Vanessa Rousso

..French-American pokerstar Vanessa Rousso doesn't need luck to win at poker. She's got Game Theory, an interest she discovered while studying economics at Duke University. After finishing her four-year undergraduate degree in only 2 ½ years, she lost no time in making a name for herself on the pro poker circuit. And what a name she's made. Vanessa earned more money playing poker in 2007 than any other pro female on the U.S. poker circuit. To date, the 26-year-old has earned more than $2 million in live and online tournament play, taking first runner-up in NBC's 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. All while earning a law degree at the University of Miami. It was after her first year of law school in 2005 that Vanessa entered a WSOP-Circuit side event in New Orleans, finishing seventh in the $200 No-Limit Hold'em Event. That same summer, she took 45th place in the ladies event of the World Series of Poker and won one of the Palms' daily tournaments. After winning $17,550 in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Event at Atlantic City's WSOP-Circuit in early 2006, Vanessa set her sights on the $25,000 World Poker Tour Championships. With the financial backing of friends, she took seventh place. Vanessa walked away from the Bellagio with $263,625 in winnings and a sponsorship deal as a member of Team PokerStars Pro. She went on to finish eighth at the 2006 WSOP, 42nd in the 2006 WPT Legends of Poker, and fifth in WPT's Ladies Night Out IV. Vanessa won her first major event in September 2006, cashing the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Event at the Borgata Poker Open for $285,540. Over the next two years, Vanessa added several WPT, WSOP and WSOP-Circuit cashes to her list of wins. But her big break came when she finished second in the online PokerStars WCOOP Main Event, winning $700,000. Vanessa has appeared several times on NBC's "Poker After Dark" and travelled on PokerStars' Latin American and European Poker Tours, where she finished 10th at the 2008 LAPT-Punta del Este and 39th at the 2008 EPT London. She finished seventh at the 2009 Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi. Vanessa, who holds dual citizenship in France and the U.S., speaks English, French and Spanish. While she will graduate from the University of Miami law school in 2009, she has no plans to sit for the bar. Vanessa now lives in Las Vegas with her fiancé, Chad Brown, also a professional poker player.