Annette Obrestad in the World of Poker
The 21st century poker boom has given rise to all kinds of new poker phenomena. Thanks to online poker, we now have Internet kids, those who amassed years worth of poker experience online before they were even old enough to play in a live casino.
We also have an influx of female players, who can learn the game on the Internet without feeling intimidated by unwelcoming male players. Finally, with the proliferation of televised poker has come a wave of foreign players — players from all over Europe who understand that poker isn’t just an American game. Annette Obrestad embodies all three of these types of players.
As her screen name, Annette_15, would indicate, the Norwegian Annette started playing poker when she was only 15, playing freerolls online. Showing incredible talent and patience, she turned those freerolls into real money. Her winning snowballed into astronomical sums in a very short time, with Annette winning over half a million dollars on PokerStars alone.
Some of Annette’s accomplishments have already cemented her legendary status. She finished 7th in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker main event at the age of 18.
In 2007, she won a 180 person sit and go, allegedly only looking at her cards one time during the entire tournament. In 2008, she beat a field of $20,000 players to win the PokerStars Sunday Grand tournament.
Annette still is not old enough to play in Las Vegas, but she is able to participate in European events, a fact that she took advantage of immediately by winning the main event of the first World Series of Poker Europe, worth over two million dollars, at the age of 19. Given that Annette is still not even 21, we can expect a long and lucrative poker career ahead of her.