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Over the last few years, the biggest names among lady poker players have remained mostly the same: Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, Cyndy Violette, etc. There hasn't been a new, young, female phenom that has joined that elite mix. But perhaps that's about to change.

Twenty-four-year-old Vanessa Rousso is rising to the top very quickly. With a seventh-place finish in the 2006 WPT World Championship to add to her other cashes for the year, she has earned close to $300,000 so far, and the World Series of Poker hasn't even begun.

Born in New York, Rousso was raised in a competitive environment with her sisters who all played sports like basketball, softball, and lacrosse. Their mother was a psychologist whose library of books raised her curiosity about human behavior very early in life. And her father taught her how to play poker and chess at the ripe old age of five.

Rousso's education was always a top priority in her life, and while attending Duke University, she majored in economics with a specialization in game theory. "I was perhaps initially drawn to the study of poker," she said, "given that it seemed to be one of the few games that managed to incorporate a structure rooted in numbers and probabilities within the context of a system of rules that allows a player to win without the best hand." Thus, after her graduation cum laude from Duke in 2003, she began to consider playing poker on a higher level.

In 2004, Rousso started playing tournaments online and moved on to live tournaments at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near her home in Miami. In her first ever major event in May of 2005, she placed seventh out of 833 players at a $200 buy-in WSOP circuit tournament in New Orleans.

During this time, she was also working her way through law school at the University of Miami. Rousso was always confident that she could balance education with her burgeoning poker career, but it took some time to convince family and friends who were worried that law school would suffer. "I have since been able to demonstrate that I am able to succeed in both," she said. "Along the way, I have learned a very important lesson about gaining people's support. There is only so far that you can go with talk and promise, true progress will always take time as it can only be actualized through performance."

And perform she has. By finishing just one spot out of the TV final table at the WPT Championship and continuing to compete in WSOP and WPT tournaments around the country, Rousso has the potential to quickly climb the rankings of not only female players, but all players, in 2007. And by balancing her poker successes with law school, she may also set a new, more important standard for all aspiring players.