Betting at Betfair: Annette15

Quick Vegas Update

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:58:31 +0000

Well, I'm in Las Vegas, chillin' out, enjoying myself, playing online poker and looking forward to the Main Event which starts on July 3.

It's a bummer I can't play but it's the third year I've been out here and been underage so I'm kinda getting used to it. Roll on next year.

Best news outside of poker since my last post was seeing my home country Norway winning the Eurovision Song Contest live in Russia. It was an amazing event watching it in Moscow and the best song won:) Check it out below.

I'm really enjoying commentating on poker these day and I got another chance at the Womens World Open. It should be live on Channel 5 (UK) later this year. I was really surprised at the level of play...much higher than I expected.

So, after a brief trip back to Noway, I arrived in Vegas. It's so good catching up with people I've not seen for a long time and it's a great place to meet new people. I've seen some good shows and films and just taking it easy really.

Bad luck about Sorel missing out on a bracelet once again. I know he'll win one soon. He's been blogging some good strategy pieces recently. Check them out.

Had to laugh at fellow Betfair Pro John Tabatabai's trouble at the Wynn Hotel....still it didn't stop me going for dinner there the other night...the food is amazing.

Betfair have kindly re-written my account of winning the WSOPE bracelet in 2007...corrected my grammar and all! Check it out on the WSOPE Official site when its live. I know...bragging is lame but it's just for those who've not seen it yet.

Got myself some horses in the WSOP Main Event and looking forward to see how they get on. Got a press conference about the Caesars Cup shortly - really looking forward to that...the Caesars Cup not the press conference:)

Must go.

Annette

***UPDATE***

Well, I did the press conference. Here it is below...it wasn't too bad:) Europe's first pick was Peter Eastgate while The Americas got Phil Ivey. Never heard of him <3

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EPT Monte Carlo, The Poker Show and Visas

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:55:55 +0000

I'm writing this blog from my room in Venice even though I should be in Moscow right now for the Russian Poker Tour because my stupid visa never came through on time. At least I have time for more shopping!

Not much happened at EPT San Remo but I did come so close to a massive score in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo when I busted out in 13th for €77k when I slowplayed my As preflop and the bb flopped a set of nines on a 79sQs board. Obv the money went in with my 20bb stack, but I don't think I played the hand poorly at all. Just wasn't meant to be. I'm happy with the way I played but it sucks to bust out so close to the final table, especially when 1st prize was €2.3m! Ah well, always next year.

Nothing really went my way at WPT Venice and to make things worse the structure absolutely sucked. One great thing from the trip was an interview I did for The Poker Show Live with Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson. I had to take the phone call in the hotel lobby because the service on my phone was really bad in my room even though the internet connection was really good! Go figure.

Anyway, the interview was really fun even if Jesse did bring up THAT hand against Isabelle Mercier from a $10k online event last year. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I got slowrolled badly by Isabelle and said a few things in the chat that maybe I shouldn't and everything got blown out of proportion.

Basically, I called her raise in the cutoff with 6h5h and the flop comes 4c3h6s, giving me top pair and an open-ended straight draw. She checks and I bet 2/3 pot which she calls. Turn is Ac and she leads, I shove and she tanks for like three whole minutes before calling with a set of threes! Like anyone is folding there against me!

Even Padraig thought it sounded like a slowroll but whatever, it's in the past. I was looking forward to the Russian Poker Tour Main Event as I didn't recognize much of the field so it would have been pretty weak even though it was a $1k buy-in but my visa didn't come through in time.

After Moscow I will be going back to England for the Women's World Open, which should be good fun. Jesse May asked in the interview if I was going to be as opinionated as I was in the Premier League a few months ago if I joined him in the commentary box at some point but I don't think I'll be too rude about people I don't know or haven't played much against! It's my first Women's World Open and I have a good record in my debut tournaments, especially ones in London:)

Oh and don't forget to check out Betfair's Freeroll promo for the WSOPE - a million dollars - that's pretty sick.

WSOPE MILLION DOLLAR PROMO

On the Road in Europe and EV Freerolls

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:44:00 +0000

Well, after a couple of months break from live tournaments I'm back on the road and will be hitting events in San Remo, Monte Carlo, Venice and finally Moscow....I'll be away for a month and the packing just sucked!

My vacation in Thailand was cool (not literally) but it rained way too much. Everyone enjoyed themselves but I was glad to get back to my nice bed..it's like sleeping on concrete out there and getting woken one morning by thunder was not my idea of fun. I was pretty scared tbh.

Gotta laugh at one incident when I guy grabbed me outside an ice cream parlour and yelled "I'm so horny!" lmao.

Was quite pleased in the end to get back to lovely cold Norway:)

As I said, not being playing much poker recently apart from a few Betfair tourneys and some others but not running too good atm so I'll bore ya with my shopping exploits. Bought myself one of those compact laptops - so no excuse for not blogging regularly;) and I'm happy with my new i-phone...tweeting is much easier now with this Tweetie app.

Just one thing before I go. I've been asked to mention the Betfair Million Dollar Game. You can read all about it here but a special heads up to any non-UK readers....the regional freerolls ARE NOT FILLING UP as word does not seem to have got round yet....meaning a lot of players are getting a walk to the regional weekly freeroll. +EV

Here's a piece containing some tips about winning freerolls although with $1 million up for grabs I think the standard is going to be way higher than normal free tournaments.

Annette.

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Freeroll Poker Tournaments

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:15:40 +0000

A lot of people ask me to write some strategy stuff on this blog and it's something I've never got round to for whatever reason....er... laziness!!

These tournaments provide a great way to start a bankroll from nothing, and also give you valuable practice at the basic mechanics and situations of no limit hold'em

I wrote a short piece on tournament freerolls a while back but never got round to posting it. If it doesn't sound like me its cause one of the guys at Betfair has helped me with it - remember English isn't my first language lol!

The first thing to remember about free rolls is that players do not value their tournament life very much. This is simply because they got in for free - so who really cares if they bust? Unlike in the higher buy in tournaments, where a huge amount of pressure can be applied to players in marginal situations, in free rolls such marginal situations will always nearly result in a call, and as a result bluffing is a much harder proposition.

When you cannot bluff in poker you only really have one choice left - to let the cards do the talking. All the way up to the bubble of these tournaments the only realistic strategy you can play is to just try and hit big hands and bet them very aggressively.

Once these tournaments hit the money they do start to change slightly. Firstly, the players left usually have a vague idea of how to play as they have survived - all the very weak players have busted out by this point so some more advanced plays are possible.

Secondly, there is now real cash on the line which always changes peoples behavior in some way. This second point is particularly true on the final table bubble and the top three bubble, where relatively big money is now on the line (relative to a game with a free buy in that is!!). Opening up your game and trying to steal the blinds a lot more becomes a decent strategy here if the table seems to have tightened up.

These tournaments provide a great way to start a bankroll from nothing, and also give you valuable practice at the basic mechanics and situations of no limit hold'em. Although it is much harder to bluff and make creative plays, often in high stakes poker it is difficult to bluff and make creative plays if the table is set a certain way, and being able to play a good tight aggressive game is important all the way to the top.

Million Dollar Free Roll at Betfair Poker

Betfair Poker Blogs

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:44:48 +0000

I've never really looked around this site - don't know why. Think I had a look when I first started blogging here but it was fairly awful then but now, as poker sites go, I think it's pretty awesome.

Been reading some of Marcus Bateman's articles and I think some of them contain some great stuff that can help any player, whatever level they play at.

So I've tried here to pick out the ones I like with special reference to multi table tournaments.

First one I liked was about bubble play and although it doesn't mention anything that hasn't been written before, its worth a read if only to refresh minds on what type of bubble players to look out for and identifies places to re-steal and put pressure on some of your opponents.

His entry adjusting to the antes is also worth a proper read - while it might be standard stuff for regular mtt players, new players will cetainly pick up some useful information and while talking about antes have a look at surviving to the antes as well.

Being the first to act is another common concept for advanced players and this article goes some way to explain why short stack poker is alot simpler than playing with a deep stack. Putting pressure on your opponents and cutting down their choices can be the difference between tournament survival.

Next, a piece about what to do after winning a big mtt. It something people overlook after that big success and there is plenty of common sense points raised especially how sick the variance is!!

Every good mtt player need to negotiate large fields and here the article stresses ways of concentrating on your opponents at the table rather than looking at the leaderboard throughout!

That's it....though there's loads more articles on the site. In the future, I'll try and pick out some of his plo and cash game articles I think it's great Betfair gets these articles written as I suppose most online poker sites don't really want people to get better but saying that.... don't get too good:)

Off to Thailand tomorrow W00t!

Annette

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I'm a Twittering Idiot!

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:42:22 +0000

Things change quickly in the Internet world and you sometimes you don't notice. I liked Facebook at first but now I've got a new toy.....

Basically, Betfair asked me to start on Twitter - probably cos I don't update my blog so often :) - and for the time being, I'm loving it!!

If you don't know Twitter, it's a bit like the Facebook feature 'What are you doing now?' but this just seems a lot better and the fact that I can now write stuff from my mobile makes it even cooler....and easier.

The whole concept sounds a little strange but I suppose its like mixing Instant Messenging, blogging, a forum and texting....with less hassle.

Feel free to follow me (address below) and I'll try (until I get bored) to keep it up. In theory it should be good for chip counts and stuff during tourneys but whether that will work when the pressure is on I don't know. I warned you here first!

The other pros are doing it as well...managed to get hold of John Tabatabai's password.....here ....I own his soul lol:)

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Recent Tournament Updates and Future Plans

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:29:55 +0000

Have played two big live tournaments this year so far and disappointed obviously not to have gone deeper in both of them. The Aussie Millions was frustrating when I got tilted when some player I'd never played against before and who had just joined the table called my 4-bet with 5-5!

There's nothing more annoying than having played sick poker for four days, not having been all-in a single time without having my opponent drawing dead postflop just to have someone call your 4-bet shove the first hand you sit down at the table..ah well.... I still love poker :)

Bubbled at the Copenhagen EPT...these things happen. Best of luck to new Betfair sponsored Pro Peter Jepsen whose contract was announced on the opening day of that tourney.

Peter is a useful tournament player and an accomplished cash player as well. As every one knows Betfair Poker is the safest place to deposit money when playing high stakes cash games online and I'm sure Peter is going to do well in both cash online at Betfair and in the live tournaments.

In other news, I ran kind of bad at the European Open 5 - guess you'll catch that on a TV screen near you soon.

On a personal note I'm off to Thailand (pic of beach above) with family and friends at the end of March after the Dortmund EPT then I plan to play in the San Remo (April 18-23) and EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo (April 28 - May 3).

Annette

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More Premier League Poker

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:51:52 +0000

Found the videos below from the first episode of Premier League Poker, I said before I was looking forward to it airing and think the show is pretty good. I've just put the first episode on - I don't think it will be too difficult to find the rest on the Internet if you are interested;)

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Annette_15 Blog Pimpage

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:20:53 +0000

Just thought I'd take this opportunity to thank everyone who has these pages linked up from their poker blog. I know I'm not always the most regular with my updates so the fact people are still linking to me is really appreciated.

So here goes with the list in no particular order, if I've missed anyone out I'm sorry - leave a comment and I'll add ya when I get a chance. To be fair to anyone clicking through to these links, I've only added blogs that have been updated in the past two months. If you update or add to your blogroll let me know. Hopefully Betfair will soon sort out a proper blogroll for here soon and we can share some link love:)

UK Bloggers
Amatay's Blog
Racing Ferret
Mike and Louise Saban
Gaz of Cas
Poker Goth
Thadeas Westlake
Steve Holden
Tom

US Bloggers
Shane Schleger
Dray
me-jhantu-nahi-hoo
Twoblackaces
Pokerati
Ed Miller
Slugger's Tales
OhCaptain
Pokerstar Blog
Breeze81

Spanish/Portuguese Bloggers
Re-Raise Blog
Sir Freddy
Guillote
Tikita

Italian Blogger
Still Motion

French Blogger
Sharp

Canadian Blogger
Jordan's Blog

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Some poker related questions and answers!

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:17:03 +0000

Well, I've slipped into my old ways and have been posting in forums again instead of blogging!! I recently really enjoyed doing a question and answer session for a forum partly run by fellow pro Barry Greenstein.

I've picked out some random question and answers here which I thought might interest some of you guys. Anyone who has heard me interviewed before may not find anything here truly groundbreaking but new readers may find some of it interesting.

1) Do you feel being a woman and a young one at that, that the play at your table still seems pretty aggressive towards you? I hear many women say that they feel uncomfortable at times at the poker table because they feel all the men are trying to take them out.

I definitely relate here. I remember when I played my first big live tournament, which was the Aruba Poker Classic in 2007, I didn't know what to expect when I sat down. I soon realized that most players tag you as the weak link when you sit down and they'll raise your blinds a lot expecting you to not be a good player, and just in general trying to take advantage of it. Obviously the only way to make them stop is to step up and show them what you're made off by re-raising and playing back aggressively until they stop.

I'm at the point now where I feel like I'm respected, and people see me as a pro, not a female poker player anymore, which is great, and I'm happy I've managed to convince people that girls have it in them as well and that they shouldn't underestimate us (although I wish I had the image I did early on when I could just bluff bluff bluff and always get away with it... good ole days :P)

2) Your story has been told in many forms, about you starting from freerolls and working your way up the levels to winning a complete tournament without looking at your hole cards (well you admitted you did once). How long did it take you to move up the levels and what approach did you use as you did so (bankroll management etc)?

I've always been very nitty when it comes to money. I've stuck to the 100 buy in rule all the time when it comes to MTTs except when I won the $ in my first freeroll. I think bankroll management is the most important thing you can do that doesn't relate to the game itself to help you move up.

3) I was wondering what type of live tournament you prefer more, turbo tournaments or deep stacked? Also, as a girl, a lot of times in live tournaments I end up getting called 100% of the time...lol. While this is usually great it can lead to a lot of variance also, do you have any recommendations for playing against guys who will call with anything. Do you play tighter or just ship it when you're ahead and hope it holds up?

I like all kind of tournaments because I know how to adjust for the most part, but I definitely prefer deep stacked ones simply because they offer more room to play, and there's more interesting dynamics than there is in turbos where all you have to know is good shortstack strategies. If you are playing against people who call a lot, you need to tighten up your ranges a lot, don't bluff them, and value bet them to death when you have big hands. If they suck out, they do... and there's nothing you can do about it.

4) Right now, you are best known (and self-described) as being a tournament specialist. Do you have any interest in the bigger cash games? Or does tournament poker provide a greater appeal to you?

I've started playing quite a bit of PLO cash, and I'm able to already do good in some pretty tough games. I don't see myself starting to play holdem cash though. I just find it really boring, and with all the available information these days, the level of play is so high that I can't see myself making too much money even if I put in a lot of hours.

5) What times in tournaments are you most likely to fold when it's only slightly plus chip EV to move in, call etc?

I know for sure that I don't call as light as I should sb vs bb when sb shoves. People have started open shoving 20x in spots like that with such a wide range that u probably should be calling with hands as weak as KJ and A4. I just can't get myself to do it because most of the time it's a flip, and it's really going to cripple your stack if you are wrong. 20x deep in an online tournament is a lot of chips, and most people don't realize.

I try not to take more gambles than possible and I'll much rather get my chips in first than having to call off when I'm just guessing. I also fold in spots where people think you are shoving any-two-cards a lot, for example if you have 8x in the CO and it's folded to you, and there's two huge stacks in the blinds. Then I'll fold really bad hands because they will be calling looser than they should if I tighten up my range, and then they are the ones making a mistake

6) In conjunction with your Betfair sponsorship, how much of a role have you taken in building poker interests in the European markets where the game has not yet taken off? In other words, do you feel have you created an "Obrestad Effect" similar to the boom Chris Moneymaker helped spur some five years ago?

I wouldn't say there's been a visible change since after I won, but I have heard from Betfair Poker that there's a lot more people playing there now than it was before I became part of the team. Whether or not that's because of me is hard to say, but I just hope that I can be an inspiration to people, and that everyone sees that nothing is impossible if you put your mind on it and work hard.

7. You are both highly intelligent and a native of Norway. That in mind, give us your best comeback line to Phil Hellmuth's now-famous "idiot from Northern Europe" quote during the Main Event coverage.

'Hey Phil, those 5x aren't gonna last very long, so u might wanna start playing now before it's too late!'

8) How was the experience of playing on TV in the 'Premier League'?

The Premier League is the coolest tournament I've ever played. All the trash talk that was going on behind the scenes, and being around good poker players 24/7 for a week discussing hands and having fun was a great experience. Also having the opportunity to play against some of the best live players out there really made me feel good about my game afterwards. I didn't feel like an underdog at all, and I think I played my best the whole week and can't wait for it to air.

9) Is Phil Hellmuth as douchey away from the camera is he is when the little red light goes on? How many times were you berated?

Phil is exactly how you think he is. You either love him or hate him. I think he's awesome. I love having him around. He's so entertaining and funny, and he has a completely different style than everyone else which makes it interesting to talk hands with him (although I don't always agree with what he says, and he does a lot of stuff that I'd never even think of doing.) Whatever works I guess!

10) Have you had to adjust your online play since winning the WSOPE?

I've had to adjust a lot. I don't get much respect anymore so I've been playing really tight the last year or so online. It's at the point now where I think the regulars are aware of this, and they aren't calling me down as much as they used to, and not 4-betting me as much. So I might be able to take advantage of that again soon. Unknowns, on the other hand, just always put me on the only hand they can beat and call down or ship their chips in the pot when I have the nuts. Good life.

11) What was your biggest down swing in MTT's? How did you deal with it? How many MTT's do you play at a time? Do you feel you give up much of an edge if you play to many?

Online my worst tournament downswing was around $20-30k. I had several non cash streaks of 50+ tournaments and it really sucked at the time - that was before I won WSOPE. However, you can't let it get to you.

Tournament variance sucks ass and we can't do anything to control it except play our best and hope to hold in important spots. That's why volume is important. If you can squeeze that bad streak of 300 tourneys into one week you won't be depressed for as long as someone who plays two tourneys a day and always complains about running bad.

At the most I'll play up to 14 tables if I feel like playing a lot, but I try to keep it between four and eight. That's where I'm most comfortable, and not so bored that I start raising ever hand. It definitely hurts to play too many tables because you end up on autopilot, and you miss out on a lot of good re-steal spots and picking off bluffs because you haven't been paying attention to how people play.

Best of luck to everyone for 2009 and thanks for reading.

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Premier League Poker 2008

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:46:31 +0000

So I'm back home now after playing in one of the biggest televised tournaments around - probably the biggest in terms of money and I must say that I've never had as much fun playing poker for a week in my five-year long poker career!

For those who don't know how the Premier League works or would like to follow the action a little easier when it comes on telly, here's how it works:

Premier League Poker - $75k buy-in 12 players invited.

Each player contests six, six-man SNG's against each other, which are randomly drawn before play starts. Points are awarded depending on where you finish.

Full line-up:- Phil Hellmuth, Annette Obrestad, Tom 'durrr' Dwan, Tony G, Vicky Coren, Roland De Wolfe, Dave Ulliot, Andy Black, Peter Eastgate, Juha Helppi, JC Tran and Nenad Medic.

Points awarded as follows - 10 points for a win, 6 points for second, 4 points for third place, 3 points for fourth, 2 points for fifth place and nothing for being the first to be knocked out.

The top four after six heats qualify directly for the final and take chips with them according to how many points they amassed.

The players finishing fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth plays a best of three heads-up for the last two seats in the final.

On to some action

As for me, I won't go into too many details about hands and stuff as I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone, but I'll say this - playing with all the sick players in that line-up was an extremely helpful experience, and I'm very thankful to Betfair Poker for putting me in it. I can only pray that they liked me and will give me a chance to play against next year.

One thing I thought was kind of funny is that a lot of the players really lacked knowledge of basic short stack strategy and since the structure was as fast as it was, I thought nobody would have a big edge.

As it turned out, almost everyone made small mistakes that they simply shouldn't be making. I won't mention names, but I saw a lot of raise/folding from people with less than 10x big blinds, and too many folds where people should either be shoving any two cards, or calling a little lighter because of the other players shove tendencies.

I don't think Hellmuth will hate me for saying this, but I've never laughed as hard in a long time than I did when he limped utg with 2bbs with Ah6h 5 handed, and folded to a bet on the flop from durrr who had 7 high, I think, LOL... Still love ya Phil, but that was just not good :).

Look forward to some good action when it is broadcast (January, I think). I won't give any spoilers this time but if you guys have any questions about hands they show, ask in the comments below and I'll try to make another post about it when that time comes!

Cheers,

Annette

**UPDATE**

I did a Q&A recently and was asked a couple of questions about the whole Premier League experience so I thought it would be good to add those comments here.

Ok, first question was just about my experience at the event. Probably covered this above but I basically said the Premier League is the coolest tournament I'd ever played.

All the trash talk that was going on behind the scenes, and being around good poker players 24/7 for a week discussing hands and having fun was a great experience. Also, having the opportunity to play against some of the best live players out there really made me feel good about my game afterwards. I didn't feel like an underdog at all, and I think I played my best the whole week and can't wait for it to air.

I also was asked about Phil Hellmuth - so here's my quick take on Phil.

Phil is exactly how you think he is. You either love him or hate him. I think he's awesome. I love having him around. He's so entertaining and funny, and he has a completely different style than everyone else which makes it interesting to talk hands with him. (Although I don't always agree with what he says, and he does a lot of stuff that I'd never even think of doing.) Whatever works I guess!

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Becoming a better player

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:10:28 +0000

There were a few follow up forum questions from my last post so I've tried to answer some of them below.

Bankroll

From the very beginning I have always been good at managing money. I think I can say that I have never risked more than 5 per cent of my bankroll on any tournament except when I started with $9 and had no choice lol and that was when I was taking shots. I've always stuck to the '100 buy-ins rule' for freezeouts and it's been working really well. I've never been tempted to play high stakes cash and don't think I will for a while.

Variance

As for bad runs, we all know they suck and there are different ways of handling it. Some take breaks, some play through it and some ban themselves for a month to not play lol. I guess I've been more of the play it through type because one of my biggest strengths is that I play my A-game 99 per cent of the time I'm at the tables.

No matter how bad I'm running, I rarely tilt if at all. That's just something you have got to work on I guess. Being hard on yourself and stop crying if you take a beat, well, it won't get you anywhere. If complaining makes you feel better, then by all means... go ahead. However, other people won't feel sorry for you. More often than not, you'll just end up feeling even worse if you start whining because you use all your energy on focusing on the bad stuff that you forget about everything good that happens. You then start going around in circles that you can't get out of until you luckbox your way to a tournament win and get your confidence back.

It takes a lot of stamina and discipline to become a good poker player, but that's something that you can learn if you have the right mindset to do it :)

Getting better

I have been my own teacher since I started playing poker. I'm very honest with myself, and I always question the plays I make and try to think of other ways to play hands and so on. I have always felt like the only person that will help you get better is yourself because you know your game best. You know your strengths and weaknesses that other people won't know. So the only thing I would be discussing with other people is mostly what you can do to get better at certain scenarios and situations in general, not just single hands.

Most people have problems doing this by themselves though and feel they learn better by watching other people play or watching videos etc. I obviously do all that stuff as well and always have, but it's more because I want to understand how my opponents think and not how they play, so that I can easily adjust to the same type of players next time I meet them.

Being a fish

I was splashing around for quite some time. My first year, all I played was 6-max sng's ranging from $1-20 and sme normal ones $20-50. I didn't start getting into tournaments until my bankroll was about $4k. I only played the really small ones and just ground them out. I have never had a score that has doubled my bankroll except for the WSOPE win, and that should tell you a lot. It's not all about getting that one big score and living off that. There are other way to success in this game, and it's been an important part of my learning process no doubt.

To the people who often ask 'When should you move up and take shots?' I think it's a simple answer. When you know that you can beat your current level, and you have confidence that you are good enough to beat the higher ones. This should reflect in your bankroll meaning that you can do as you wish and not feel uncomfortable with it. If your bankroll can't afford to take that hit, you are simply wrong and need to keep grinding until you know.

Annette

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"I love poker - always have, always will!"

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:05:34 +0000

As I said in my last post, I'm a forum girl at heart and can be quite prolific when the mood takes me. For anyone who missed a recent post I made about my background in online poker and my take on the reason I've been fairly successful and how that affected me, I thought I'd try and reproduce it, so here goes...

I've been playing poker online for five years but didn't take it too seriously for the first two of them because I didn't really expect it to be my career. But being competitive by nature, I studied alot and basically wanted to become really good. After those two years, I was already beating $100 tournaments and making a solid profit. By then I was dreaming about playing in the major live tournaments, travelling, playing the circuit, meeting all the big name live professional - like a lot of people do, I suppose, when they are at that stage in their career. I couldn't wait to turn 18 so I could 'explore' this poker world. I got my first taste of playing live at Aruba in 2007 and cashing there really gave me the taste for it and I was hooked. I tried even harder to win satellites, played alot of hours and looked at every way of improving my game.

Fast forward six months.

I was in a kind of shock after winning the WSOPE, I didn't quite realise what I had done and wasn't really prepared for all the changes that would come with it. All of a sudden it seemed like I was being asked to do interviews every day. This seemed surreal to me, given my shy nature, and I didn't really like being in the spotlight so much. People started judging me on forums and saying nasty things more than before and it upset me in the beginning. I got over it eventually once I realised that was part of being 'famous'.

I've learned alot about myself over the past two years. The nature of travelling meant I had alot of time by myself. Being alone at airports and on flights makes you think a lot, and reflect on things more than you normally would. I came to the realisation that I'm probably one of the luckiest people I know (not in a poker sense this time, but probably that too haha) and have learnt to embrace every single part of it - blogging apart:)

Obviously there are things that are not always fun that you have to do. I'm still not comfortable with things like promotions, photo shoots (example pic above) and so on... but hey, you can't only do things you love in life. Without challenges, life is boring.

Now I'm at the point where I feel like I want to focus almost all my energy on live tournaments. I've already accomplished so much online and have enough money that I don't play because I feel like I have to. I try and only play when I know I'm motivated for it and know I'll play my best game from the session starts until I'm done.

I'm going to do my best to make Betfair proud, and I have a sick feeling that I'm going to win something big again very soon, but we'll see!

Somebody recently asked me the hard question: "What is the number one reason for my success?" I'd have to say that it would probably be my stubbornness and determination. When I decide that I'm going to become good at something I don't quit until I reach my goal, and in poker, you never know when you are the best.... so the sky is the limit.

Cliffnotes: I love poker, always have, always will.

Annette

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Set mining is cool but don't overdo it!

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:40:21 +0000

As many as you know I'm a forum person rather than a blogger - sorry Betfair:) so I thought I'd republish this response I gave to an OP after way too many people had suggested a a call. Here's the hand.

PokerStars Game #20582590276: Tournament #106193734, $25.00+$2.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2008/09/21 14:05:49 ET
Table '106193734 3' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Trzepi (3230 in chips)
Seat 2: SefeR_PL (2950 in chips)
Seat 3: pikul (4470 in chips)
Seat 4: ziberka (3500 in chips)
Seat 5: coolfon (3470 in chips)
Seat 7: Hero (3680 in chips)
Seat 8: Viper_x (3200 in chips)
pikul: posts small blind 10
ziberka: posts big blind 20

'holecards'
Dealt to Hero Jc Js
coolfon: calls 20
Hero : raises 80 to 100
Viper_x: calls 100
Trzepi: calls 100
SefeR_PL: folds
pikul: folds
ziberka: folds
obywatel_g is connected
coolfon: raises 380 to 480
kocur88 is connected
Hero : ??

To everyone that says call and re-evaluate flop... Please, take a moment and think about it. We only have 3608 chips, and villain has less which means effective stacks are 3400, so calling 480 preflop is not the right odds we need to set mine. You are only going to be flopping a set 1:7.5 times which means the effective stacks has to be MORE than 7.5 times his raise for the implied odds to work out. Also, you might not always win even if you do flop a set as sometimes he might also have AK and fold to your shove making a preflopcall really really unprofitable.

My rules of thumb would be to never call more than 10% of your stack to a RERAISE to set mine, and not more than 5% of your stack to a single open raise to strictly set mine. Reason that it's different amounts is because in a re-raised pot, the raiser's range is a lot narrower and consists mostly of hands that will pay you off when you do flop your set. Whereas if someone opens in MP and you have 3s in the sb, you really don't want be calling unless you are deep enough, because his range is so wide that he'll often miss the flop when you hit and therefore not pay you off. He'll also push you off the best hand way too often by cbetting the flop when his 67s misses or whatever.

To sum up.. set mining is cool but don't overdo it. Don't just call because you have a purr and want to hit a good flop:)

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Lost 50k in two days!

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:32:24 +0000

I won't go on a long rant about how bad the tournaments have been for me because I know nobody wants to hear about that anyway. I've visited a ton of places though, including Berlin, Barcelona, London, Nottingham, Toronto, London again, and now I'm in Budapest for the EPT.

I've also forced myself to play more online simply because I forgot what it was like to win after busting in all the live tournaments, so I needed my confidence back. It's definately helped.

My plo game has also improved way more than I expected in such a short period of time. I've been taking some shots in the 25-50 games, and running at 3BB/100 after 10k hands or so (obv no sample yet, but we'll see how it goes). I'm hoping to one day be able to move up and play higher without worrying so much about money like I do now. I had a rough couple of days after a sick rush where I lost 50k in two days (probably nothing for the ppl who play those stakes, but thats a totally new experience for me having to deal with such big swings)... and I'll tell you something; It didn't feel good! However, it's part of the game, and something you just have to deal with, especially when playing omaha.

Outside of poker, personal life is great, won't go into too much details yet but maybe next time hehe :)

Another awesome thing is that I get to play in the Premier League this year. Its a 75k televised tourney held in London. Only takes 12 entrants, and we play tons of heats vs each other, calculate scores etc and then play final table at the end for a lot of money lol. I honestly don't know all the details yet, but just figured I'd throw it out there!

That's all for this time... I know I say that I'll update more, but I'll say it again just because I feel bad if I dont... SOoooo cya guys in a week (no?).... yea yea I'll try lol.

Laterz.

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Set mining is cool but don't overdo it!

Lost 50k in two days!