Poker Pro Vanessa Rousso Goes On Florida Tour

Vanessa Rousso has teamed up with Big Slick Boot Camp for ‘Art of Poker' Strategy Tour that travels throughout the Sunshine State of Florida. 

Fresh off her record setting finish at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Florida native Vanessa Rousso, Team PokerStars Pro, today announces a seven-stop, three-casino, poker tour with Big Slick Boot Camp LLC. Rousso will play in a number of local tournaments as well as present a series of instructional workshops grounded in ‘Game Theory' and Sun Tzu's teachings about The Art of War between March 20 and April 26.

"My biggest passion outside of playing poker is in teaching poker strategy. I love watching that light bulb go off in my students' minds when they discover something new," said Vanessa.

Rousso, who was featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition in February, recently became the first female to make the finals of the prestigious NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship. Rousso overcame one of the most difficult brackets in NBC Heads-Up, an event that will be televised nationally, taking home $250,000. A few days prior, Rousso joined female racecar icon, Danica Patrick, as the newest spokeswoman for the domain registrar/web hosting giant, GoDaddy.com.

Now, Rousso is coming home to celebrate-taking a well-deserved break from the pro poker tournament circuit, and turning her attention to several appearances around her home state. Tour dates include:

•      Friday, March 20th at the Jacksonville Orange Park Kennel Club, where she will play in a charity tournament for her newly launched anti-poverty foundation, The No Limit, No Profit Initiative, as well as several other charities.
•      Saturday, March 21st at the Jacksonville Orange Park Kennel Club, Rousso returns for a short lecture on Game Theory and Poker tournament techniques. She will also play in an invitation-only tournament.
•      Monday, March 23rd, Rousso will participate in the Pompano Beach's Isle Casino ‘Battle at the Beach' $300K guaranteed tournament. She will be available to sign autographs and take photographs during the tournament's scheduled breaks.
•      Saturday, March 28th at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, Rousso will give a short lecture on Game Theory and Poker and play in an invitation-only tournament.
•      Sunday, April 5th at the Isle Casino in Pompano Beach, Rousso will launch her innovative poker instructional camp: ‘The Art of Poker-An Intro to Game Theory and Poker.'
•      Saturday, April 11th at the Jacksonville Orange Park Kennel Club, Vanessa will teach another session of ‘The Art of Poker-An Intro to Game Theory and Poker.'
•      Sunday, April 26th at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, Rousso will close out her Florida tour with one final opportunity for Florida poker players to attend her out-of-the-box boot camp, ‘The Art of Poker-An Intro to Game Theory and Poker.'

A French-American dual citizen born in New York, Rousso graduated from Wellington High School in Florida as valedictorian in 2001. Receiving a full scholarship to Duke University, Rousso graduated with honors in 2.5 years. While at Duke, she vigorously pursued the study of ‘strategic decision-making'-taking every available course on Game Theory.

She then went to the University of Miami Law School with hopes of becoming a securities litigator, until she discovered her love of poker. Vanessa began making an impact on the live tournament circuit in 2005, developing her skills with several impressive results. In 2006, Rousso won a preliminary event at the WPT Borgata Poker Open, where she beat a field of 173 to win first place prize money of $285,450. At that point, Rousso put law school on hold, and signed as a full time poker pro with PokerStars.net.

Rousso, 26, now has over $2.1 million in career-tournament winnings. Her largest cash finish to date was in October 2007 at the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. Rousso took second place in the main event and walked away with more than $700,000, one of the biggest cash prizes in the history of online poker.

For more information on the tour and to register for Big Slick Boot Camp events, please visit the Big Slick Boot Camp website at www.BigSlickBootCamp.com.