A big congratulations goes to Vanessa Selbst, Angelica Hael, Terry King, and Jennifer Tilly for being selected as the 2022 class of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.
The four will be inducted into the WiPHoF at 10 a.m. PT on December 14 at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort in Las Vegas. The ceremony is open to the public. They will join a group of 21 women players and poker industry members “who have acquired prominence and have made contributions to the poker world.”
The inductees were part of a group of seven who were nominated by the public. The hall’s 19 current living members, other select poker insiders, and media members distributed 10 points among the seven women. The top four got in.
Those who missed the cut were Kristen Bicknell Foxen, Kara Scott, and Liv Boeree. King, Hael, and Tilly made the short-list in 2018, the last year the WiPHoF added members.
Vanessa Selbst
The three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner walked away from poker around 2020, but maybe this honor will pull her back into the game she once dominated.
Selbst’s WSOP bracelets came in a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event in 2008, a $2,500 10-game mixed event in 2012, and the $25K No-Limit Hold’em mixed event in 2014. She’s cashed 29 times for $2.2 million at the WSOP.
Other notable wins include a $1.4 million payday at the $25K PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2013 and the €10K Partouche Poker Tour Main Event in France in 2010, which was her biggest career cash for $1.8 million.
Selbst also won $1 million on the NBC show “Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout” in 2015. First, she had to beat a table with Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth. She then had to beat actor Kevin Pollack, the winner of the celebrity table, heads-up.
The $11.9 million tournament lifetime winner went to Yale for both her undergraduate and law school degrees and now works as an options trader.
Jennifer Tilly
Although Tilly never nabbed an Oscar during her long (and ongoing) acting career, she has a WSOP bracelet and a World Poker Tour title — both in ladies’ events in 2005.
The daughter of a poker player and gambler, she’s been playing poker for more than 25 years. Tilly was ahead of the poker trend in Hollywood, breaking out cards on her movie sets between takes before poker exploded into the mainstream in the early 2000s.
She most recently appeared on the newest incarnation of “High-Stakes Poker,” sitting next to Doyle Brunson. A gregarious ambassador of the game, her real job, of course, is being an actor. Nominated for a Supporting Actress Oscar for “Bullets Over Broadway” in 1995, she’s appeared in 100s of movies and TV shows.
I am proud and honored to be inducted into the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame, with these exemplary players. https://t.co/uKxVpYzXxR
— Jennifer Tilly (@JenniferTilly) November 15, 2022
Angelica Hael
A member of the business side of the poker industry, Hael has been with the World Poker Tour for 12 years. She is “known industrywide for her dedication to advancing and promoting women’s participation in poker as well as for helping to grow the WPT into a truly global brand,” according to CardsChat Podcast host Robbie Strazynski, who interviewed Hael in October.
Hael is currently WPT’s Vice President of Global Tour Management, where she oversees the overall management of World Poker Tour and WPT-branded events.
The WiPHoF calls her work “visionary” for women poker players who helped create “a platform for women and all poker players worldwide.”
Hael started as a poker dealer at the Crown Casino in her home country of Australia, where she was discovered by partypoker when they were in town for the Aussie Millions in 2005. She began as a liaison and coordinator for them, eventually becoming the site’s VIP Marketing and Player Development Manager. She joined WPT in 201o.
Terry King
The winner of the 1978 WSOP Ladies event, King has been a poker insider, prop player, and dealer since she arrived in Las Vegas in 1972. She also worked as a floorperson, tournament director, and shift director during her career in Southern California poker rooms.
A member of the poker world for more than 50 years, King is a poker and gambling historian who curates the Action Now Sports Poker group on Facebook, which has more than 4,000 members.
She appeared as a guest on CardsChat Podcast in April, where she shared stories on what it was like to be on the inside of the poker world in the late 70s.
