University Poker» University Poker Players

Vanessa Rousso, the Duke University Graduate

NdeJonge — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:21:09 +0000

With the recent success of Vanessa Rousso at the NBC Heads Up Poker Championships we decided to do a little digging and find out her past education. It wasn’t too hard seeing as she is always talking about her game theory studies at Duke.

After the digging however we found that Rousso majored in economics at Duke, and minored in political science. Since game theory was relevant to economics Rousso took a lot of courses and electives specializing in this discipline. Game theory studies the mathematics of decision making to obtain a maximum return. As you can see this can definitely be used in economics. Rousso was a hell of a student too. She finished her 4 year program in 2 and half years, which broke the schools record. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say she was in school for 2 summers in a row.

While in school Rousso dabbled in poker and eventually started taking it more seriously. It was an easy transission from game theory studies to poker. Rousso is an up and coming star in online poker and she attributes a lot of her success to her Duke University studies. This one I will say University = Poker and University –> Poker for Vanessa Rousso.

Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan Quit University to Play Poker

NdeJonge — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:55:32 +0000

Tom Dwan did attend Boston University for a little while, but quickly realized that he could make more money playing poker than he could with whatever degree he earned at school. I’d say he made the right decision. Dwan is now considered the best online poker player in the world and he has never looked back and regretted his decision to drop out of school. A university professor should never bring in an alumni speaker who says he makes $70K a year when there’s a student in the class (in this case Dwan) making $4K a night playing online poker. That just makes the decision very easy.

Dwan is currently taking part in a challenge with Patrik Antonius to see who can come out on top after 50,000 cash game hands at $200/$400 blinds. At the moment Dwan is up by about $60K after 6,000 hands but there is still a lot of poker to be played.

One thing is for sure about Tom Dwan. He definitely won the University vs Poker Challenge.

Craig Marquis – University of Texas at Arlington finishes in 9th in the World Series of Poker

NdeJonge — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:43:06 +0000

Marquis entered the “November Nine” final table 8th in chips, but went out in 9th after moving all-in about 3 hours into the tournament. Marquis’ pocket 7s couldn’t hold up against the AQ of Scott Montgomery. After the tournament Marquis stated that he had to try to win the tournament and wasn’t content just sitting around waiting for some competitors to fall out. Marquis walks away with $900, 670 for his efforts!