Vanessa Selbst began playing poker when she was a young girl in Montclair, New Jersey, though playing sports like basketball and tennis took much of her spare time. It was until she attended college at Yale University, where she eventually graduated in 2005 with a degree in political science, that she started to take the game more seriously. She played home games with friends with players like poker pro Alex Jacob, and they introduced her to the online poker community, like the forums, that helped her hone her skills and learn more about strategy. After college, while turning into an avid poker player, she took several jobs, such as working for a non-profit organization and as a management consultant.