On Monday, Team PokerStars Pro member Vanesa Rousso, the runner up in the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, will compete in the Pompano Beach’s Isle Casino “Battle at the Beach.” The stop is a prelude to Rousso’s “Art of Poker” seminar series, which kicks off on April 5th in casinos and racetracks throughout her home state of Florida.
Just a few days removed from becoming the newest Go Daddy Girl, Rousso promptly took second in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship to Huck Seed. Ironically, the tournament series was actually sponsored by Go Daddy. Rousso told Poker News Daily why she is now touring the lecture circuit: “I was looking for a reason to come home to Florida for awhile! With all of the tournaments I’ve been playing lately, I’ve missed teaching – and the beach, for that matter!” She appeared on Saturday at the Jacksonville Orange Park Kennel Club and gave a lecture on game theory and proper poker tournament strategy.
Next Saturday, March 28th, she’ll be giving a short class at the Palm Beach Kennel Club and play in an exclusive invitation-only tournament at the track. On April 5th, 11th, and 26th, the “Art of Poker” series will take place. Each one-day seminar comes with a $399 price tag:
Sunday, April 5th: Pompano Beach Isle Casino
Saturday, April 11th: Jacksonville Orange Park Kennel Club
Sunday, April 26th: Palm Beach Kennel Club
Rousso took second in the 2007 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event for over $700,000. She originally took third in the prestigious tournament; however, its winner was ultimately disqualified. On the World Series of Poker (WSOP) felts, Rousso grabbed eighth in a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event in 2006 for $61,000. The tournament was one of two bracelet wins for Jeff Madsen that year.
She is a former “Poker After Dark” winner and grabbed $250,000 for finishing as the runner up in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Rousso is fresh off a seventh place showing in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi, where she banked $79,000. In 2006, she was in the winner’s circle in a $5,000 buy-in preliminary tournament held during the Borgata Poker Open for nearly $300,000. That tournament boasted a talented final table that included online poker legend and WSOP bracelet winner Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Hasan Habib, Joe Sebok, and Doran Malinasky, whom she defeated heads-up.
Rousso stressed the importance of mastering strategy before hitting the tournament felts, telling Poker News Daily, “When you play a game of incomplete information like poker, any and all extra information you can acquire gives you an edge over your opponents. Constantly working on your game is the only way to stay ahead of the poker masses.” Her strategy series will include discussions of how to obtain an information edge, spotting behavioral tells, reading micro expressions, diagnosing betting patterns and tells, developing a tournament game plan, characterizing players, and reviewing deception versus cooperative play. Major credit cards are accepted for payment and interested participants can register online.
Rousso graduated with honors from Duke University in just two and a half years. She attended the University of Miami Law School before becoming a full-time poker pro. She is a member of the esteemed Team PokerStars Pro, which includes former WSOP Main Event winners Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), and Joe Hachem (2005). Other Team PokerStars Pro personalities include Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein, who have a combined seven WSOP bracelets. Rousso appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in February. Next week, she’ll battle against a PokerStars member as part of All Star Week.
Other popular poker instructional seminars include WPT’s Boot Camp and the WSOP Academy. Both offer recurring poker strategy classes at the world’s most popular casinos. In fact, the former is in the midst of offering a Cash Boot Camp at Foxwoods this weekend in preparation for the casino’s WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, which kicks off on April 3rd.
