Tony G is playing his poker game with big confidence. But did he expect Vanessa going from zero to hero? Subscribe here to our channel: http://psta.rs/YTSL-. Vanessa Rousso on Big Brother Rousso didn’t reveal that she was a professional poker player while appearing on Big Brother but she felt it definitely gave her an advantage. “I think that any poker player who plays Big Brother has an edge over the other players just because we’re used to thinking strategically in a way that your average person doesn’t,” she explained.

Vanessa Rousso doesn’t need to rely on luck or even her
ravishing good looks to win poker because she uses the complex
concepts of game theory to surpass her competitors. Rousso’s
strategy clearly works wonders for her, as she earned more money
playing poker in 2007 than any other pro female poker player in
the United States.

Rousso has disputed the typical prejudices against blondes by
taking down some of the top names in poker time and time again.
Currently, she has earned more than $2.5 million in live and
online tournament games, making her number 10 on Florida’s All
Time Money List.

Early Life/ Education

Vanessa Ashley Rousso was born February 5th, 1983 in the
quaint city of White Plains, New York. Her father moved the
family back to Paris, France so that he could raise his children
in the same city where he grew up. She carries dual citizenship
for both the United States and France and she is fluent in both
English and French as well.

Rousso’s parents divorced when she was nine, forcing her to
move back to the Unites States with her mother; they stayed in
Florida with her grandparents until they could get back on their
feet.

You could never deny the sheer intelligence of Rousso,
starting from her youth and carrying out throughout her entire
adult life. In 2001, Rousso graduated as valedictorian of her
high school in Wellington, Florida. She maintained an overall
4.0 GPA over her entire high school career while also
participating in the National Honor Society, the French Honor
Society, and a plethora of other extra-curricular activities.

Rousso received scholarships from many different colleges,
but she ended up attending Duke University which she graduated
from in a record-breaking two and a half years. In December,
2003 she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics with a minor in
Political Science. She then moved on to the Miami School of Law
where she proceeded to graduate in the top 5% of her class.

Success in Poker

Rousso started playing poker online during high-school and
gradually built up her bankroll until she was old enough to
compete in live-tournaments. Her first tournament win was at the
No-Limit Hold’em Summer Series in 2005. That same year she
entered the World Series of Poker Championship, placing 45th in
the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Texas hold ’em event.

After studying game theory at Duke, Rousso used those
concepts to excel at the poker tables. Game theory involves
taking the scenarios that could happen in poker and translating
them to a mathematic equation, while taking into consideration
the many possible variables that could affect the outcome of the
game.

Her career really started taking off in February, 2006 when
Rousso placed fifth at the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em WSOP Circuit
event in Atlantic City. She was the youngest female player at
the time to reach a World Series of Poker final table, having
just turned twenty-three years old.

Shortly after that victory, Rousso joined the professional
poker tour where she cashed in at many of the tournaments,
earning over $260,000 in prize money. She even finished seventh
place in the $25,000 World Poker Tour No-Limit Hold’em
championship event.

Her greatest achievement was when she place second at the
2007 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker main event,
winning over $700,000. She also placed second in the Ultimate
Poker challenge No Limit Hold’em championship that year, for
another $65,000. A couple years later in 2009, Rousso was almost
unstoppable at the NBC National Heads-Up Championship for a
runner-up finish and a quarter million dollars.

More recently in the 2011 European Poker Tour, Rousso
accomplished four money finishes in various events for over a
staggering $425,000. She also landed a first place finish in the
No Limit Hold’em Six Max event of the World Poker Tour’s
Nationals in Johannesburg. Rousso was sponsored by PokerStars
until February, 2015; she played for them under the screen-name
LadyMaverick. Rousso is currently sponsored by GoDaddy.com.

For more details on Rousso’s career highlights, please refer
to the table below.

Largest Tournament Pay Outs

“I try not to emulate any one person’s style. Instead, I
chose to be a chameleon. I’ll switch it up. If I want to play
aggressive, maybe I’ll start playing like the Grinder (Mike
Mizrachi). Sometimes I want to play like Dan Harrington,
sometimes Phil Ivey. I have different modes for different
situations.” –Rouso said in regards to her playing style.

Personal Life

She met her future husband, Chad Brown, at the 2006 World
Poker Tour event. They instantly had a connection and within
three years, they were married. The couple separated in 2012 and
no one is exactly sure what lead to their divorce. Vanessa’s
only commentary on it was a tweet which said, “Despite great
mutual fondness and respect, Chad and I have separated.”

Rousso’s passion for poker inspired her to become one of the
leaders of the Poker Players Alliance who flew to Washington, DC
in an attempt to convince the United States Congress to retract
the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Vanessa is also a sports-illustrated model. She was sent to
the Bahamas for a photo shoot, wearing only a bikini and a
PokerStars hat. Following the release of that photo, Rousso was
regarded as one of the sexiest poker players in the world,
ranking 18th by Bleacher Report and in the top 20 by Maxim as of
2010.

Rousso has managed to take her celebrity status and turn
herself into a brand name, endorsing various clothing lines,
accessories, and swimsuits. Not only does she like to endorse
athletic apparel, but she also enjoys wearing it, as staying
physically fit is especially important to her. Swimming is her
favorite physical activity, but she also enjoys running and yoga.

Vanessa Rousso, known to the online world as Lady Maverick, has been impressing people at the poker tables for nearly a decade now.

Over the course of her career, she has won over $3.5 million dollars and has been sponsored by one of the best online poker rooms in the business: PokerStars.

Her game of choice seems to be No Limit Hold’em, but she has won tournaments while playing other variations of poker as well.

Vanessa Rousso holds a dual citizenship in both France and the United States. Vanessa was born on February 5^th, 1983 in White Plains, New York to Marc Rousso and Cynthia Bradley.

When she was only three years old, her family moved back to Paris, to the city where her father grew up. Vanessa has two younger sisters: Tiffany and Leticia.

As a product of a divorce, the girls would move several times during their childhood until they would finally settle in Florida with their mother in 1993. One way Vanessa chose to deal with her parents’ divorce was to play poker for fun; rumor has it she learned how to play when she was only five years old.

Vanessa has always been very ambitious, even from a young age. Over the course of her entire high school career, she was a motivated student. She was very athletic in high school, participating on both her school’s lacrosse and swimming team.

She also was involved in other after-school activities including National Honor’s Society, the Debate Club, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Thanks to all of her hard work and her 4.0 GPA, Vanessa became her school’s Valedictorian. She was easily accepted into Duke University, and was actually able to graduate from there in just five semesters.

She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a minor in Political Science. The following year she enrolled at the University of Miami’s School of Law and was ready to pursue a career as a lawyer.

During the summer after her first year of law school, Vanessa began competing in nearby poker tournaments.

She also hadn’t realized how easy it was to make money through winning these big tournaments. Even though she was still at the top 5% of her class, Vanessa chose to drop out of Law School and focus on a career as a professional poker player instead.

By 2005, Vanessa had completely packed up everything she owned and moved to Las Vegas. She was ready to start competing against more serious players, so she started entering in any tournament she could qualify for.

She took home first place at Palms No Limit Hold’em Summer Poker Series, and that really became the competition that launched her career.

Vanessa would eventually start entering bigger tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. She has still yet to place first at an event from either of those competitions, but she did manage to cash out dozens of times and has earned thousands of dollars in the process.

One time she came close to winning the No Limit Hold’em Championship event of the World Poker Tour, falling right behind Antonio Esfandiari and Andrew Robl. She managed to take home over $350,000, which is pretty good for a third-place finish.

Vanessa has competed on NBC’s Poker After Dark almost every season.

She again would soar to the top on season five of the series, beating Clowie Gowen by a long shot for another $120,000 reward.

Although that might seem like a decent amount of money, it’s hardly comparable to her $700,000 win at the European High Roller Championship in Monte Carlo. This is the most Vanessa has ever been able to win at an event. It was partially due to the fact that they were playing her specialty: no limit hold’em.

PokerStars recognized Vanessa’s talents early on and started sponsoring her in 2007. PokerStars is one of the leading online poker sites in the industry, so being a part of their team is something to be proud of.

Throughout this sponsorship, she has been able to meet several very talented poker players including Chris Moneymaker and Daniel Negreanu. Her sponsorship lasted for nearly a decade, ending just recently in 2015 when PokerStars chose not to renew it.

Since then, Vanessa has spent her time competing in Heartland Poker Tour’s No Limit Hold’em main event, where she managed to place eighth and walk away with $16,000. This may be the last event Vanessa has won, but her career is far from over.

With all of the hard work and practice she pours into her poker career, we are so excited to see what her future beholds! Possibly a World Series of Poker bracelet or a World Poker Tour title? Who knows!

The United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act in 2006, making it illegal for online gambling sites to process any transaction for players within the United States. Vanessa felt passionate about poker and did not believe it was within the government’s authority to pass this law.

Vanessa and the leaders of the Poker Players Alliance made the long journey to Washington in order to persuade Congress into seeing things their way. Although they didn’t succeed in having the law overthrown, many poker players out there appreciate her efforts.

The name of her summer camp was Big Slick Boot Camp and it costs about $400 to attend.

She shared some of her secret strategies with those who joined by comparing playing poker to the novel, Art of War, by Sun Tzu.

In her spare time, Vanessa will occasionally do some modeling in order to make some extra money and because trying new things has always excited her. She once went to a photoshoot in the Bahamas for Sports Illustrated to represent Team PokerStars.

After the issue of that magazine was released, her status skyrocketed and she landed on the Top 20 list of Maxim’s Sexiest Poker Players in the World.

Vanessa Rousso Poker Leather

For those of you who have never watched or heard of the show Big Brother, let me first provide a background on what the show is all about. Basically, there are a number of house guests that live in a mansion together and are completely cut off from the outside world: yes, this means no television, no cell phones, ect.

They are asked to do certain household tasks throughout the show that reveal their true character, and test their ability to work together. The show starts with about ten contestants and each week one person is voted off the show, based on how the viewers perceive them.

Vanessa Rousso Poker Player

The most appealing part of this show is that the winner of it will receive $500,000. Vanessa Rousso was asked to participate in season 17 of Big Brother, and she had a fun time going through the competition, even though she didn’t win first place.

In an interview after getting evicted from the show, Vanessa shared why she believed she didn’t win,

Vanessa Rousso Poker Book

Vanessa Rousso Personal Life

Vanessa fell for professional poker player, Chad Brown, after they met at a World Poker Tour event. They were both being sponsored by PokerStars at the time, and they became the couple that everyone looked forward to being with.

Everything was seemingly great for them at first and they eventually would get married in 2009. Less than three years later, the lovely couple would file for divorce and be on their separate ways.

Some people speculate that the twenty-year difference between them is what lead to their divorce, while others believe the split may have been a bi-product of the stress that Chad’s cancer had on the relationship.

Despite the divorce, the two remained friends and are determined to still stay in contact with each other. Today, Vanessa is currently engaged to her girlfriend Melissa Ouellet, who proposed to her in September, 2015.

We are unaware if there has been a date set for their wedding or not, but people expect it will be an event worth attending.