Girl Power
18 year-old sensation powers to WSOPE glory
18 year old Annette ‘Annette_15’ Obrestad became both the youngest person to ever win a World Series bracelet and the first woman to ever win a WSOP Main Event title when she finished atop a field of 362 entrants in the first-ever World Series of Poker Europe £10,000 Main Event tournament in London. As records go, this is one that is highly unlikely to be broken anytime soon.
The win capped off a superb festival of poker as the World Series moved outside Las Vegas for the first time. London’s Empire Casino, The Sportsman and Fifty played host to 10 days of action and the European players took full advantage of the home advantage.
The opening act of the WSOPE, the £2500 H.O.R.S.E. event, attracted 105 runners and was taken down by German Thomas Bihl, on a final table that included American big-hitters Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman and Kirk Williams. The 3-day £5000 Omaha event followed, with another young European reigning supreme in the shape of Italian hotshot Dario Alioto.
It was the main event centrepiece, however, the No Limit Hold ‘em tournament, that drew in the big numbers and the crowds. 362 runners stumped up £10,000 each (in US money double the normal WSOP buy-in) and the line-up included a veritable Who’s Who of poker glitterati. Alongside Europe’s finest, American legends past and present made the journey across the Atlantic, including Doyle Brunson, Annie Duke, 2006 WSOP champion Jamie Gold, 2004 champ Greg Raymer and Johnny Chan. With Phil Hellmuth gunning for more glory across the pond, the possibility of him collecting his 12th bracelet in London was a natural talking point before the tournament, but late on the final day of the main event, there was only one name on everyone’s lips. Annette Obrestad is the youngest player ever to have won a World Series bracelet, albeit by virtue of the legal age for gambling in the UK being three years the junior of the US.
Due to legal restrictions, Annette_15 may have to wait until she is Annette_21 before she can attempt to light up the World Series in Vegas, but she can rest assured that her name will forever be inscribed in the annals of WSOP folklore.
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