More women than ever making a splash in poker

By Case Keefer (contact)

Friday, June 11, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

Vanessa Rousso competes in the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour at The Venetian.

A stroll through the World Series of Poker playing area Tuesday night at the Rio revealed a statement about the current climate of the game.

Massive pictures of Annette Obrestad, a 21-year old poker superstar from Norway, on the cover of Bluff Magazine lined the hallways. A final table in the Amazon Room featured Jennifer Harman, a 46-year old Las Vegas poker veteran, battling two other players for the $10,000 buy-in seven-card stud hi-low world championship.

On the flat screen televisions tuned to ESPN, 27-year old Miami native Vanessa Rousso starred in a commercial for PokerStars.net.

If major tournament poker ever was totally male-dominated, that time is over.

"Just because no woman has ever won the WSOP Main Event and because more men than women win a lot of the main titles, it gets perceived women can't do it," Rousso said. "They absolutely can. I think we've shown them we can."

In the last 14 months, women have impacted the poker world more than ever. Rousso started the recent tear in April of 2008 when she finished second in the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Championship at Caesar's Palace for $250,000. She followed that with a victory at a European Poker Tour High Roller Event in Monte Carlo for nearly $1 million.

Some of the top women poker pros followed her lead in 2010. Liv Boeree, a London model, won more than $1 million last month in the European Poker Tour Grand Final. Vanessa Selbst, a 26-year old Yale law student, took down a North American Poker Tour championship at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut for $750,000.

In Las Vegas, Annie Duke won this year's Heads-Up Championship in March.

"I just think it's great to really represent the women," Duke said after her championship. "There's some really great women poker players out there."

A female will win a World Series of Poker bracelet for the first time in 2010 in the next three days, as the annual $1,000 buy-in Ladies Championship starts Friday at the Rio.

So far this year, the highest female finishes are Harman's third place in the seven-card stud hi-low world championship and Taiwan pro J.J. Liu's third place in a $1,500 pot-limit hold'em tournament.

Rousso wouldn't be surprised if a woman captures another tournament or two before the 57-event World Series is over.

"It's one of the things I love about poker — it's totally heterogeneous," Rousso said. "You can have your grandmother sitting next to you, your teacher, your son, every type of person can play poker."

Some would argue women even had an advantage at the poker table. Obrestad, who rose to fame after winning the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event at 18 years old, said it was easy to take advantage of men's stereotypes of female poker players.

"When I first started playing live tournaments, I could get away with so much," Obrestad said. "I could bluff and three-bet a lot and no one would ever call me. They didn't know any better."

Rousso said she often felt underestimated in the early stages of her poker career. Those days are over for the most part. In addition to playing, Rousso also has become a respected poker instructor.

She runs Big Slick Boot Camps, which holds training sessions around the country including a July 5 date at Aria, and developed an iPhone app called Poker 1 on 1 with Vanessa Rousso.

Rousso has played in six events so far this summer at the World Series and cashed in one.

"The recurrent theme is, I can't win with pocket kings," Rousso said. "I keep getting in as a big favorite and losing. Then, the one event I did cash in, I got in all-in with queens against kings. Kings seem to be my demise at this World Series."

As far as professional poker ranks go, however, queens are overthrowing kings more than ever.