Final-Table Takedown -- Vanessa Rousso

Vanessa Rousso graduated from Duke University in two-and-a-half years in 2003, which was the shortest amount of time to graduate in the history of the school. In 2006, while attending the University of Miami School of Law, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a professional poker player. She is a member of Team PokerStars, is a GoDaddy.com girl, and has more than $3.5 million in career tournament winnings, live and online. She is the founder of the No Limit, No Profit Initiative charity, and the Big Slick Boot Camp. She also is proud to have recently created an innovative heads-up poker app for the iPhone/iPad, called Poker 1-on-1 With Vanessa Rousso.

Event: 2010 North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun main event
Players in the Event: 716
Buy-in: $5,000
First Prize: $750,000
Finish: 10th

Hand No. 1

Key Concepts: Survival; patience; paying attention to opponents

Cliff Josephy raises to 25,000 from middle position. Andrew Ferguson calls from the cutoff. Vanessa Rousso reraises to 90,000 from the small blind with the J J.

Craig Tapscott: It’s very important to pay attention to every single factor as you get deeper in a tournament. Vanessa, please walk us through your thoughts as you march toward the final table.

Vanessa Rousso: I’m dealt pocket jacks, and calling at this point in the tournament (with so much in the pot) is probably wrong, as I likely have the best hand preflop. I don’t want to give anyone a free flop when it’s very unlikely that I will flop a set or have an overpair after the flop. Also, since I have a big stack and usually have a pretty aggressive image, I know that my reraise might be discounted somewhat. So, I reraised a little more than I normally would, to communicate that I was serious and that I had a hand. This is a way to reduce the range of hands that my opponents are likely to play against me, so that I can more effectively make decisions at later points in the hand.

Josephy tanks, and then moves all in.

CT: What are the pros and cons of this situation?

VR: The range that I put him on was 10-10, Q-Q, K-K, and A-K. With A-A, I thought that he might try to milk me for more by reraising less. If I call and lose, I will be down to slightly less than the average stack. Some players don’t realize that poker tournaments are not about winning every single pot; at the end of the day, the most important thing is survival. In this hand, there was significantly more downside than upside. When a large portion of my stack is on the line, I prefer to be coin-flipping in the worst case, and in the best case, dominating my opponent. Even though the pot was laying me significant odds with so much already in it, these decisions must be made in the context of survival, rather than simply on pot odds. Ultimately, I felt that with such strong players still left in the field, having double the average stack was a significant advantage. It just wasn’t worth the risk.

Rousso folds. Josephy wins the pot of 161,000.

CT: What is the main thing that you’ve learned to be aware of when you make a deep run in an event?

VR: The most important decision that I make is whether to play a hand or not in the first place. Generally, it can go wrong for me when I play a hand that I should not have played; that’s when I end up losing the big pots. Thinking carefully about the hands that I choose to play before the flop, the opponents I’m likely to play those hands against, and the position I will be in are the keys for me.

Hand No. 2

Key Concepts: Leverage; telling a believable story; taking a calculated risk; table image

Rousso limps in from the hijack position with the 8 7. Taha Maruf checks the option from the big blind.

CT: Why did you choose to limp?

VR: Maruf was in the big blind, and was a short stack with an “M” of about 8. (The way that I measure my chip health in a tournament is by the size of my M — Dan Harrington’s concept that calculates the number of rounds you can afford to play, given the amount of chips it costs you per round.) Before this hand, Maruf had shoved all in preflop over raises twice. I didn’t want to make it worth his while to shove all in by putting too much in the pot with a raise.

CT: Were there any other reasons for the limp?

VR: I had two big stacks to my left. Every time a short stack (like me) raised, they would reraise as a form of leverage that put pressure on us to make commitment decisions for all of our chips. I didn’t want to be put in a situation where I would be forced to fold before the flop. I was prepared to call a raise, but I felt it was likely that I would end up in a limped pot against the blinds, both of whom I felt I could play well against post-flop, given stack sizes. All in all, I planned to utilize leverage and position to maximize my chances of winning the pot.

Flop: A 10 3 (pot: 66,000)

VR: This is a good flop, because if he held an ace in his hand, it was likely that he would have raised preflop or at least considered a raise. I could pretty well represent a baby suited ace, and it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that I also had a 10 in my hand.

Maruf checks. Rousso bets 20,000. Maruf calls.
Turn: 4 (pot: 106,000)
Maruf checks.

CT: Did you get a read off the speed of his call or his demeanor?

VR: Well, he called very quickly. At that point, I thought he might have a flush draw or a pair of tens, or perhaps a pair of threes. If he had the ace, I thought he would either raise here or once again take the time to consider one. So, I decided to represent a strong hand.

Rousso bets 50,000.

CT: Why that bet-sizing?

VR: I felt that it would put him to a commitment decision, and that he would either shove or fold, given the stack size that he had.

Maruf calls.
River: 5 (pot: 206,000)
Maruf checks.

VR: I doubt that he would check with the straight and risk that I would check behind. I was pretty sure now that he had an ace or a pretty good 10. However, there was a significant amount of chips in the pot, which at that point were well worth taking a calculated risk to win. Something that I had going for me was that I had a very good table image.

CT: But he seems like a pit bull that won’t let go of a bone.

VR: Yes. But since he had just called and not raised me at any point, I knew that this wasn’t a hand he wanted to go broke with, and that he was most likely willing to fold to a sizable bet.

CT: How do you choose the proper bet-sizing?

VR: I had to make a strong bet that would make it look like I’d committed my stack and would call his all-in bet if he shoved.

Rousso bets 140,000.

VR: Whenever you attempt a big bluff like this, you need to tell a believable story. I had shown strength throughout the hand. You have to make sure that at no point in the hand did you play it in a way that wouldn’t be consistent with the hand that you’re representing.

Maruf folds. Rousso wins the pot of 206,000.