Vanessa Ashley Rousso (born February 5, 1983) is an American professional poker player, attorney, DJ, and television personality. Rousso was a member of Team PokerStars from 2006 to 2015, with the online name Lady Maverick, and was a spokesman for GoDaddy.com from 2009 to 2013. She has earned money as a professional poker player since 2005.
Between 2005 and 2011, Rousso finished in the money in numerous live poker events and accumulated nearly $3.5 million, but has been less active since, earning just $83,000 in live tournaments between 2012 and 2017. She has placed in the money seventeen times at the World Series of Poker. In 2007, she won over $700,000 with a second-place finish in the main event of the World Championship of Online Poker. As of September 2021, having not cashed at a tournament since 2017, Rousso still ranks among the top ten women in poker history in terms of all-time money winnings.
Rousso has been a pro-gambling campaigner and activist. She has appeared on television in several cash or charity poker competitions, and finished in third place as a contestant on the 2015 season of Big Brother.
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Early life, family and education
Rousso was born in White Plains, New York to Marc Armand Rousso and Cynthia Bradley of Hobe Sound, Florida. Rousso began talking and reading at early ages says her mother, Cynthia Ferrara. She and her family moved to France when she was three years old. She lived in Paris, in her father's homeland until she was 10, when she moved briefly to Upstate New York. Rousso holds dual citizenship with the United States and France. After her parents divorced in 1992, her mother moved Vanessa to Florida to be near her maternal grandparents. Rousso attended Wellington Landings Middle School.
Rousso was active on the high-school swimming, lacrosse and debating teams. She also played softball and basketball for fun. In debating, Rousso excelled in national debating tournaments in policy debating. Her mother is a guidance counselor at Jupiter Community High School. In 2001, Rousso graduated as valedictorian of her high school in Wellington, Florida. She maintained a 4.0 GPA at Wellington High School while participating in the National Honor Society, and French Honor Society. She founded the Environmental Club and served as its president. She was also active as a violinist, varsity swimmer, and volunteer for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Rousso has two younger sisters: Tiffany, a high school teacher and contestant on the 18th season of American Big Brother, and Leticia, an optometrist.
In college, she was on the Dean's list. After studying some game theory, she became proficient with the Rubik's Cube and then chess. However, because she considers both to be fairly objective static games, she began to prefer poker, which incorporated human psychology that allows for inferior hands to win. She graduated early from Duke University after two and a half years with a major in economics and a minor in political science in December 2003. Her collegiate duration of two and a half years was the shortest time to graduate in the history of Duke.
Rousso began law school in 2004 and was the inaugural recipient of the Chaplin Scholarship from the University of Miami School of Law. During school she served on the editorial board of the University of Miami Law Review. In 2018 she enrolled in order to finish law school, which she completed that same year. Soon after graduating, she passed the Florida Bar Exam.
A poker player since the age of five, Rousso began serious poker tournament play during her summer break from law school. Rousso did not initially finish law school, dropping out to pursue her burgeoning poker career instead. However, she returned to school in the fall of 2017, and graduated magna cum laude in the Spring of 2018.
Poker career
As of September 2021, excluding online winnings, and having not cashed at a tournament since 2017, she ranked as number eight among women players in terms of all-time money winnings.
Rousso built her first stake at Hard Rock sit & go ten-player tables, where first prize was $250. From there, she was able to save for a $1,500 entry fee in Atlantic City in late 2005, which she parlayed into $17,500. This enabled her to afford entry into the World Poker Tour event at the Bellagio in Vegas. She has been televised numerous times on both ESPN and the Travel Channel (among others). She has made several appearances on the Poker After Dark television program. Rousso has also been televised as part of the World Poker Tour. She is known for wearing a cap, headphones and designer sunglasses.
Her first win in a professional event came on June 13, 2005, in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the No-Limit Hold'em Summer Series. At the 2005 World Series of Poker, she placed 45th in a field of 601 in the Event 26, $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Texas hold 'em event, won by Jennifer Tilly on June 26.
On February 12, 2006, Rousso placed fifth at the final table of the 195-entrant $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em WSOP Circuit event at Harrah's Atlantic City.
Rousso joined the professional poker tour in April 2006, and by October was among the top 80 in earnings that year. In her first year of playing, Rousso had multiple in the money tournament finishes, including a seventh-place finish in a field of 605 at the $25,000 April 26, 2006 World Poker Tour (Season four) No-Limit Hold'em championship event, in which she earned $263,625 in prize money. By that time she was spending Tuesday through Thursday taking her law school classes, spending the rest of the week playing in poker tournaments and fielding endorsement offers from online poker clubs. On September 13, 2006, she won $285,450 with a first-place finish at the 173-entrant $5,000 no-limit hold 'em event at the 4th Borgata Open. At 2006 World Series of Poker she had three in the money finishes. She finished 80th in a field of 1068 in Event 4, $1,500 Limit Hold'em, 63rd in a field of 824 in Event 5, $2500 Short Handed No-Limit Hold'em, and she placed 8th of 507 in the Event 30, $5000 Short Handed No-Limit Hold'em event.
World Series of Poker
In addition, Rousso had one cash at the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific event, and five cashes in various events on the World Series of Poker Circuit tournaments held annually as a build-up to the main World Series of Poker.
Endorsements
Rousso was formerly sponsored by the PokerStars online poker cardroom under the screenname LadyMaverick as part of their Team PokerStars. Her sponsorship with PokerStars ended in February 2015.
Pokerstars approached Sports Illustrated about including a poker player in their 2009 Swimsuit edition. In her online blog on January 4, 2009, Rousso confirmed that she participated that week in a photo shoot in Nassau, Bahamas, when she was there for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure poker tournament. Rousso appeared in an advertising feature paid for by PokerStars, rather than the swimsuit article itself, in the February 10, 2009, swimsuit issue. In the advertisement, Russo appeared in a bikini bottom and cutoff wetsuit top, in keeping with the swimsuit theme. Rousso's thoughts on the Sports Illustrated publicity was that "It was a great opportunity for poker in general and for me in particular."
In March 2009, Rousso signed to promote internet domain names by GoDaddy, a sponsor of the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Rousso became an official GoDaddy Girl, replacing Amanda Beard, Russo appeared in a commercial with former racecar driver Danica Patrick along with former wrestler/model Candice Michelle during Super Bowl XLV in 2011. Rousso's contract as a spokesman for the company was renewed through to the final 2013 Heads-Up tournament event.
Rousso is regarded as one of the sexiest poker players in the world, ranking 18th by Bleacher Report in 2010, and in the top 20 by Maxim in 2010.
Rousso has worked with American Poker Player, writing on game theory, and worked with Forbes, teaching poker to its "100 Most Powerful Women".
Non-poker activities
Rousso appeared on Million Dollar Challenge in 2009. She was a celebrity judge on Bank of Hollywood where she helped award some of her own money to contestants. She was a contestant on season 17 of the reality television show Big Brother in 2015, finishing in third place.
Rousso has become a music producer and DJ and has formed a DJ Duo called N1TEL1TE with her wife Melissa Ouellet. The duo released their first song, "Kiss Face", in February 2017.
Personal life
She resides in South Florida. Her nickname, "Lady Maverick", was given to her by a relative when she sold shares of herself to enter a $25,000 buy-in event in a manner reminiscent of the eponymous hero of the 1994 Western movie Maverick.
Rousso was married to Chad Brown, another professional poker player. They were engaged in December 2007 and planned for a 2009 wedding but after about two years of marriage, they separated then divorced in 2012 but remained close until his death from cancer.
Rousso is married to her long-time girlfriend, Melissa Ouellett; to whom she became engaged in 2015 at the wrap party for Big Brother.
In 2019, Rousso announced that her wife, Ouellett, was pregnant. Two months later, the couple announced that Rousso was also pregnant, expecting identical twin boys. Ouellett gave birth to a son on February 15, 2020, and Rousso gave birth a month later.