After a horrendous Day 1A for pretty much any player wearing a PokerStars.net badge yesterday, another group of Team PokerStars Pros and sponsored players have donned their battle fatigues to fight for chips, position, and the PokerStars way.

Today’s Team PokerStars Pro “heroes” are Chad Brown, Vanessa Rousso, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who has gone the way of the anti-hero, dressed up as a maniacal looking Joker… even now after 30 minutes or so of play in the first level, ElkY still has a crazed smile on his face. We have a scoop folks, the poker world’s first method actor! He’s getting into the role so seriously, he’s actually disturbing some of the players at his table… anything to put them off their game, huh ElkY?

Chad Brown, one of Team PokerStars Pro’s most recent additions, would probably be in a position to give ElkY a run for his acting money. Brown first choice of career was as an actor in Hollywood, where he performed in a number of minor roles in film and television. However, the poker he learned growing up in The Bronx, New York, would signal a new direction for Brown, as he joined the growing ranks of actors turned professional poker players. Brown’s $2 million plus poker tournament earnings include numerous cashes in the WSOP and WPT, but his major victory was in PokerStars’ WCOOP 2006 where he took down the $5,000 buy-in HORSE event.

Vanessa Rousso, known as “Lady Maverick” on PokerStars, is another player who adds that splash of glamour to the world of poker. Similar to Brown, Rousso has a number of deep WSOP and WPT finishes to her credit. She won close to $300,000 in a $5,000 buy-in event at the Borgata Open in 2006, and finished 2nd in the 2007 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event, earning nearly $800,000 for her trouble of getting of bed and sitting down at her laptop for 20 hours. No makeup required for that one Vanessa!

While ElkY already knows what it feels like to win a major title, having taken down the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure title in 2008, both Brown and Rousso would be very keen to emulate that feat here at the APPT Macau. To do that however, they will need to use all their “super” poker powers to take down the Joker in the pack.

Back to Top