Weird thread with all the negativity.

You don't like Selbst's personality at the table? Understandable, but it's not like there aren't sour personalities at every table of every mtt across the country. Personally, I liked watching her play, as she was bold, unpredictable, and different than most.

You don't like her political views? So what. You probably don't like some of mine, or the guy next door, or the woman at the cash register either. Not exactly surprising, considering the huge diversity of backgrounds, educations, cultures, races, religions, and personal circumstances we all come from.

You don't like her success? Get over it. She readily admits in the article that poker has gotten a lot tougher over the past several years. She admits to wanting a more stable home life and a more reliable income. She thinks she can make more of a difference with her Foundation and her causes making a living at Bridgewater than in poker. Sounds quite reasonable to me.

How does that work for lesbians?

I'm actually quite surprised that she landed a job. I know a guy who is just like her, extremely smart and even more educated. He is really unlikeable, although not even close to as obnoxious as Selbst, and he is having trouble landing a decent job.

Same way it does for a heterosexual couple where the male shoots blanks...

LOL

It’s almost as if they’re two totally different people, with different skills and career histories, one of whom you don’t actually know.

Why are you surprised ?

Not sure what "even more educated" means in your post, Selbst has a law degree from Yale. A Yale degree is like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket on getting considered for employment on Wall Street, or nominated for POTUS.

It won't suffice to land the gig, but it represents a leg up in the process.

While her poker history certainly did not hurt, I think she would have a more broad, credentialed skill set to offer than her television play and poker persona.

Is your "one guy" comparative case really "just like her" ? I don't know either of them so I'll have to take your word on their similarity.

"The Wizard: Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity! Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain! Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts — and with no more brains than you have. But! They have one thing you haven't got! A diploma! Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universita Committeeatum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of Th.D.
Scarecrow: "Th.D."?
The Wizard: That's, er, "Doctor of Thinkology"."

http://www.moviequotedb.com/movies/w...ote_26336.html

So, why surprised ? Remember, fwiw, Annie Duke also holds Ivy League degrees and has a second career advising Wall Street and corporate titans.

Bridgewater Associates is not a 'them', and it doesn't serve the individual investor. Copied from their website:

Bridgewater Associates is focused on understanding how the world works. By having the deepest possible understanding of the global economy and financial markets, and translating that understanding into great portfolios and strategic partnerships with institutional clients, we've built a distinct track record of success. We've done this for more than 40 years by having great people operate in a culture of radical truth and radical transparency. Today, we manage about $160 billion for approximately 350 of the largest and most sophisticated global institutional clients including public and corporate pension funds, university endowments, charitable foundations, supranational agencies, sovereign wealth funds, and central banks.

i would imagine that a lot of the successful hedge fund managers/bankers/lawyers/entrepreneurs are the most unlikable persons you will ever meet in life

Depends on the context in my experience. I've met successful folks in all those categories, how likeable they were often depended upon the context, and the definition of likeable.

Is your definition synonymous with charming, personable, friendly, outgoing ?

None of those traits of a person being likeable are necessarily in conflict with their exhibiting ruthless, professional, calculating conduct, in other contexts.

In the context of business, likeable is very useful but not the same as being a friend. Speaking about Wall Street, it has been said, "You learn in this business: If you want a friend, get a dog."

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/carl_icahn_188403

Cf: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/sev...mp-was-likable

All this hate for successful people here.. Vanessa rocks the tables, good coaching site back in the days, a law degree.. Give that women some credit please or prove that you are as succesful as she is in at least *one* field.

we don't hate her b/c she is successful. it's because of her attitude.

So someone else shoots for her?

i laughed at the casual claim of the guy knowing someone of higher merit than Vanessa. she might donk it up at the tables, but she’s also truly off-the-chart genius smart. it’s statistically impossible to know someone more talented AND unable to find work.

I've never understood the hate. Keep on keeping on, Duck.

This

Nothing likeable about her. Yuck times infinity.

Why the hate?
You really don't see why?

Lemme count the the reasons
(NONE of which involve the word "woman" or "lesbian")

1) She preaches how incredibly high-minded and tolerant she is, yet she treats anyone who so much disagrees with her like dirt or worse, calling them every name she can think of and calling them out. This alone makes her absolutely insufferable. Nothing more annoying than a self-righteous hypocrite

2) She is in the 1% yet hates the 1%. No one takes you seriously when you hate how rich you are and yet somehow find a way to suffer in luxury.

3) She made her way to the 1% on a game that takes away all the money of the less-skilled, less-intelligent, less educated, and less self-controlled, you know, the exact people she hates the rich for taking advantage of. She literally was/is that which she hates.

4) re-read #3 but replace "the rich" with "massive corporations" or "the system"

5) She takes a job from a MASSIVE CORPORATION where the specific mission is to take money (trading is the ultimate zero-sum game) from others. Sure, she can tell herself that she is making money for public teacher pensions, but as a teacher, I assure you, our pensions essentially put us in the top 10% of income earners in our retirement, so she is not helping the "little people" with this job. I should have a $70K pension when I'm 65. But thanks Vanessa for helping assure that for me!

6) Most of the "Vanessa supporters" use thinly-veiled or openly stated arguments of "you wouldn't say this if she wasn't a woman/lesbian" as if this site doesn't have one million posts shredding endless straight white males. Be honest with yourself, she is a walking hypocrite. The worst kind too, the one who shouts from the rooftops how she is better than everyone else.

7) Poker got too hard for her so she sold out to a massive, evil corporation whose sole purpose is to take other people's money and redistribute it to the rich!!!!

Oh the irony!!!!

The knots she must twist herself into to sleep at night must be amazing.

Great Post!


You forgot "Brutal to ALL the senses....especially sight and sound".

Sometimes God deals people a bad poker hand....she got 2-7 off suit.

You think that the most intelligent/educated always come out ahead in poker?

And you don’t see the difference between a poker game where people voluntarily choose to play and everybody has to play by the same rules, and some aspects of the corporate system? You consider somebody losing a $10k poker tournament and a parent working minimum wage jobs to be equal victims?

That’s an interesting take. I might still go with the Times reporter and the legendary financial firm that have actually met her, though.

I wonder if you people who view Vanessa as the smartest person alive have ever been in the educational system? Yes, she's got a degree from Yale, but you do know there's quite a few people with such a degree PLUS an engineering or economics degree? Most employers aren't looking for a super smart guy with the social skills of a chimp, they want someone really smart that doesn't make everyone else around want to kill themselves.

What's interesting is HOW you came to that conclusion? We both read the same thing, but I would have NEVER in a million years considered equating anything with a parent working minimum wage jobs.

I'm curious....do you also suffer from TDS? That could explain a lot of things.

I would want to hire people who can make money for investors. Who gives anything about the quality of the chit chat around the water cooler? Imo, she likely fits in perfectly in the organization anyway.

LOL at the education system, btw.

Agreed! With affirmative action...who really knows if they earned the degree or were just GRANTED a degree. A degree from an Ivy league school isn't what it used to be.

fact: dumb people jump to personal attacks (however thinly veiled they may be) when challenged.

i didn’t see anyone claim she’s the smartest human alive either.

hating someone because they come off as annoying in TV poker games is a sad take. there is no way around this.