Annette Obrestad Biography

Annette Obrestad started her poker playing career at the age of 15. As the story has been told numerous times, Obrestad’s mother would not allow her to use her credit card to deposit any money onto an online poker website. Undeterred, Obrestad would go on to enter and win a freeroll tournament on UltimateBet to give her a starting online bankroll of $9. From that point, using the name “Annette_15”, Obrestad would turn that $9 into over a Million online.
Annette Obrestad in photo on right

Obrestad is known primarily as a tournament specialist. She has taken down numerous tournaments online and is always a force to be reckoned with at the online tables. To prove just how strong her skills were, she once played a 180 players sit-n-go blind. She covered her screen to where she could not see her cards and proceeded to win the tournament without looking at her cards but once.

It wasn’t until 2007 that Obrestad was old enough to play live tournaments in Europe. She started off somewhat slowly, but then Obrestad had her moment to shine at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. She would proceed to navigate through the 362 player field, impressing many of the world’s top pros along the way. She would ultimately make the final table of the event with the overall chip lead and by the end; Annette Obrestad would emerge as both the youngest bracelet winner in history and the first woman to ever win a World Series of Poker Main Event. She also received £1,000,000 for her victory, or $2,013,734 in American dollars. This would instantly make her the top female money winner in WSOP history.

After winning the WSOP Europe Main Event, Obrestad became an international poker celebrity and was signed to an endorsement deal by Betfair. She has also become a regular fixture on the international poker circuit, with appearances at various events including the EPT, WPT, Aussie Millions, and PartyPoker Premier League. A month after her Main Event win, she finished runner-up in the EPT event at Dublin for nearly $430,000. She has several other modest live tournament cashes, but nothing that has matched her WSOP Europe victory.

It should be noted that Obrestad will not be able to play poker in most casinos in the United States until September of this year since the legal gambling age in most casino states is 21. As a result, we still do not know just how good Obrestad will be. In her blog, Annie Duke said the following about Obrestad, “As I said during the event when asked, 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. I don’t think I was talented at anything when I was 18, much less world class talented. She is not even 20 and is already a terrifying poker player and one of the most talented I have ever seen. In 5 to 10 years holy crap! I don’t ever want her on my left again because I will get outplayed. That I know for sure.”

Obrestad has stated that she will predominately stick to playing tournaments as opposed to cash games. The one exception is Pot Limit Omaha. She says that she has been doing well in the tough games in PLO and will likely continue. In regards to Holdem cash games, she finds them boring and feels that she can make more money in tournaments.

At 20, Obrestad has already had a poker career that most players would dream of. In addition, she sits atop the Women’s All-Time Money List at the WSOP and has a record that can at best only be duplicated. Soon, she will have the freedom to showcase her skills at the biggest and best events across the globe. The rest of the world better be on notice as “Annette_15” is coming soon to a tournament near you.