while since a woman has won an open entry event. In fact, we haven’t seen a female open WSOP champion since Vanessa Selbst did it in 2008. However, Allyn Jaffrey Shulman finally ended the drought by winning the Event #29 Seniors Championship along with $603,713.

Before Shulman’s victory, it had been a lengthy 249 consecutive open WSOP tournaments without a female champion. Fortunately, we can now lay this talk to rest since the CardPlayer writer and lawyer won one for the ladies.

Following her victory, Shulman talked about the importance of women grabbing bracelet wins by saying, “I do think it’s important and I don’t think women have been given their due. I’m happy for myself, but I’m happy for all women that I won this, showing that any woman can win a poker tournament. I’d like to see more of them out there playing, feeling comfortable with going at it with the boys and winning.”

Aside from the fact that she became the first woman since ’08 to win an open WSOP tournament, Shulman also helped create some more history. Seeing as how her husband, Barry, and son, Jeff, also made final tables this year, they became the first family to put three members on a WSOP final table in the same year.

With Allyn’s bracelet, the Shulman family could make a claim for having poker’s best bloodline. Barry won the 2009 WSOPE Main Event, which netted him a $1,321,534 windfall. The same year, Jeff finished fifth in the 2009 WSOP Main Event and cashed for $1,953,452. As if these huge cashes aren’t enough to make the family wealthy, the Shulman’s have also made a very nice profit off of their CardPlayer Magazine business.

Amanda Musumeci falls short in 2012 WSOP Event #9

Friday, June 8th, 2012

To say that there’s a drought among female winners at the WSOP is an understatement. In fact, the last woman to win an open-entry WSOP tournament came in 2008, when Vanessa Selbst won a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Maria Ho came close to ending this drought last year when she finished runner-up to Allen Bari in a 2011 WSOP $5,000 NLHE tournament – but again, no dice.

So it’s no surprise that plenty of people were excited when Amanda Musumeci made a deep run in the recent 2012 WSOP Event #9. The Philadelphia native burst onto the poker scene last year when she made a deep run in the 2011 Main Event; she ended up finishing 62nd and earning $130,997. So many poker fans were already well aware of Musumeci by the time the Event #9 final table rolled around.

Unfortunately for her, Ashkan Razavi was busy steam-rolling opponents at the final table, and by the time he and Musumeci met heads-up, he had built over a 6:1 chip advantage on her. She managed to make things entertaining by doubling up at one point and prolonging the heads-up match for a while; however, it wasn’t enough as Musumeci finished in second with a sizable $481,643 prize.

Seeing as how she was runner-up, this signifies another miss for the ladies when it comes to open WSOP tournaments. Of course, things aren’t over by a long shot for the women because there are still 50 bracelet events left to be played, which leaves them with plenty of time to end the dry spell.

As for Musumeci, there’s no reason to be sad because she’s proven to be quite the grinder over the past year. In between her 62nd Main Event finish and the 2nd place finish in the 2012 WSOP, she managed to cash in 15 different tournaments – including eight WSOP Circuit events. Taking all of this into account, she’s now earned $748,223 in career tournament winnings.

High Stakes Poker sponsored by Gold Strike Poker

Monday, April 25th, 2011

High Stakes Poker has picked up a new sponsor in Gold Strike Poker, which comes on the heels of an announcement that all PokerStars ads and commercials will be removed from the show. This is great news for the show because many feared that HSP would be canceled after the US cracked down on PokerStars. Fortunately, Gold Strike’s sponsorship deal ensures that at least somebody will step in to fill the financial void left by Stars.

Gold Strike Poker is quite an interesting site because it’s one of the few legal US poker rooms operating in the country. Of course, to operate in the US, Gold Strike obviously can’t offer real money games to players. Instead, players pay $19.95 each month, which gives them unlimited play on the site and a chance to win various prizes like vacations and electronics.

As you can see, the Gold Strike sponsorship is a vast change from Stars, which set numerous records for the multi-million dollar real money tournaments they run on a monthly basis (not sure if this will continue). With the major change, it will be interesting to see what direction the show goes in as we move from PokerStars to Gold Strike Poker.

One thing that won’t be changing are the huge pots constantly featured on the show. Barry Greenstein and Julian Movsesian got involved in a $146,000 pot, which Greenstein won after he paired his aces, and Movsesian failed to get any help from the board.

Another huge pot involved Mike Baxter and Haralabos Voulgaris, who played for $168,000; Baxter’s A-Q failed to improve so Voulgaris’ pocket kings held up to win the massive pot. One more big hand was a $179,000 pot between Phil Laak and Bill Perkins. The two chopped the pot when they ran the turn and river twice; Laak’s pocket aces held up the first time, but Perkins hit a flush during the second run.