Daniel L. Cox
Editor, Poker Insider
Magazine
© July 1, 2009
Las Vegas - Chad Brown can no longer be remembered simply as Vanessa Rousso’s fiancée. Right before their trip for the European Poker Tour Grand Finale in Monte Carlo they returned to Florida for a quick elopement. They had been talking about the upcoming nuptials for 18 months, never finding the time for a formal wedding, large (original plans) or small (modified plans). In a recent Poker After Dark episode, Lady Poker
told the audience they were planning something, just that it was hard to pick a date. With both of them on the tournament trail and new events popping up all the time, they finally decided to tie the knot and hold a large reception for friends and family in the near future.
Married life must be suiting them both. Shortly after they made it official in Florida Vanessa bested the field of nearly 100 players in the largest (at that time) buy-in tournament in history, the 25,000 Euro ($33,000) High Rollers tournament in early May. A month later at the World Series of Poker's $40,000 (the record breaking largest open buy-in) 40th Anniversary Tournament she finished ahead of over 175 players to cash in the tournament with a finish
27th place finish.
After getting married, Chad has had a good World Series by anyone's standards. For those among you who do not closely follow tournament poker, you may not realize that his 4th place
finish in the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better event was Chad’s 7th
WSOP final table and 27th cash (not to mention five additional
cashes in WSOP Circuit Events). His WSOP career dates back to 1993, when he
made his first cash, an 11th place finish, in that year’s $1,500
No-limit Hold’em event. Chad is a consummate, multi-discipline poker player,
cashing in Limit and No-limit Texas Hold’em, Seven-Card Stud, Omaha, and Mixed Games
events.
Though the media’s attention on his new bride often
overshadows him, Chad shows no remorse for being left in the dark. The one-time
toga clad game show sidekick and aspiring day-time soap actor was the host/analyst of
televisions’ Ultimate Poker Tour and after a stellar year, he was named Bluff
Magazine’s 2006 Player of the Year. Besides this year’s 7-Stud final table, he
finished 3rd in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship Limit Hold'em
tourney. He nearly had a 3rd final table during the 40th annual WSOP, with a
14th place finish in the $2,500 buy-in Omaha/Seven Card Stud High-Low 8 or Better event.
Though most players would say that his three cashes this year would make for a
great series, they are fewer than the five he had in 2008 and did not
come close to his eight cashes in 2007, including two final tables. An interest
statistic with Chad is that he has nearly two and a half million dollars in
tournament earnings (over one million in the WSOP alone), but he has never won a
major tournament. With that in mind, and with Andy Bloch failing to reach a
final table in 2009, Chad now supplants him for Poker Insider Magazines’ crown
of “Best Player to Never Win a Bracelet.”
