But how does an elite player like Selbst, who has the bankroll and freedom to play in pretty much any event she would like to, choose between an ever-crowded tournament calendar that often pits one enticing event against another? Vanessa told Pokerstars Women that she plays "whatever I'm in the mood to play and makes sense geographically. I'm not a crazy grinder so I take a lot of time off for sightseeing and relaxing, and I just play when I feel like playing. I think that helps me stay sane and focused--if I come out to play it's because I want to be there. This year has been influenced by the fact that my girlfriend is traveling with me to see the world, so we're trying to go to the most interesting and fun places--hence the upcoming trip to Vienna, Berlin, and of course Monaco (for the PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Finale)."
Selbst's fans often wonder if she'll pop up at high buy-in events such as this year's Super-High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, with its $100,000 entry fee. Selbst said she would rather play in a large field with more amateurs than a small, elite tournament: "I'm basically a bankroll nit, and I don't love variance. While the high rollers are fun because they're a much greater challenge and you can hit a big score, I think they're fun to play on occasion only. The key to a successful career is about finding the best value whenever I can."

The largest buy-in poker tournament of all-time is coming up at the 2012 World Series of Poker, the Million Dollar One Drop tournament. However, Vanessa is still weighing her options. "I'm still on the fence about playing it--it's really about whether I'm going to be able to raise the money, and I haven't actually started trying." Vanessa added that she was glad to be asked about it because of some controversy over her remarks. "I was misquoted and have been hearing a lot of backlash about how people thought I made disparaging comments about the event. Personally, I don't think it should be a regular bracelet event, but I think the event is a great idea in creating a lot of buzz and generating lots of money for a great charity."

Selbst's determination to play in events where she has the biggest edge possible is a good lesson for all grinders. We can be sure that whatever events she ends up playing, whether among thousands or an elite few tables at the One Drop, she'll be making a splash.

To join Vanessa in Monaco for the PokerStars Women Live event at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final (April 29-May 2), qualify via satellite for the €215 tournament (Sundays at 15:00) with a €2,500 package guaranteed. See the PokerStars Women site for all the details on the upcoming tournament.

Last night, two of the best-known young poker players and stalwarts of Team PokerStars Pro took first and second place in Event #45 of the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. After battling through a field of 98 players, Selbst and Duhamel cut a deal, and then played it out for the championship. Selbst's win earned her $140,295. Duhamel pocketed $121,115.

This is the point: Selbst and Duhamel win all the time. People might look at them as if they are on some hot streak or the luckiest people in the world. Alas, it simply isn't true. Someday, folks are going to have to admit that poker is a skill game, and Selbst and Duhamel are hoarding a lot of the skill in their heads.

Despite being on top of the game and among the best modern tournament players, Selbst told Tournament Director Matt Savage, "This is one of the toughest fields I've ever played in." You can check out the full interview (courtesy of the LAPC) below.

Congratulations to Selbst and Duhamel for yet another amazing performance. Now, if anyone needs me, I'm going to build an octagon out back for the Luck vs. Skill battle royale.

I think we all know who is going to win.

This year, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst has once again (yes, again) earned more than $1 million playing tournament poker alone. This weekend's third place finish at the WPT Five Diamond in Las Vegas for $338,000 pushed her into seven figures. Almost all of that money comes from live play. Her 2011 live results account for $974,423 of the cash. One only needs to add the $53,964 she won last January playing the Sunday Million to take Selbst over the $1 million mark. Again.

One could easily argue that Selbst had a better 2010 than any poker player in the world. Sure, she finished sixth on the 2010 live money list, but if you look at the top five players you'll note one thing: they all made the WSOP final table. Selbst, meanwhile, just toured the globe and crushed souls wherever she went. It was the kind of year few people have, and one most people would be happy to have once in their lives. Selbst had that year last year, and then turned around and banked seven figures again in 2011.

Indeed, there are few people who can take a $2.86 million year and back it up with another $1 million year. Selbst is one of those people, one of those few who can claim back-to-back seven-figure years.

Here's how she did it:

This kind of poker earning comes from a women who has split her time between poker and finishing her law degree at Yale. She's soon to have that part of her education behind her, leaving her to focus on whatever she decides is the right thing.

It all comes from a woman who wrote earlier this year, "I'm excited for what the future holds, but of course, as always with us poker players, it can change any minute, so who really knows? That's why I'm constantly trying to live in the 'now' and not feel bound by future plans."

Selbst's current "now" is a million-dollar "now." As for the future? Whatever it is, it seems clear she can afford it.

Congrats, Vanessa, on another big finish and another seven-figure year.

PokerStars Women (PSW)- You're known as an exceptional hand reader--how did you develop this skill?
Vanessa Selbst (VS)-I think I developed that skill with talking with friends and really trying to get to the core of what the hand is about. I'm really interested in the theory of poker so it was all about figuring out the best lines to take. Being one of the old-school Internet players, I didn't have a lot of people to look up to see how they played.

Another thing that helped was I've coached over 70 students over the past five or six years. You have to figure out different ways to articulate similar points because everyone has such different styles.

PSW-So it's mostly hard work?
VS-There is definitely some degree to which speaking about poker comes naturally to me. I have a very natural ability to do deductive reasoning. That's always what I was best at-- I did logic games as a kid. Being able to break down a hand and parse it into its individual parts comes from some innate ability. Translating that is what comes from practice.

PSW-So can anyone be good at poker?
VS-Most very good poker players have some innate ability and some practice. I look back at how I played four or five years ago and I am so much better, just through practice and experience.

It's funny, every single year I get better at poker I become more humble about it. I no longer think that I'm the best poker player in the world. Four or five years ago I thought I was god's gift to poker. And now as I learn more and more about the game, I discover the complexities of it. People I used to think were bad because I would see them doing things that were unconventional---some of those players are bad, but some of them are doing things that are good and are just thinking about it in a different way. The more you learn about poker the more you become open-minded about it...and you realize how much of a learned skill it is.

PSW-Are you playing mostly live now? What about mixed games?
VS-Yes, I'm playing lots of live tournaments now. I've dabbled [in mixed games] 20/40 and 40/80-I'm probably beating 20/40 and breaking even at 40/80 but I haven't played a large enough sample to really know. So I'm okay, but I have to get better. I think it's important to play all types of poker if you want to call yourself a professional poker player. Up until now, I haven't had the time to be good at all forms of poker. I'm going to finish up law school in January and then hopefully I'll dedicate a lot more time to learning mixed games.

PSW-How important is confidence to getting better? For instance, you talk about how important it is to talk about hands frankly, but for a lot of people getting into the game, they may be afraid of looking bad. What advice would you give on that for members of PokerStars Women?

VS- Talking to friends is the single most important thing I did in my development as a poker player. Meeting friends around your level and talking about hands is something you have to do.

In the act of parsing out a hand, and talking about each step of it, you start to make discoveries. In order to be an elite player, or even to be a good player, you have to figure out why certain plays work. It's like in math, you don't want to learn just the formula, you want to learn the proof. It's the same exact thing in poker. You can learn a line, like "You want to check this street for pot control" or "this is a good spot to check-raise," but if you're not learning why they're working you're not learning the strategy on your own and how to apply it to new situations.

So I think through talking about hands with people, you learn why things work and learn to answer the question "what else can we do here?" It took me a while to be okay with looking dumb. I used to be more arrogant when I wasn't as good as I am now. I would be afraid to ever admit I was wrong. It was probably frustrating to talk poker with me sometimes. Nowadays I'm the first to admit if I played a hand poorly. It's easier to do when you are more confident.

PSW-What has being on Team PokerStars Pro done for your game?
VS-It's nice to have some notoriety in the poker world. People know who I am and it's nice to know that people know who I am because I can expect that they know what my image is. They often play differently against me because of it. Since being on PokerStars, I've also had the opportunity to play many more tournaments.

PSW-So you've played in a number of European Poker Tour events since signing. How do you approach an EPT like this one (in London)?
VS- I think I'm getting more into the swing of EPTs. I cashed the last two I played. I don't really have a set game plan, I have to adapt to the table.

Sometimes I'll be at a really bad seat and there will be two really aggressive players on my left, and I'll just chill out. They won't expect it. They're so used to me playing crazy, but I'll have two really crazy players to my left so it's not going to work. And people pay me off anyway because they don't realize I'm playing tighter.

It depends on my table dynamic. If I have aggressive players to my right and tighter ones to my left...I'm going to be playing tons of pots, because I love playing pots with aggressive players. When they're raising Q7 in the hijack, I'm just going to call on the button with most hands.

PSW-What do you mean by most?
VS-Well, I'll flat or 3-bet with fifty percent of hands probably. It really sucks to play Q7 out of position on most flops. The only reason they are getting away with raising with those types of hands is people are afraid of aggressive players, but I love to play against them. I think it's a great way to chip up in these deep stack structures.

PSW-How many people do you usually recognize at an EPT table?
VS- It really differs a lot. It could be anywhere from zero to six or seven. London is one of the tougher events so I'll probably have a few people I know.

PSW- What do you think of the women of Team PokerStars Pro?
VS-The women are all excellent players. Everyone has results to prove it. PokerStars doesn't hire team pros because of their pretty face. Everybody really knows how to play poker and they're all people I'd usually prefer not to have at my table.

PSW-Which would you prefer least at your table?
VS-That's tough... Maybe Liv (Boeree) mostly because I've told her a lot about my game, so I feel like she might play better against me.

PSW- Even though there are still few women in these events, it seems the numbers are increasing. What can we do to further improve the stats?
VS- There's no reason to be intimidated. Women can be just as good as men at poker. I think as more and more women do well, it will have an exponential waterfall effect.

1. I heard about the tournament at the last minute, and only played it because I was on vacation at the time, and was going to be in nearby Barcelona one day before the tournament anyway.

2. I managed to get a seat during Day 1A, which was the same day all the satellite qualifiers played, and I had many of them at my table.

3. I got KQ vs. a bad player's 8 on a 7-9-2-J-T board, with no flush possible, on Day 1. That pot was one of many to vault me into the chip lead.

4. On Day 3, I got seated at the table with three of the top ten chip stacks. The other very big stack, who had position on me, got repeatedly bad beat by the fish at the table, on whom I had position.

5. On Day 4, I cold 4-bet and then 6-bet all in with A-3s and did not run into a monster hand. The 5-bettor folded.

6. Despite threats of airport closures due to strikes, I made it back to Cannes completely stress-free for the final table.

7. There was a cheating scandal and it turned out that one of the players at the final table had cheated his way to get there. He was one of very few players that I never played with throughout the tournament.

8. At the final table, I had a mediocre seat draw. Fabrice Soulier, a good player, was two to my left with a lot of chips, and Tobias Reinkemeier, also a good player, was on my immediate left. Tobias busted first at the final table. Fabrice got coolered or bad beat repeatedly, and he could never put his stack to use against me. All of a sudden, my seat draw became amazing.

9. Speaking of which, I coolered Fabrice with 8-8 vs K-T on a KT48 board, at the final table.

10. I ran K-K into A-A 5-handed on the button versus the cut-off, when we had a very aggressive dynamic together. Because it was the first hand back from dinner break, I was suspicious of the 4-bet and thought A-A was a strong possibility, so I did not get the money in pre-flop. An ace came on the flop and saved me my stack. Any other time during the final table, I'd have gone broke.

11. Heads-up, I had a very good feeling that Raphael would 5-bet me if I 4-bet his first 3-bet. I knew he did not want to be run over and thought I would try to run him over, and I knew he would try to establish that early. I was NOT planning on 4-bet bluffing his first 3-bet. My luckiest hand might have been picking up Q-Q on the 5th hand of heads-up play, having him randomly decide THAT was the hand to 3-bet K-6o, and then having him 5-bet bluff shove 80BB with it. If I pick up Q-Q even the second time he 3-bets, I think he just folds to my 4-bet. But I got it the first time, and I won the tournament with it.

12. During the two-month break (there was a break before the final table played out), the Euro improved dramatically against the dollar, and I made over $150,000 more than I would have in September.

When I look back on all the luck I had in this and ANY tournament, and just all the ways there are to be lucky or unlucky, it's much easier to stomach the bad beats that come from the cards. The cards are just a small part of the game, which includes every factor present during the entire course of a tournament, whether it's your personal life, your table position, or the weather outside.

So the next time you get aces versus kings all-in preflop and the king comes, just consider it a cooler rather than a bad beat. You could have had the kings where no king came, and you would have lost your money just the same. And think about the different factors playing to your advantage to get you to that point in the first place. It's an interesting perspective if nothing more, but a little humility can go a long way towards giving you the impetus to improve your game.

At the very least, it might make you think twice before telling that next bad beat story. Trust me, the player sitting next to you at the poker table will thank me.