Vanessa Ashley Rousso was born February 5th, 1983 in White Plains, New York. Rousso has dual citizenships in the United States as well as France. Rousso is a law student at University of Miami and a professional poker player.

Rousso graduated as the valedictorian of her High School in Wellington, Florida in 2001. She graduated early from Duke University after two and a half years where she majored in economics with a minor in political science in December of 2003. Before Rousso entered in to law school she had organized The Celebrity Player Tour Florida, which was a celebrity golf tournament series for charity.

Rousso has been playing poker since the early age of five, so before entering kindergarten, she was learning to bluff and bet. Rousso did not begin playing poker seriously until her summer break from law school. Rousso gained multiple in the money tournament finishes in her first year as a professional poker player, including 7th place at the 2006 World Poker Tour championship event and 8th place in the 2006 World Series of Poker $5000 No- limit Hold’ Em event which was held at the Borgata open. You may have seen her in her many appearances on the Poker After Dark television show. Rousso is engaged to Chad Brown currently.

As of 2008, Rousso’s total live tournament winnings exceeded $1,000,000.

Rousso is currently being sponsored by the PokerStars online poker card room under the screen name LadyMaverick as part of the team PokerStars. In 2007 Rousso placed 3rd in the World Championship of Online Poker main event, which was an online tournament run by PokerStars, Rousso walked away with $463,940, the winner was later disqualified and Rousso was named the runner up and awarded the $700,782 for second place.