I really like what you said about how it's not always about starting with the premium hands... it reminded me of a little blog I read recently by Annette Obrestad… here it is...
True or False?
- Annette once won a 180 player SitNGo without ever looking at her cards….Mostly TRUE! She peeked one time!
- Annette once beat a field of 20,000 tournament entrants in an online tournament….TRUE
- Annette Followed up her WSOPE win with another huge six figure cash….TRUE
- Annette began her online play entering freerolls, and has never deposited money into an online account….TRUE
Annette is the Queen of Europe, and the Queen of online poker!! Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad is still just a teenager, but she is already one of the most popular poker players in the world.
Obrestad was born in Norway on September 18th, 1988. She was 15 years old when she started playing online, hence the alias "Annette_15". She wanted to play for real money, so she asked her Mom to deposit some money into her account, using her Mom's credit card. Annette's Mom refused, saying that she was too young, so Annette was forced to grind freerolls to try and develop a bankroll. She soon won $9 playing a freeroll and finally had the beginnings of her online bankroll. Annette claims to have never deposited money into an online poker room - instead, she built up her entire bankroll from nothing, starting with freerolls.
Over time, Annette was able to build up a five figure bankroll. It was when she started putting in serious time into poker that she started to get noticed. She quickly moved up in the online tournament scene, and was soon playing the biggest tournaments online. "Annette_15" was starting to attract a large following, and the rail was often full when she would play online.
Fast Forward to September of 2007…The World Series of Poker Europe was hosting its inaugural event in London, England. The main event for the WSOPE had a buy-in of 10k pounds, or around $20,000 USD. Annette used her poker prowess to navigate through one of the poker tournament circuits toughest fields to date, eventually getting heads-up at the final table.
The heads-up battle lasted for hours. Eventually, Annette was dealt pocket sevens and the flop came 5-6-7. The players got their chips into the middle, and Obrestad was delighted to see the bottom two pair that her opponent flipped over. Her opponent would need running sixes to stay alive, and didn't get them. Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad had won the World Series of Poker Europe main event, mere hours after her 19th birthday.
When you ask her about her playing style, she remembers when she had to make major changes to her game: “I remember back when I was building my bankroll and I was playing really tight, not making moves, never bluffed, just played ABC poker all day. That got me to a certain point and I knew I could beat the low stakes games. I had a long period where nothing happened and I just felt like I was stuck.
“I realized that in order to move up and be able to beat the big guys playing the higher buy-in tourneys, I had to change my game. So I started experimenting with raising marginal hands that I usually wouldn't play and decided to improve my post flop play even if that meant looking like a donk for a while.
After making many funny moves and a lot of mistakes, I finally got the hang of it and I think that's when I really started winning a lot.”
The Betfair pro has surely found a formula that works, and she is looking forward to sharing with you exclusively here at PokerVT.
Online Tournament Win Total: $436,718
Live Tournament Win Total: $2,313,919
Name: Annette Obrestad
Alias or Handle: Annette_15
Location: Sandnes, Norway
Major Wins:
$2,013,734, 1st Place, World Series of Poker Europe, $10,000 Buyin, NL, 09-10-07
$429,181, 2nd Place, EPT Dublin, $7,700 Buyin, NL, 10-30-07
Sponsored Site: Betfair
Favorite NL Game Type: NL MTT Tournaments: $100 and above
good luck with your decisions today
Blair
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