Annette Obrestad is a professional poker player from Norway who was born on September 18, 1988. She started her poker career at the age of 15 when she began playing online under the screenname Annette_15. Annette has quickly become one of the most feared online poker players and has won more than $1 million in online play.
Annette Obrestad won $117,000 when she won a Full Tilt Poker $500,000 guaranteed tourney for one of her many impressive online victories. Another impressive victory occurred when she won a Poker Stars $4 180 man sit and go. Winning the tournament itself is not a great accomplishment, as the sit and go is full of inferior players and has also been known as the 180 man donkament. The impressive part of the victory is the fact that Annette won the tournament while playing blind. She had covered up her hole cards and played entirely by using position and reading her opponents. Annette does admit to peeking at her hole cards once when she had to make a hard decision after an all-in bet by an opponent. Through her victory Annette proved once again the importance of position and the ability to read one’s opponents.
Annette Obrestad’s successes have not been limited to online play, as September 17, 2007, just one day before her nineteenth birthday, she won the first ever World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. This victory set two records, first the record for being the youngest player to ever win a WSOP bracelet. She also set a record for largest cash prize to be won by a female poker player in a single tournament. Annette had won £1 million, which was worth a little bit more than $2 million at the time. The previous record was held by Annie Duke, who won an even $2 million at the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions. Annette’s victory came about when she defeated John Tabatabai when her pocket sevens hit a set when the flop fell 7-6-5 and Tabatabai was holding 5-6 offsuit for two pair.
It would not be long before Annette Obrestad had another huge success in live tournaments, as she would finish in second place at the EPT Dublin Event in November 2007, where she won €297,800 after falling to Reuben Peters.
Despite all of this tournament success, Annette Obrestad has yet to make an appearance at the WSOP in Las Vegas, as she is still only 20 years old and must be 21 to compete in the WSOP. This means that Annette will likely make her first WSOP appearance in 2010.
Annette Obrestad is a member of Team Betfair alongside Sorel Mizzi and John Tabatabai. Together they form Betfair Poker’s team of professional poker players.
At only 20 years old Annette Obrestad has already had great success as a poker player, and will continue to do so as the years go by.