Interview with Vanessa Rousso

  Vanessa Rousso isn't called "Lady Maverick" because she bears a resemblance to Mel Gibson or James Garner. She earned her nickname by being absolutely deadly with some playing cards in her hand. Not only has she accomplished money finishes at both the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour, but her tournament winnings are well over a million dollars and she recently won a Poker After Dark championship.  It also turns out that Vanessa is also incredibly generous with her time. She recently took time during her dinner break at a tournament to talk to us and give us a little insight into her life. We are pleased to offer you the LaunchPoker interview with Vanessa Rousso.LaunchPoker: Vanessa, you have just won a Poker After Dark Championship. Can you tell us about that?Vanessa Rousso: It was great! I never had actually played with Gus [Hansen] before. I've met him a few times but never played with him, so it was cool to sit down and see the whole dynamic of how Gus plays at a table. Especially how he dealt with all the women. As far as the other girls, and playing with them: we're all friends. With Clonie [Gowen] it was funny that we got heads-up. It was good to win. You know that Clonie kicked my butt on the last Poker After Dark we played. I was happy to win. I was also happy because my plan worked out. I try to come into these tournaments with a game plan. My game plan for that one was to really try to avoid making too many moves. I think that was my mistake in the other sit-n-goes that I played. So I played a little more conservatively: stuck to my guns and went with my instincts. My reads were right, everything worked out and I came away with the win. That was cool.LP:As everyone knows you play for the PokerStars team. In this tournament you kinda went through the Full Tilt team like Godzilla through Tokyo. Now poker teams are not like traditional sports teams where everyone is pulling in the same direction. I lot of times you wind up beating on your own teammates. With that said, is there any pride in beating a rival team?VR: Well... hmmm... yeah. Well, I mean that I'm happy that I could do PokerStars proud, and I guess to overcome all those Full Tilt pros; Full Tilt pros, like PokerStars pros really represent the best in the industry. So to take down those players was certainly a great feeling. If there are no PokerStars players at my table, then the rest of my team members are rooting for me and I know that I'm rooting for them when they are not at my table. So it was good to take home a W for team PokerStars.LP: Some players have had to make a choice between professional poker and school. You have a law degree and a thriving career as a professional poker player, so you could obviously do both. How did you balance the two when so many other people couldn't?VR: I'm like one of those freaks of nature. School comes really naturally to me and luckily doesn't need that much effort. It's also that I am super, hyper-efficient. I make my list of things to do and I get them done, and I stick to my plan. That's kind of how I approach poker. So I had a game plan, I stuck to it, it was efficient, I make sure I plan my schedule very well. I also think that I just got lucky in the whole thing too. There was a little bit of luck in there to get through it all and have everything work out. That's how I think I got through it, but who really knows.LP: How do your skills as a lawyer transfer over to your poker game?VR: The legal system is a system of rules. To be a good lawyer you need to manipulate those rules and act within them optimally in order to maximize the odds of success for your client. Poker is actually pretty similar. You have your rules of the game, those are like your laws that you have to act within. And then you act within them to maximize the odds of success for yourself. A lot of the way of thinking, you know? Looking for loopholes in the laws or looking for loopholes in the rules. There are more than just the rules too when you play poker. You have the formal rules of how to play, and then you have the rules of how to play well. These allow you to derive an element of predictability from your opponent. Then you look for loopholes in those rules of how to play well and exploit those loopholes. As far as being a lawyer it's a lot of people interaction. You have to learn to deal with your client, with the jury, opposing counsel - a lot human interactions and there's a lot of that at the poker table. Hey, a lot of lawyers do well in poker so there must be a lot of translation between the skills.LP: You mentioned laws that govern good play at the poker table. What do you think of players who do things like use the all-in bet as an offensive weapon during the early rounds of a tournament? They try to double up as quickly as humanly possible, and if they can't they seem content to be eliminated early and not waste their time.VR: I think that is a strategy unique to the World Series prelims because there are so many good side games going on. A lot of the pros want to either get a big stack or get out and go play in the side games. That's why I think they are doing it. That's not really my strategy so I can't comment that much on it. That would seem to be the method to their madness. Maybe another reason people might exhibit those kinds of behaviors during the Main Event would be inexperience or fear and not really knowing how to play because the all-in bet is not really a high equity bet early on. In order to get someone else to call you, they have to have a hand, so usually when they call you they have you beat, or they have a big draw, and they suck out on you. So I'm not a big fan of the all-in bet on the flop. I actually much prefer to push on the turn, when the odds of sucking out are half of what they were on the flop. I've been sucked out on so many times I guess I've developed an element of risk aversion.LP: A little while ago you were quoted in the World Poker Tour magazine in an article about showing up late. You mentioned how school had made you late for a few tournaments, but sometimes you did it on purpose as part of a strategy. Could you elaborate on that?VR: I don't do that anymore. The reason being that there are so many bad players who are willing to give away their whole stacks in the early phases of the tournaments, when you play a lot more hands. I prefer to be there. I've built big stacks so often early on that for me, personally, showing up on time seems to be pretty important.  We thank Ms. Rousso for her time and willingness to give up nourishment in favor of talking to us. We wish her luck during the summer tournament season!