Poker News

Vanessa Rousso has claimed a strict diet is crucial to winning at cards.

The 27-year-old poker pro insisted that eating too many carbs could wreck players' chances of success in tournaments.

And the French American also claimed that poker players need lots of protein - just like other professional sportsmen - if they're serious about wining at the highest level. 

Rousso, who is married to fellow diet-obsessed pro Chad Brown said: "One of the secrets to going deep in a main event is mental and physical endurance.

"Keeping track of your blood sugar level and not bloating up on too many carbs or processed sugars will really help you do well during the course of a tournament.

"So, I like to start out [when I play poker] with muesli or oatmeal and that's pretty much the only carbs I'll have all day.

"I'll also have some orange juice and hard-boiled eggs  - which should be in there somewhere for protein."

She goes on to admit that she herself only eats the egg whites, adding: "I don't like the yolks."

The dietary advice came in a 17 minute web video documentary called 'Ordinary Girl' about Rousso's life, which you can watch above.

In it, she also explains how a lesson her mother Cindy - a former french teacher - taught her about boys as a teenager had stuck with her for more than a decade.

"I was at middle school. My boyfriend had done something and I was upset.

"She told me: 'Here's human nature. You chase, they run. You run, they chase.

"That's just one example of one of the intuitive psychological things my mother taught me.

"My mom really understands people...and that's 50 per cent of being a good poker player, understanding people."

Rousso, who claims she has won $3.7million in the last four years, also used the film to criticise anonymous posters on poker forums, specifically on the popular Two Plus Two website, some of whom have claimed she is a weak player and only has a pro contract with PokerStars because she is an attractive blonde.

She added: "It used to be really hard to deal with that. I made me think maybe I was a one hit wonder and led to some real insecurities.

"But over the last four years I've made seven six figure cashes. I've been profitable in tournaments year in, year out. So I've proved all I need to for both me and the people whose opinions I respect. 

"The biggest irony is that all those people on Two Plus Two are the exact prototype of the types of people that have been my best friends my whole life.

"Super-smart, kind of geeky guys. That's pretty much my crew. I've always been best friends with those type of people. I fit right in with them.

"And at the end of the day, they're just judging me on my looks. They don't even know me"