I Love Poker - Always Have, Always Will!

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 professionals - 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 a lot of hours and looked at every way of improving my game.

Wasn't prepared for all that came with WSOPE title.

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 learned 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 here) 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.

Has a sick feeling she's going to win big again soon.

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

Catch up with Annette at her home site, Betfair Poker, and test your skill against one of the greatest players in online poker in the Annette_15 $20k Guaranteed every Friday.

More blogs from Betfair Poker pro Annette Obrestad:

• Set Mining is Cool, but Don't Overdo It!
• Lost $50k in Two Days!
• A Delayed Entry
• Funnnnnnnn Times