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How Annette_15 Owned The WSOPE

By James Hipwell

18 September 2007

How can she call my raise pre-flop with that junk?

How did Annette Obrestad aka "Annette_15" win the very first World Series Of Poker Europe main event? I saw her hole cards for most of Day 4 so can shed some light on it...

I spent a good deal of last week watching Annette_15 win the World Series of Poker Europe. As we all know she took down the tournament with that amazing last hand, her 7-7 dominating John Tabatabai’s 5-6, all-in on a 5-6-7 flop.

But what you probably don’t know is how she got to the final table in the first place. Being part of the TV production team filming the event for SkySports later this year I could see her hole cards for all the time that she was playing on the TV table on Day 4 (Saturday) so I got a real insight into the poker mind and motivations of Europe’s hottest player.

We all know that Annette_15 is hyper-aggressive. You only have to read ‘Playing Against Annette_15’ by Poker Verdict’s David ‘thekid08’ Gross to know how she loves to put players to the test, constantly raising and re-raising in position with ‘air’.

Well, she was doing that a lot of the time all last week. A player raises in mid-position with a moderate holding like Q-K and Annette will re-pop them in the cut-off or on the button with 8-4o. When the antes kicked in she was stealing plenty this way.

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Sometimes her natural aggression would get the better of her as it did when open-shoving from under the gun with an inferior holding. She almost got caught out when doing this three-handed, her open shove with Q-J running into Tabatabai’s J-J. Only the Queen on the river saved her skin and helped her to then go on and make poker history.

She did this a couple of times on Saturday on the TV table, once open-shoving with pocket 3s and forcing someone with a higher pocket pair, but not a premium pair, to fold.

Then there were the bluffs. She bluffed a lot on Saturday and stole a lot of blinds and antes that way. But it didn’t always go right for her. Against young Magnus Persson of Sweden she raised in mid-position. He called in position with Q-J. The flop came As-Qh-Js. She bet the pot and he called. The turn came the 8h and again she bet the pot. Magnus looked uneasy, obviously thinking his flopped two pair could well be dominated by trip Aces, A-Q or A-J. But again he made the call. The river came the Kc and this time Annette fires out an eye-watering 150,000 chips, which at that stage of the tournament was still more chips than many of the players left had in total.

Poor old Magnus looked like a bunny caught in the headlights. How could his Q-J be ahead? If he made the call and was beaten he was out of the tournament. If he called and won he was one of the chip leaders. How about that for being put to the test?

Finally, after a long dwell-up Magnus made a crying call and Annette instantly mucked, saying nothing but “good call”. I can exclusively reveal that she mucked 5-4 off-suit. Yup, she had three-barrelled a very decent player with 5-high on a board with all those ‘paints’ on it.

At the time she had just become chip leader of the whole tournament with over 900,000 in chips. But in this one hand the failed bluff had cost her around 300k of her chips, or a third of her stack, and although she still had a decent amount, she was no longer in the comfort zone. To understand how she can make that play is to understand the essence of her game for Annette_15 plays recklessly, often putting her tournament life on the line, for a shot at the title. She plays to win and second place for her is for losers. Sorry John! She plays the $100 rebuy on PokerStars every night the same way and 'owns' that tournament too.

Time after time in this tournament she pushed her chips into the middle with any pocket pair or a big draw. A pair of 3s, a flush draw, open-ended straight draw, double bellybuster…whatever…the chips went in. Call her a luckbox (many on the forums have) but time and again she smashed the established pros out of the tournament with her aggression and astonishing calls. When she did make a play sometimes she had junk, sometimes the nuts, which makes her incredibly difficult to read.

She called Annie Duke’s pre-flop raise (with A-J) with Qs-7s. When the flop came As-Ks-5s Annette found she had flopped the nut flush and obviously insta-called when Annie pushed. “How can she call my raise pre-flop with that junk?” Annie was heard asking another pro just after Annette had busted her.

One by one well-known pros of the game, as well as the odd legend, took her on and came off second best: Kenny Tran, a green-haired (yuk) Gary Jones, Jennifer Harman, Johnny Chan were all cut down by the Norwegian teenager.

Sure, she had her fair share of luck but you can’t win a tournament like this without it. Remember Doyle won his two WSOP main events with 10-2. Winning one with 7-7 doesn’t seem that lucky by comparison.

* * * * * * * * * * ANNETTE_15 WATCH * * * * * * * * * * * *

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* * * * * * * * * * ANNETTE_15 WATCH * * * * * * * * * * * *