Have you heard of poker player Shelby Wells?
You haven't?
That's probably because she has $684 in lifetime poker tournament cashes.
Shelby has 3.4 million in the Main presently, with 243 left out of 8663 players. She has (by far) the most chips of any remaining female in the event. She has about 1.5x average, in case you're wondering.
She could not afford to enter the Main Event, but was gifted a seat via a social media contest held by Nadya Magnus, which awarded two Main Event seats to female players.
I don't know her, and poker media oddly isn't covering her. Even Jennifer Newell, who is a huge advocate for females in poker, overlooked Shelby when listing the remaining females in the field (I presume Jennifer thought Shelby was a guy, when browsing the remaining names).
A look at Shelby's Twitter reveals some interesting stuff which is atypical for someone this deep in the Main.
She actually was able to get cut-rate internet as recently as January 2022, due to being lower income:
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1481302607150915585
She used to grow shrooms in her house:
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1495765429884796928
She's a Kentucky country girl who fishes:
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1495842380079157252
She's pro-polyamory but doesn't engage in it herself (paging Justin Bonomo):
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1496868248268193795
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1496868988906729473
She has a bunch of pet rabbits living in her backyard:
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1537549839378022404
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1538019183778070529
She recognizes that her 3-bets are extra respected, given that she's female:
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1546349587748728834
She admits stupid mistakes deep in the WSOP Main, which most people would pretend didn't ever happen:
https://twitter.com/lorenshleby/status/1546591571776180229
My VisiCalc database says that she's 27 years old. Totally different politics than me, from what I can see, but I like her. In a way, she's a female Chris Moneymaker. This is the type of person whose success will get more women in poker. People tend to try poker when they see someone succeed who otherwise appears to be an everyman/everywoman.
Very surprised that the poker media hasn't taken notice of her yet. People like this are far more interesting to cover than the same pros we see over and over.
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