Annette Obrestad
Annette Obrestad can be aptly titled ‘the small wonder’ in the world of poker. She was born on September 18, 1988, in Stavanger, Norway. Even at young age, Annette never belonged to the category of bookworms and her interests extended beyond her studies to the game of bowling. She once came across an advertisement for an online poker site on a bowling event on television and investigated online if she could play the games for free. She won her first freeroll tournament for $9 and that sparked off her interest in the game of poker.
The 15 years old Annette started building her bankroll by playing very small online poker tournaments under the moniker “Annette_15.” Gradually, she enhanced her skills at the game and could read her opponents so well that she reportedly won a tournament defeating 180 players, looking at her hole cards just once when she was all-in. And then, she ventured out to accomplish many achievements in the world of online poker, even before she was 18 years old by winning several online tournaments like the Sunday Mulligan and several other weekly events, earning more than $800K between September, 2006 and February, 2007. As soon as she turned 18, she went on to participate in live tournaments and finished the Main Event in the Aruba Poker Classic. Then she also final tabled a preliminary event at the EPT Grand Final series in Monte Carlo. Two deep digs in 2007 landed her in London for the WSOPE event where she swept the field winning her first WSOP bracelet and £1 million. With that victory, she became the youngest WSOP champion in the history of poker. And a few months later, she just missed her second major title by finishing 2nd at the EPT Dublin event, cashing for €297,800.
In 2008, she final tabled several events like the EPT German Open, the Premier Poker League, and preliminaries at the EPT Monte Carlo and WPT Spanish Championship. 2009 awarded her with deep digs at the Aussie Millions, the EPT Monte Carlo main events and the Late Night Poker in the UK.
Obrestad started 2010 by claiming the $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia and followed it up with a $215,000 win by finishing 7th in the Main Event. 2010 also marked her 21st birthday which meant she could now play in United States live tournaments. She finished at 9th position at her first NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Her much anticipated participation at 2010 WSOP where she cashed in four of the 45 tournaments, brought her to limelight and the success story of this ‘small wonder’ exploded.
Soon she signed two major sponsorship deals and graced the cover pages of different magazines. She has already made $3.1 million in live events around the world. The list of her achievements is incessant. She has also been approached by several companies for representation but the young, dynamic player chose to maintain a low profile. She has already traversed a long distance on the road to success but has a long way to go with her skills and expertise.
