A Poker Life -- Vanessa RoussoThe Lady Maverick |
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She’s young, she’s smart, she’s beautiful, and if anyone knows how to capitalize on such marketable characteristics, it’s her — Vanessa Rousso.
It’s easy to spot her at any poker table. She’s usually hiding her deep, brown, speculating eyes beneath stylish jet-black sunglasses, shuffling her chips like a seasoned pro, with her long blonde tresses tucked under a PokerStars cap, quietly collecting her table’s chips. Though she looks and plays like she’s done it her entire life, academics were her focus for most of her 26 years on earth.
French Connection
Vanessa Rousso was born in New York City but moved to Paris at the age of three, where she would have most of her young childhood memories. The oldest of three girls, Rousso recalls learning poker as a child and competing with her sisters, of course, it was for fun and not money. At age 10, her family relocated to the United States and settled in upstate New York, where Rousso attended middle school. The Roussos relocated once more to South Florida, where she and her sisters would attend high school. This is where she fostered her competitive spirit and flourished academically.
“One sister was a basketball player and was on varsity her freshman year, the other sister was playing a lot of sports — softball, basketball. We were all on the swim team, and I played lacrosse. We grew up with a lot of sports, games, and competition, but my biggest activity in high school was debate.”
Rousso competed in national debate tournaments, and was among the best in the country in policy debate. She’d compete in bracket-style, single-elimination tournaments, very similar to the setup of the NBC National Heads up Poker Championship, a competition in which Rousso would make waves years later.
In high school, Rousso flew through assignments, tests, and advanced classes. Her senior year, she realized she had a competitive GPA that put her in contention for a prestigious Valedictorian title. Goal in mind, Rousso posted perfect straight As her senior year and finished at the top of her class.
College Bound
Rousso was awarded a full academic scholarship to Duke University. She studied economics and minored in political science, and developed in interest in game theory, a branch of applied mathematics that studies strategic decision-making for maximum return. She studied it as it was relevant to economics, but later would find that it give her a huge step up in poker. Rousso started dabbling in online poker at age 19, but for the most part, she just focused on school.
Instead of the standard four years, Rousso finished in two and a half, breaking the school’s record. “I’m a big believer in efficiency. I don’t like wasting my time and energy. I want to do big things in my life,” she said. “School has always come pretty easily to me. Of course, exam time is always hard, but for the most part, during the semester, it wasn’t very difficult for me.”
After Duke, it was off to the University of Miami Law School. Rousso had ambitions of becoming a securities litigator. Fascinated by Wall Street and the financial markets, Rousso envisioned herself in the courtroom, representing clients in trial. That was until poker took over.
Tournament Bug
While balancing a demanding class load, Rousso slowly began spending more time focusing on poker. After turning 21, she became a regular at the Hard Rock Casino playing sit-and-gos. Equipped with a natural mind for games and background in game theory, she picked up sit-and-go strategy quickly and easily transferred her poker skills into multi-table tournaments, as well. She began cashing in major tournaments, with her first one being a seventh-place finish in a $200 buy-in no-limit hold’em preliminary event at the 2005 World Series of Poker Circuit event at Harrah’s New Orleans worth $6,000. Within about a year, she built a $40,000 bankroll and made a life-changing decision.
“In 2006, I decided I wanted to play the big buy-in circuit tournaments.”
When Rousso sets goals, she sets them big, and rightfully so. The tournament she had in mind was the $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Championship. Wanting to be smart with her bankroll, Rousso sold shares of herself to her friends and family at a dollar for dollar for between $100 and $1,000 a share. She ended up selling $15,000 worth of shares and used $10,000 of her own money to buy in.
“The reason I chose that event was because it was a really good structure. You start with 50,000 in chips, and I thought it would give me the greatest opportunity to make some money. I also knew it guaranteed to pay 100 people, and since the event expected to draw around 600, it was much better than the normal 10 percent payout.”
As always, the WPT Championship draws the best players in the world. Rousso waded her way through the field of 605 players, who were all vying for the $3.7 million first-place prize. She reached the final table of nine, and the first player to go out was her now future husband, Chad Brown.
“That’s when we met. I don’t know how people can be with a non-poker player if they are doing this full time, because, I mean, that person would have to be a real trooper,” Rousso says with a laugh. “It takes a poker player to understand a 
poker player. Having Chad as a partner, and him having me, has definitely been a big advantage for both of us.”
Eventually, play reached seven-handed, and the remaining competitors were scratching and clawing to secure their spot at the televised WPT final table. James Van Alstyne, a local Vegas pro, raised to 485,000, and Rousso looked down at A
K. She went all in for 1.475 million, and Van Alystyne called. He showed A
J. Rousso, 23 years old at the time, needed to dodge three outs, but on this particular hand, it wouldn’t happen. Van Alystne turned a jack, and Rousso was eliminated on the television-table bubble.
After paying her investors their share of the $263,000 she’d won, Rousso added a solid $100,000 chunk to her bankroll. Selling shares of herself to play in a $25,000 buy-in poker tournament closely resembled a Mel Gibson movie called Maverick, so a close relative dubbed her “Lady Maverick.”
She continued to evolve and improve, and five months later, she won a $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em preliminary event at the Borgata Open for $285,000. Throughout this time, Rousso was still attending law school. At the end of 2006, she decided to take a break to focus solely on poker.
“I intend to go back and finish. I’m so close to my degree that it makes no sense not to.”
Her biggest cash to date came online at the 2007 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker $2,500 main event. Of the 2,998 players who began, she finished third, but, after some controversy, the eventual winner was disqualified from all of his winnings. All players moved up one place, putting Rousso in second with a payday of $701,000.
She maintained her consistency throughout 2008 with multiple major live tournament cashes, including another heart-breaking televised final-table bubble at the WPT Southern Poker Championship. Most recently, she made an incredible run at the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship against a few of poker’s biggest icons. In the first round, she defeated legend Doyle Brunson, followed by Phil Ivey, 2007 winner Paul Wasicka, Daniel Negreanu, and Bertrand Grospellier. Rousso eventually lost to Huck Seed in the finals, but took home $250,000 for her efforts.
In all, Rousso has accumulated just under $2 million in her short career and attests much of her success to her b
ackground in game theory.
How it Applies
Strategic decision making is vital part of poker, and Rousso says game theory has helped her understand concepts in a fairly short time period that would have otherwise taken her years of play.
“There’s only so far you can go with the traditional theory out there. Game theory gives you a different way to analyze poker situations.”
One example Rousso uses and also teaches in game-theory seminars is the RL Ratio, which is the ratio for which players raise or limp preflop. While there is much focus on what cards to play preflop and from which positions, this focuses on how to play these hands in different positions. In poker, it’s important to “mix up your play,” otherwise, opponents will catch on, but oftentimes, it’s difficult to know exactly how to do so. The RL Ratio is a framework for analyzing situations for whether a player should more highly favor raising or limping, taking into account variables including six-handed play compared to nine-handed play, as well as stack sizes and position.
“When you mix it up, you know you will sometimes limp and sometimes raise, but you’re going to favor one or the other given the complex set of circumstances. The RL ratio is just the ratio I introduced as an example for how you can use ratios for expressing a mixed strategy.”
According to Rousso, players favor a certain strategy or ratio according to their overall table image. Preferences for a hypothetical loose-passive player may be one raise for every four limps because he favors one move 80 percent of time, giving him a 1:4 RL ratio, while a tight-aggressive player will likely raise four times for every limp, giving him a 4:1 RL ratio. Rousso says that this will give players a logical way of looking at mixed strategy, which will, in turn, help them know how to change up their own game.
“You take complex situations that involve human beings, which are very difficult to reduce to mathematics, but you attempt to do so by creating variables for human tendencies.”
The RL Ratio can be used in numerous ways involving strategy, and Rousso suggests increasing the ratio with later position. Teaching game theory is one of the many activities Rousso currently has on her plate.
Watch Out World
With raw talent, and beauty to boot, Rousso’s been working double time weeding through the numerous sponsorship offers she’s been given. She’s a proud member of Team PokerStars Pro and recently become a spokesmodel for GoDaddy.com, appearing in a national commercial with racecar maven Danica Patrick.
“I feel a personal stake in promoting poker. I actually went and lobbied for the rights of online poker to Congress last October; that’s proof that I don’t just talk about it, I back it up. Also, growing up in a non-poker world to eventually be a lawyer or an investment banker, I was always going to be successful in an accepted career. I don’t like that there are still people out there who don’t understand what I do for a living. They think it’s gambling or they think it’s seedy. I want to help change the face of my industry.”
While posting up big tournament results is her favorite way to promote the game, she took advantage of plain ol’ good looks in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Posing in a sporty, black two-piece, Rousso showed off tan skin and six-pack abs, all while promoting PokerStars and poker to a national audience.
“Of course I was nervous; what girl wouldn’t be?” Rousso said with a laugh. “I worked really hard the couple of months leading up to it, but then I went straight back to my poker-playing diet. I’m glad to say I was in that good of shape at least once in my life.”
In addition to further pushing poker into the mainstream, she’s also using poker as a means to help charitable causes. Rousso recently helped found the No Limit No Profit Initiative, a charity that supports research and programs conducted by non-profits that aim to decrease the impact of poverty around the world.
“What if we took just $1 from every buy-in of every tournament all year round? That would be millions of dollars that would go to help fight poverty.”
She’s as friendly as she is beautiful, and her poker accomplishments thus far have proven that she got the talent. Never one to settle, her goals are lofty ones, so it’s no surprise that in poker, it’s to be the best.
“I know that I still have a long way to go, but I’ve always had that drive. I want to be the best, and in poker, that could take a very, very long time. I’m sure I’ll stay excited about poker for quite a while.”
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Previous installments of A Poker Life:
Nick Schulman
Craig Marquis
Kido Pham
Brad Daugherty
Ralph Perry
Vivek Rajkumar
Kathy Liebert
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