The Year of Annette_15
December 11th, 2007If I asked you to name the best poker player in the world, who would you say? I’m sure Phil Ivey would make your list somewhere. But what exactly is the definition of the best? Is it best overall player? Best cash game player? Best tournament player? That’s an ongoing debate that poker pundits, fans, and writers are constantly having while engaged in heated discussions from Las Vegas to Copenhagen.
Now, if someone were to ask me who I thought was the best female NL hold’em tournament player is I’d say Annette_15. Sure there are plenty of excellent female tournament players such as Kathy Liebert, Kristy Gazes, and J.J. Lui, all of whom have posted decent cashes over the last twelve months, but none of them had the year that Annette_15 experienced.
2007 was the year of Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad. The 19-year old from Norway crushed everyone in her path. According to Pocket Fives, she won over $608,000 in online tournament prize money. She has also won close to $2.5 million in live tournaments. In addition, she made World Series of Poker history when she won the inaugural WSOP Europe, becoming the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet.
I caught my first glimpse of Annette_15 in Monte Carlo during the EPT Grand Finale. Although she busted out of the event before the money bubble, she managed to advance to the final table one of the side events. At one point, there were more media reps sweating her table than the actual EPT Championships. I was one of them as we all stood in awe of Annette_15. For many of us, that was the first time we ever saw her play live. Nearly all of her previous destruction had occurred online, so it was a treat just to get to watch her play in real life.
Annette_15 had been killing the online tournament scene for a couple of years. In 2007 alone, she won 18 tournaments online. Also, she either finished in first or second place over twenty times in various $50 and $100 rebuy tournaments. In 2007, she had fifteen cashes in online tournaments that were worth at least $10,000 and six cashes worth over $20,000. And then there was the $117,000 score in August when she won the Full Tilt $500,000 Guaranteed after she survived a field of 3,268 players. She put on a clinic at the final table and steamrolled all of her opponents in an impressive victory that people are still talking about.
Probably my favorite Annette_15 story, and the one that makes her a legend in my book, is when she won a 180 person online tournament… without looking at her cards! She played the entire tournament blind, with the exception of one hand where she admitted that she peek at her hole cards when three spades fell on the flop. She wanted to see if she had a spade before she made that call. Aside from that hand, she played blind and won. Simply amazing.
Annette_15 was still 18 years old when she won the £10,000 buy-in WSOP Europe main event at the Empire Casino in London in September. She collected £1 million for first place and also won the respect of the top players in the world after her performance. She busted both Jen Harman and Annie Duke en route to the final table. Duke had nothing but compliments for Annette_15 after getting the chance to play together.
“She is the youngest player ever to win a bracelet and deservedly so,” explained Duke on her blog. “If she is this good now, at 18, I shudder to think how good she will be in 5 or 10 years. I don’t think I have ever seen someone that young with that much talent and feel. She never loses her composure at the table and has amazing instincts. Combine that with the fact that I don’t think the other players knew what to do with her and she was scary to watch. She is not even 20 and is already a terrifying player and one of the most talented I have ever seen.”
Less than fifty days after her record-setting victory in London, Annette_15 headed to Ireland to compete in the EPT Dublin. She made the final table and eventually finished in second place. She won over $420,000 which pushed her close to the $2.5 million mark for the year. She is currently third overall on the Women’s All Time Money List (live tournaments only). Kathy Liebert and Annie Duke are the only female players who have won more money than she has… and they have both been pros for over a decade. She has only been allowed to play in live tournaments for about a year and she still cannot play in any tournaments in Las Vegas.
Annette_15 is second overall on the All Time Norwegian Money List, and only a few dollars behind Thor Hansen, the Godfather of Norwegian Poker. She’s currently sixth on the All Time Scandinavia List, which is impressive collection of players such as Gus Hansen, Chris Bjorin, Martin De Knijff, Patrik Antonius, and Thor Hansen. So far, she’s currently 10th on the 2007 Money List. I wonder what her stats will be like in 2012 or 2017? I’m guessing that she’ll be on the top of almost every category in a decade.
It’s not hard to list Annette_15 as one of the best female players in the world and as one of the best players under 21 in the world. She also might be one of the best online tournament players… ever. And now, you can make a good argument that she’s among the best NL tournament players in the entire world. After all, she won over $3 million in combined online and live cashes in the last eleven months. If I were Annette_15, I would not want this year to end.
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