Team PokerStars Pro - Vanessa Rousso

Vanessa Rousso

With French-American dual citizenship, Vanessa Rousso, who was born in New York, graduated with honors on a full scholarship from Duke University and was all set to go to law school in Miami with plans to become a securities litigator. Then she discovered poker and the plan changed.

It was at Duke that Vanessa grew interested in Game Theory which shows how complex math-based decision making strategies can be applied to everyday life. Add to that a lifelong love for games and it’s hardly surprising that she would become a poker player, and in 2005 she began making an impact on the game. She was developing her skills with some powerful results and a year later made the final of the WPT Championship, taking away more than $250,000 for her 7th place finish. That same year she became the youngest female player ever to reach the final of a World Series event, finishing 8th in the $5,000 Shorthanded Hold’em event, which she followed with a win in a preliminary event at the WPT Borgata Poker Open, a haul worth $285,450. In March 2009 Vanessa proved her heads-up poker credentials by reaching the final of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Las Vegas. The star-studded event featured 64 of the world’s best players and she picked up $250,000 for an impressive second place. Next up was the EPT Grand Final, and the biggest result of Vanessa’s career. Every year Monte Carlo attracts the world’s best players, and the €25,000 High Roller sees the best of the best do battle. Vanessa played through the field to finish first, taking the win and €720,000 in prize money.

Vanessa has many hobbies which she crams in to what spare time she has. As a self-confessed adrenaline junkie she’s a regular sky-diver and bungee jumper and has also written strategy articles for several poker magazines.

More titles are surely just on the horizon for Vanessa, and as a member of Team PokerStars Pro plays under the name ‘LadyMaverick’.

Career Highlights

Event	Date	Position	Prize
WPT $25,000 No-Limit Championship	April 2006	7th	$263,625
WSOP $5,000 Shorthanded No Limit Hold’em	July 2006	8th	$61,955
WPT Borgata Open $5,000 No Limit Hold’em	September 2006	1st	$285,450
Ultimate Poker Challenge Championship	Event March 2007	2nd	$65,863
PokerStars WCOOP No Limit Hold’em Main Event	October 2007	2nd	$700,782
Poker After Dark ‘Gus and the Girls’ Episode	January 2008	1st	$120,000
EPT Monte Carlo €2,000 No Limit Hold’em	April 2008	4th	$54,116
PokerStars WCOOP $1,050 FLHE	September 2008	3rd	$59,450
WPT Southern Poker Championship	January 2009	7th	$79,117
NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship	March 2009	2nd	$250,000
EPT Grand Final €25K High Roller	May 2009	1st	$946,696