Poker Pro Vanessa Rousso Left Out of Upcoming SI Swimsuit Issue.

January 17, 2009

According to several media reports, Team PokerStars member Vanessa Rousso will be left out of the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated’s 2009 swimsuit issue. The team from SI had originally approached Rousso back in December to be apart of the coveted yearly issue, and had told her she had roughly three weeks to get in top form before the photo shoot.

“It was a good opportunity for me to see what kind of shape I could get myself into,” said Rousso, who said she skipped the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in order to concentrate on her workout schedule. “Sometimes as a poker player you end up just sitting on your butt all day so this was a nice change of pace. I used it as a motivating factor.”

However, after all the training and preparation, it looks as if the 5 hours Rousso spent shooting pictures for the spread went for for nothing, as it was later found out this month by Casino City Times that they would not be using her for the issue. The team from CCT tried catching up with her on the tourney circuit in Mississippi but she didn’t give any definitive answers over why Sports Illustrated decided to go in another direction regarding her pictures.

In the past, SI’s swimsuit issue broke barriers by using various sports couples (ie Roger Clemens and his wife) in their spreads, as well as branching off by shooting individual athletes such as Serena and Venus Williams, as well as popular Indy Car racer Danica Patrick in last year’s issue.