News

Sunday, 04 July 2010 11:03

At the age of 19 she became European WSOP champion. Two years on, Annette Obrestad is setting Las Vegas alight as she debuts for her first full WSOP.

It was hailed as a one of the greatest and hugely anticipated debuts ever to be seen in the World Series of Poker's forty one year history. At the age of twenty one, Annette Obrestad storms into this year's tournament in Las Vegas only just old enough to be eligible to participate.

Norwegian born Obrestad has already established her credibility as a force to be reckoned with in the world of online poker when at the age of just nineteen, she overcame a field of no less than 362 players to take the London held 2007 WSOP Europe top prize of £1million. Turning twenty one last September made her eligible to compete in this year's main tournament held in Las Vegas.

Already a well known name in poker echelons, Obrestadt has already been featured in ESPN The Magazine with a full colour, two page spread while she was given prominent play in the pre-World Series of Poker publications of Bluff Magazine and Card Player. She was also given a highly sought after sponsorship deal by FullTilt Poker.

Even officials of the WSOP jumped on the hype bandwagon by featuring her in the news conference that kicked off the tournament. They even put her up there with Joe Cada, the defending WSOP Main Event champion.

As the WSOP got underway, Obrestad managed to cash in three events, with her best finish coming 15th in one no-limit Texas Hold'em event, where she earned $13,654. She is certainly one of the highly sought-after poker players by both the poker media and her many fans.

Part of the steep learning curve that Obrestad has had to deal with is all the attention she is attracting as well as the high expectations, along with playing in the Rio's enormous tournament poker room.

Since her WSOP Europe victory, Obrestad has continued to be a dominating force in Internet Poker while in several foreign tournaments she secured finishing places in the money. In January this year, Obrestad took first and seventh places in Aussie Millions events. In March she won $25,000 with a ninth place finish in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship at Caesars Palace.

Her progress will be carefully watched by many in this WSOP tournament to see if she can keep up the pace and cement her status as a top pro.