WSOP Player Profile – Vanessa Rousso

Posted by James on October 6, 2008

If you want a mix of beauty, intelligence, and No Limit aggression, then the woman you want is Vanessa Rousso. Rousso was born February 5, 1983 in White Plains, NY but spent most of her childhood in Paris, France. As a result, she is a dual citizen of France and the U.S. Her parents divorced when she was 9 and her and her mother moved to the United States.

Throughout here grade school years, Rousso stayed very active with many extracurricular activities besides her academic pursuits. She played Basketball, Softball, and Lacross and was also a member of her school’s debate team. She graduated from high school as Valedictorian and accepted a full scholarship to Duke University in 2001.

At Duke, Rousso still stayed heavily active outside of school while majoring in Economics with a minor in Political Science. She graduated cum-laude in 2004 and entered law school at the University of Miami.

While in law school Rousso started playing more live poker and started to cash in various circuit events and even at the Ladies Event at the 2005 World Series of Poker. 2006 proved to be Rousso’s breakout year in poker. She bubbled the final table at the Five-Star World Poker Classic in 2006, which earned her $263,625. She then signed a sponsorship deal with PokerStars.com and then put together a streak of several cashes before winning a preliminary event at the Borgata Poker Open in September 2006 for $285,450. Shortly after her win at the Borgata, it was announced that she was dating poker pro Chad Brown. They later got engaged and are currently planning their wedding.

After her win at the Borgata, Rousso fell off of the poker map for much of 2007. Other than a 2nd place finish in a televised UPC event, Rousso only had other live cashes for a grand total of around $90,000. It seemed a little of the shine had fallen of the rising stars.

The World Championships of Online Poker are held each year by Pokerstars.com and many top pros will come out and take their shot at the big prize pools and the online bracelets. The Main Event of the WCOOP saw Vanessa Rousso achieve her biggest poker score to date. She made the final table of the event and went on to finish 3rd for $463,940.50. Later, it was discovered that the winner of the event had violated PokerStars rules and was therefore disqualified. As a result, Rousso was awarded 2nd place and her payout now became $700,782.50.

The strong finish at the WCOOP seemed to kick start Rousso as she has had a fantastic 2008 so far. She has had eight cashes this year so far, including a final table at the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final and her first ever cash in the WSOP Main Event.

In total, Vanessa Rousso sits at around $1 Million in live tournament wins. She is mainly known as a No Limit player but from my personal observation, I have noticed that she is beginning to improve in all facets of poker. It shouldn’t be too long before we see Rousso take down a major poker title or win her first bracelet.