The Poker Player: Vanessa Selbst + psychologist John D. Mayer

How do you deal with being dealt a bad hand? Personality psychologist John D. Mayer gets some tips from star poker player Vanessa Selbst about how to avoid a bad read, limping in, and when to bluff the pot. And above all: how to maintain focus without appearing that you are.
Vanessa Selbst is a professional poker player and the highest earning female poker player of all time, with over $8 million in winnings. She is a member of Team Pokerstars Pro, where she plays under the username “V. Selbst.” A native of Brooklyn, New York, Vanessa has been playing poker for over ten years, her best being in 2010, when she won the North American Poker Tour stop at Mohegan Sun for $750,000, finished 4th at the EPT London High Roller Event for over $200,000, and won the Partouche Poker Tour main event in Cannes for over $1.8M. She earned almost $3M in 2010, earning her 6th place on the 2010 money list, several high rankings in player of the year races, and the honor of being named the Wicked Chops player of the year. In 2012, Selbst captured three titles, including her second WSOP bracelet. She joins an elite group of women to have won multiple bracelets in an open event. In January 2013, Selbst won the PCA High Roller Event, winning just over $1.4M and taking over the top spot on the Women’s All Time Earnings List. In addition to being a successful poker player, Vanessa is also an executive producer and private poker coach at DeucesCracked. She has made dozens of instructional videos in various disciplines of poker. Selbst hopes to earn enough money to eventually fund a foundation dedicated to the creation of national civil rights projects.
John D. Mayeris a professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire and a key innovator in intelligence research. He has written more than 125 scienti?c articles, books, and psychological tests, including the internationally known Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT™). He has lectured around the world and has appeared on NPR and BBC-TV. His work has been covered in The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. His new book Personal Intelligence: The Power of Personality and How It Shapes Our Lives is published this February. He lives in New Hampshire.