Annette Obrestad

Annette Obrestad, from Sandnes, Norway began her poker career at the young age of 15 playing in online poker rooms under the name “Annette_15.” She built her bankroll by participating and winning freeroll poker tournaments. After mastering the online poker scene, she went on to win hundreds of thousands of dollars in online tournaments and to become the youngest person ever to win a World Series of Poker bracelet.

Obrestad won over $500,000 on PokerStars, $200,000 on UltimateBet and $136,000 on Full Tilt between September 2006 and February 2007. She claims that the key to her success is the knowledge of how to play in position and also paying attention to the players at the table. To prove her point, Obrestad won a $4 buy-in online sit-n-go tournament of 180 players only looking at her cards once during an all-in bet. In March of 2008, she took the first place prize of $20,000 in a tournament with an $11 buy-in and 20,000 opponents. Just a few months later she won $35,000 in a Betfair tournament.

In September of 2007, Obrestad won the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event just one day before her 19^th birthday. The one million pound sterling prize converted to $2.01 million at that time, which barely beat the previous record, set by Annie Duke for the highest single event payout to a female poker player. Next year Obrestad will be old enough to compete in the World Series of Poker events held in the US and she is sure to be just as strong of a force as she has been in Europe.

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