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EPT Monte Carlo, The Poker Show and Visas

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:47:48 +0100

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:)

Annette is sponsored by Betfair Poker, home of the WSOPE Free Million Dollar Game. Check out her blog on Betfair here.

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On the Road in Europe and EV Freerolls

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:43:30 +0100

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!

-- Annette.

Annette is sponsored by Betfair Poker, home of the WSOPE Free Million Dollar Game. Check out her blog on Betfair here.

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Tips for Freerolls with Annette Obrestad

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:00:10 +0100

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!!

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 freerolls such marginal situations will nearly always 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 people's 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.

Annette

Annette is sponsored by Betfair Poker, home of the WSOPE Free Million Dollar Game. Check out her blog on Betfair here.

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I'm a Twittering Idiot!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:41:01 +0100

Things change quickly in the Internet world and 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:)

Twitter Updates

Home again. about an hour ago
Manicure appointment in 20 minutes. Be back in 3-4 hrs. about 5 hours ago
Room is finally not a mess anymore... whew... that took longer than expected. Cant wait to go to bed tonight! about 5 hours ago
@Wiscomurray lol ur the best about 7 hours ago
Cleaning my room and listening to radio. about 9 hours ago

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Recent Tournament Updates and Future Plans

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:29:54 +0100

By Annette Obrestad -- I've played two big live tournaments this year so far and am 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 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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Question and Answer with Annette Obrestad Part 1

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:40:01 +0100

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.

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)

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 MTT's 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.

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.

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.

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

Editor's note: Keep an eye on our blog page for part 2 of Annette's question and answer highlights!

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.

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Premier League Poker 2008

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:03:08 +0100

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 Sit-and-Gos 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 A 6 five-handed, and folded to a bet on the flop from durrr who had seven-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

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.

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Becoming a Better Player

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:14:30 +0100

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% 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% 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 mind-set 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 SBG's ranging from $1-20 and some 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 succeed 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!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:26:34 +0100

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.

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.

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!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:40:09 +0100

As many of you know I'm a forum person rather than a blogger - so I thought I'd republish this response I gave to an OP after way too many people had suggested 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

"hole cards"
Dealt to Hero J J
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 reevaluate 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 preflop call 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:)

-- Annette

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Lost $50k in Two Days!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:57:55 +0100

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 definitely 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 that's 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. It's 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.

-- Annette

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A Delayed Entry

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:56:52 +0100

Sitting here at the airport at home on my way to Ireland to play a little and do promotional stuff. Know it's been a while since I wrote so figured I'd do something productive while waiting for once.

I haven't played much at all lately. Was in Vegas for a month and a half during WSOP, but obviously I couldn't play anything.

Had tons of fun tho, met some great ppl, saw tons of shows, shopped, railed and everything else I wanted to do!

After that I went back home for two weeks or so before heading off to London to play in the Ladbrokes Poker Million that I had been looking forward to for a loooong time.

To my disappointment it only lasted 11 hands when Tony G. two outed me with two cards to come and knocked me out of the tournament. Oh well.

I'm really feeling good about my game tho. I've been playing in my head all the time even if I haven't been at the tables, and Ive come up with some pretty cool new stuff that I'm gonna be experimenting with in the upcoming tourneys.

After I've been to Ireland I'm going to Portugal to play in the second leg of the Betfair Portuguese Poker Tour (BPPT) ... to be honest I'm not going for the tournament this time lol, I just know I'm gonna have a blast with everyone there and look forward to the social part more than playing.

No big tourneys for me until EPT Barcelona now which is beginning of September. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee, 'bout time they started again.

Watch out, I'll be making my mark again this year, u wait and see!

-- Annette

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Funnnnnnnnnnnnn Times!

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:49:09 +0100

Man, I have so much to talk about this time so expect to keep reading for a while...

I'll start with WPT Barcelona. I got through day one of the main event with 50k or so in chips which was top 15 out of 120 left I think. Day 1 went pretty smooth from the start, I picked up some hands, got paid etc. Had 3 key hands that day which I think were all pretty interesting:

Hand 1: I have about 23k after chipping up from 15k starting stack. I had been pretty active at the table but also showing down fairly strong hands and no big bluffs. Marc Goodwin, a good British player, is to my immediate right.

He's a typical live pro, has reasons for everything he does, but sometimes his logic can be very flawed even if it makes sense in his mind. He had been very active, accumulating well and sitting on around 25k.

The blinds are 150-300/25. Our table had been playing very tight for the most part, with not many re-raises or flops.

Marc raises utg to 800. Ok, so ur prolly thinking I need a very good hand to continue, which under normal circumstances I would, but he had been opening utg the last 5 orbits, and sometimes showing one card like a random 7. so I'm pretty sure his opening range is pretty wide still.

I look down at 4 6 utg+1 and decide to re-raise to 2750. This is not something I do very often, but it was such a perfect spot for me to come over the top cuz he HAS to put me on a huge hand.

I also think that he's gonna do the good ole live pro 'call hoping to set mine or hit a good flop against me to stack my overpair without getting right odds to do so' move.

So I will be able to take down the pot on the flop a ton of the time, and I can also hit a really disguised flop if I'm lucky. Comes back around to him and he calls relatively quickly... no surprise there.

Flop: Qd-Td-5x

He checks. (which i'm 99% sure he's gonna do no matter what he has so that doesn't tell me anything.) I obviously flop huge here and I'm trying to think what my best line is against him. I think he can easily have a hand like AQ that he's just not folding cuz he doesn't like to give me credit for a hand very often.

I also think he can have KJ and might check-raise me on the flop. TT is also a possibility, but for the most part I think he just has some random pocket pair or suited connectors that whiffed and will fold the flop.

So I decide that I kinda wanna get some more chips outta my flush draw (as weird as that sounds lol), so I decide to check behind planning to shove on any turn bet hoping he thinks I'm on AK and bets out with whatever he has and then realizes I was slow-playing the flop with an overpair or QQ.

There's no way hes gonna call a turn shove even if he thinks I have AK. He's just not that type. I also don't wanna get check-raised on the flop and blown off my hand, because any check-raise on his part commits him, so I won't have fold equity anymore.

Turn: 9

Beautiful card, completing my flush, and also making it much more possible for him to have hit some part of that board. He checks again. I was pretty sure that he was giving in at this point, but I had to protect my hand.

So I bet 4300 into 6k or so just hoping for him to do something stupid. To my surprise, he insta shoves!! Kinda scared me... but I obviously call and he shows 9s... awesome, ship 45k pot myyyy way please!

River: Blank

So after this hand, Marc is down to 4k or so and he's really pissed off at me for 'getting lucky and hitting the only card in the deck that he gives me action on'... I just laugh cuz I win the pot on any card but the last 9 in the deck that doesn't complete my flush and that's all.

I was betting turn and shoving river if he called regardless what came, and he can't call two more streets with 9s. So he's losing chips in that hand on 43 turn cards and 42 river cards which is pretty funny if u ask me.

He then goes on tilt a little bit but manages to get his stack back up to 25k or so by getting some ridiculous calls and getting some good cards.

Hand 2: Last level of the day. 200-400/50

I look down at AK offsuit which is a big hand with my image lol. So I raise it to 1050 utg+2. Guy two to my left... apparently a rich guy with tons of money and a friend of Marc re-raises to 4500 or so with 20k behind.

I really had no idea what to do here... folding felt incredibly weak, and I think he was getting tired of me raising every single hand it was folded to me after Marc doubled me up earlier.

So I just ship it in expecting to be racing a fair amount of the time, and getting folds the rest. He shrugs his shoulders and says 'ok, gamble' and calls. I'm like... ahhh dear, good game 25k of my stack. He turns over QJ offsuit!

I can't help myself. I go 'WHAT????!?!?!?!' cuz I was so surprised. Obviously I'm delighted that he called until the Q rolled off on the flop and I bricked the turn and river. I got really mad... don't ask why, but I had been on a really bad run for a loooong time and I flipped out.

I calmed down after 20 min or so staring at the chips that shoulda been mine and given me the chip lead in the tournament. Instead I was down to 25k again. Sigh.

Hand 3: So last hand of the day. I told Marc when they stopped the clock to play the last 5 hands of the day that I'm probably gonna mess up cuz I like to spew the last hands lol.

Still 200-400/50.

I'm on the SB with AK... oh god, told ya eh... one guy limps for 400. Marc raises to 1600 on the button. I really really reeally don't wanna play this hand at this point, and I definitely don't wanna see a flop with it OOP against him, so I reraise to 6500 pretty much telling him I'm not going anywhere and that I just wanna get the hand over with.

It's probably pretty exploitable against very strong players who will know I have AK here and fold anything but KK+, but Marc isn't like that. Limper folds, comes back to Marc, he shoves ... sighhhhhhhhhhh.

I snap-call cuz I'm never ever folding after putting in 25% of my stack preflop with AK on a reraise. I show my hand and he says 'I KNEW I was ahead, and slams his 7s on the table. wtffff, like, lol, his logic doesn't make any sensssssse.

He told me he thought I had AT, AJ, AQ, AK and maybe small pairs. LOL again. First of all I'm folding AT, AJ to his single raise preflop, all pairs im prolly set mining. I'm never gonna turn AQ into a bluff by reraising cuz I wont be able to call a shove.

And If I did reraise light I'm not gonna reraise that much of my stack and fold to a shove the last hand of the day to put me on tilt before the next day. So my real range there is QQ+ and AK. I wouldn't say ur 7s do very well against that range, Marc ... I'm sorry.

He gets punished for his bad play when I hit a K on the flop to win the pot and then he starts going off on me again telling me how bad i am and that I'm the biggest lucksack in the world and that all I do is run good. Whatever ... go beat ur mates in the GUPT instead or whatever that tourney series over there is called lol.

Good way to end the day.

Day two didn't go so well tho. I start out with Patrik Antonius to my right with a big stack. I try reraising him once about an hour after we start playing but he obviously 4bets me and I'm too much of a wuss to shove with my Q8o so I fold. After that I win a small pot and get moved to a new table

Still have 50k. Blinds 500-1000/100

I raise to 2600 with A T utg+1. Don't really have any reads on the table but figure it's good enough to raise with regardless. I get 4 callers ... yay... not. I'm pretty much done with the hand unless I flop a monster.

Flop Tx-9d-4d

Hmm ... not bad huh. I bet out 8500 definitely not planning to fold my top pair top kicker with the nut flush draw. Guy to my left insta-throws in all his 5k chips which totaled about 40k leaving himself with 10k or so.

Comes back to me. I cant fold so I ship, he calls and I lose to his 9s. A lot of ppl have been asking me why I didnt put him on a set when he bet like that and my thinking was that if I had a set in his spot I would at least give it some thought.

Maybe hope the ppl behind came into the pot because they only had between 20-30k so there's no way they're ever just calling 8500 on the flop, which is a good argument for flat calling and slow playing the set knowing that the action is opened back up to him again if someone shoves and that I will most likely stick my chips in if I have an over pair either way.

So I really thought his range would be more weighted towards the same kind of combo draw I had, with hands like Jd8d, QdJd. QdKd, 7d8d, 8d6d or maybe T9s. Which I have crushed. Even if his range is only one or two of those combinations and sets I'm still getting like 2.7-1 to call only needing a little over 3-1, so it's definitely the right call regardless, just unfortunate.

After that I went and signed up for the 300 euro rebuy plo tourney to tilt away some money, but I ended up taking third in it instead for 16,600 euros which felt really nice. I also got deep in the 1k and the 2k events, but no luck late.

After Spain I went straight to Portugal for the Betfair Portugese Poker Tour (BPPT). I thought it was gonna be a really boring event since the buy-in was so low, and I didn't know anyone else going. I ended up meeting some really cool ppl there tho.

One of them being a member of the Betfair Poker Portugese team, Roberto. We had lots of fun all week and we got along really well. He was to my surprise also a very talented, good player. I railed him for a whole day in the side event after I busted out the first hand when I flopped an open-ended straight-flush draw and got it in vs top pair ... lol.

But I do think he has potential and is definitely someone to look out for the next couple of years. Guess what? He also ended up winning that tourney! Congrats on that ... I know you'll be reading this.

Wanna thank you for a nice time in Portugal and for making my stay there much better than expected. Look forward to seeing u again soon! And that also goes for the rest of u that I met there. (Thanks for the earring Mafalda :) I will now be happpppy when Betfair sends me to Portugal next time!

That's it for this time. I could've written another 4 pages from that trip but I'm exhausted and have a flight in 7 hours to Spain for the Spanish open before going to Vegas for a month. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

-- Annette

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More from Barcelona

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:57:26 +0100

I just got back a couple of days ago. My friend got 2nd in the tournament which was huge for him. Kinda sucks he didn't win cuz he was way better than his opponent when he got HU.

He just didnt have the chips to fight with. He's happy tho, and I'm proud of him for doing so well at his first big FT! Good job Mike :).

I'm actually going back to Barcelona in just a week for the WPT there, so if anyones going, come say hi. I'll be there from the 20th-27th I think and then heading to Portugal for a Portugese event sponsored by Betfair.

Actually looking forward to it. Will be my first time in Portugal and I've heard it's really nice there. Not sure what the tournament will be like but I know for sure I wont donk outta this one unless I get really unlucky. Can't be too many pros in it since it's only a small buy-in. Should be easy heh.

On a poker related note, I've been running really well on Betfair lately. Have played a lot of tourneys the last couple of days and I'm starting to really get a feel for the site. I was struggling in the beginning because the play here was just generally so different from other sites.

You'd expect that because Americans can't play there would be a lot of Scandis, but maybe I'm generalizing too much when I say most Scandinavian players are over aggro.

The play here is really weak for the most part and the avg skill level of the players compared to the buy-in of the tourney is a lot lower than any other place I've played. Looking forward to getting into the heads of the regulars here that's for sure.

One specific thing that I've noticed is that ppl play really tight when they're shortstacked. They don't shove any two if they have 7bbs in the CO and its folded to them. I kept making the same mistake isolating medium strength hands like KJ, A2, 33 vs them thinking they're on any two cards but they don't seem to care if they get very short.

So after seeing this and adjusting my ranges accordingly I've stayed out of situations that I used to get into too often. (This of course doesn't count for every player on the site cuz some of them know what they're doing)

Enough about that... dont want them to know the mistakes they're making :), altho I'll prolly call someone out when I start making vids. I tried recording today for the first time. Had an hour of material untill I found out the audio wasnt working...lol.

Oh well, just gonna have to do another one I guess. If anyone has any requests for what to record, please make a post in the Betfair forum and I'll try to look through it from time to time!

Will write again soon (i promise).

-- Annette

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On the Road As Usual

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:12:08 +0100

So, I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Barcelona.

I just came here from London after playing in the European Ladies Open event. I wont even bother writing anything about it because I busted 45th outta 52 and it was just one of those days where nothing seemed to work. We all have those, and there's not much to do about it.

The reason I'm in Barcelona now is because a good friend of mine, Mike Lawson ("Meeelosh" online) managed to go through a field of 2,250 players online in the World Poker Crown $3 million guaranteed tourney that was held online couple of weeks ago.

The last 10 players took their chips with them to Barcelona to finish the final here, and hes now here 2/10 in chips fighting for a $1mill first prize. I really hope he does well here cuz hes due to have a big score after grinding mid/high stakes tournaments for so long. Hes a very solid, good player with a lot of potential still, and if anyone deserves to win this its him!

Anyway, I dont wanna jynx him, just want to give a shout out and wish him GL at the final table that will be played may 8th.

-- Annette

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The Beginning of Something New

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:05:55 +0100

I have something really exciting to talk about this time... I've been talking to Daniel Negreanu and his crew a lot the last months about joining his new training site called PokerTV. It is very unique and different from all the other sites out with tons of new ways to teach poker and how to improve ur game.

I wont go into details, but I can see this becoming huge in the feature and I decided to come along for the ride by signing a contract with them. I'll now be making instructional videos for the site after the launch which will be in a couple of weeks from now. I'll be making all my vids on Betfair Poker, so if u want some lessons, sign up and come play with me and I'll berate u and let u know how bad u are muahahah!! Nah, just kidding, :), I'll try to be nice for the most part, but no promises!

Anyways, other than that, Monte Carlo went to hell, and I didnt do well in anything other than a 1k side event that I cashed in. Ran bad in the main event and got sucked out on to bust. Then played some smaller tourneys but didnt do too good. Bubbled one and busted early in the other one. Oh well, there's always another tourney.

Speaking of, I'm going to London tomorrow to play in the European Ladies Open. It'll be my first ladies event. Not really sure what to expect, but i think the play will be pretty weak for the most part, so I like my chances. Hopefully I'll get in some interesting spots that I can blog about afterwards, but I have a feeling it will become more or less a crapshoot some hours in, like most televised tourneys. Should still suit me well as I'm used to fast structures online, but it definately increasess the variance heavily, so I dont expect too much going into it.

Will update more when I have something to write about :)

Take care,

-- Annette

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Vacation and Other Non-Important Stuff

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:08:22 +0100

I've been very busy since my last entry. Well, maybe not busy, but just occupied for the most part.

I bought a house for my mom and I about a month ago, and we moved in right after. It's amazing.

I never wanted a huge house with 498537943759 bedrooms and more place than I could use. This is just perfect tho. It has two bedrooms and a guest room, as well as two living rooms so I can get some time by myself if I need to.

It's very central in the downtown area where I live and the price was extremely good I thought. Would probably sound expensive to Americans but the market in Norway is very high nowadays, so this was a bargain.

It's very exciting to own a house. Not many 19-year-olds can say they do, so I consider myself really lucky.

I also had some time to play online the last few weeks which was nice for a change. I miss the grinding as weird as it may sound. I remember "back in the day" when I used to play 12-14 hours a day for almost a year straight and I never got tired of playing.

Now I'm lucky if I can play every day for a week. I've also been catching up on the training vids across the sites that I haven't had time to watch until now. It's weird how watching other ppl play can really make u think about ur own game.

Even if the instructors are making mistakes, u react to it and u know how to make changes. It also helps u understand how ur opponents think about the game and what level they're on. All those small things add up and it's how u get an advantage over skilled players.

I absolutely recommend all of u join a training site if u haven't already. I'm not gonna suggest which sites here because I'm good friends with all the instructors and don't wanna advertise for just some of 'em and not others.

U can find more info on google or pm'ing me on different forums if u wish to know more.

I'm actually sitting in the Betfair office in London now after doing some media training yesterday. Was pretty interesting. They had hired some guys from BBC to come over and show us what to say and what to do in interviews when on TV, or talking to newspaper journalists etc.

They also showed us examples of what not to do. Definitely a good learning experience that I can take with me.

Monte Carlo is coming up. I'll be heading over there tomorrow. Very excited 'cuz I haven't played a big event in ages. Been over a month now since the EPT in Denmark where I totally screwed up, so I've had a lot of time to rethink stuff.

The structure in Monte Carlo is gonna be really slow. Ninety-minute levels and $15k starting chips I think. I also do better when they give us more chips in the beginning so I expect to make it deep in this event unless I get coolered or sucked out on real bad.

Also, I'm sorry if I haven't played in my tournament every week. I've always had a reason not to and it's not just me being lazy. I do try my best to show up every week, but sometimes I just have other plans and can't play. So please don't take it out on me too hard.

Will be updating a lot the next weeks so keep visiting my blog. I won't disappoint!

-- Annette

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From Dortmund to Denmark + A Few Nice Awards

info@www.Pokerlistings.com — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:37:08 +0100

A quick recap of the last few weeks: I played EPT Dortmund not long ago... didn't go as I hoped.

I made Day 2 with a top-20 stack, but I had an extremely tough table on Day 2 and just couldn't get anything going, so I went out 30 from the money or so.

Did good in the $2k side event where I got 8th, but still not good enough for my liking 'cuz I have extremely high expectations and I'm never happy unless I win. Won a couple of sng's there so I got a nice profit on the trip overall. Germany was kinda boring.

I said last time that I was gonna work on not bluffing my way out of tournaments, and I have definitely gotten better at it lately. I've been laying down more hands and not being so stubborn... but I hate going against my gut, and I feel like I have a couple of times just because I've been thinking too much about not making the same mistake.

Oh well... I'm definitely not afraid to pull the trigger, I just need to think things through better before I do.

I also played in the PartyPoker Millions. I don't wanna spoil anything 'cuz I went very deep in it, and it's televised. I'll let u guys watch it first before I make any comments about how I played, but I'm very proud of that tourney, and I def played my A-game even tho i got lucky a couple of times.

Please leave a comment or something here when it airs, because I wont know and I'd love to see it :).

I'm just done playing EPT Copenhagen. I made a really big mistake on my bustout hand. Some background: I have a really tough table... three strong Norwegians. And most of the other players are solid TAG players for the most part.

I had made a lot of big laydowns and even showed them a couple of times making them think they can run over me. I had also been keeping pots very small, checking behind tons of flops after raising pre-flop, and just check-calling with top pair on scary boards, folding Aces post-flop, got away cheap with Js vs Qs on a low board the third hand of the tournament etc.

So I'm thinking my image is very solid at this point because I've only showed down good hands, but I also have a reputation of being crazy, so ppl know I'm capable of running bluffs.

I pick up Kd-Qd in the CO at $100/$200 with $15k stack. I make a standard raise to $525. Folds around to the BB who I had been raising every time it's been folded to me or so. I can tell he's getting a little pissed off.

He's been defending a lot vs. me, trying to outplay me post-flop I think and seeing a lotta flops in his BB and just being very stubborn. But he was also pretty tight and didn't play big pots without a good hand except for a bluff he showed down where he fired two barrels with a draw and got called down by top pair.

He rather quickly re-raises to $1,500. It was such a small re-raise, and would only be 10% of my stack to see a flop in position thinking his rr range here would be like 88+AT+. Maybe even a little tighter, but I thought I would get a good feel for where I was at in the hand against him, so I decide to call and see a flop.

The flop is Kx-2s-4s. He bets $1,750 which is a really small bet compared to the size of the pot and I flop top pair so I cant really fold yet. I think he's betting his entire range here except for Ks, but I'm not sure about the bet sizes he would make with the different hands he has.

I call. Turn comes a 4. Which seems to be a really good card for my hand, but in reality it kills three of my two pair outs in case hes got As, but I'm really not too worried about that. He bets 2,750. Again, a very small bet.

It kinda seems to me like he doesn't wanna build the pot too big so that I wont be committed to calling a shove on the river if I call again here, or that he's milking me with As or A-K. But if he really has a good hand, wouldn't he want me to be committed to calling on the river and hence bet bigger?

I call again hoping that he would give away something on the river. A meaningless 6 rolls off the deck and I now have a realllllly tough decision to make if he shoves. Let's think about it from his point of view.

I called the re-raise pre-flop, so I must have some kind of hand. I called the flop and the turn, so it's very possible I have a K, but h'es seen me make huge laydowns earlier so I think he would think I'm folding weaker kings than KQ by now.

I'm pretty sure he doesn't think I have a boat at this point because he's representing a strong hand, so I would probably not have to trap and would raise him at some point. The fact that my hand looks so weak to him really makes me think that there's a bigger chance that he's bluffing if he shoves the river.

In reality there are no hands that I'm calling the third time with the line that I've taken. I woulda never called the turn bet if i was drawing, but he doesn't know that, so I'm assuming he thinks flush draws are in my range as well as maybe 4s.

He does end up shoving, and I just sit there and stare at him for 5 minutes. I was so confused. He even tanked for 3 minutes before shoving and seemed sincerely insecure about what to do. He was also breathing extremely fast all the time, moving a lot in his seat and just didn't seem comfortable at all.

Usually when ppl have a good hand they get excited and their pulse raises, but then it quickly slows down again because they realize what they're doing and they try to hide it, but he just kept going. It's always harder to control when ur bluffing because u cant control the adrenaline rush as fast as u can control the excitement of having a good hand.

So I end up calling his bet for the last $10k I had or so. Ppl at my table start saying "nice call" even before the player flips his hand, so I'm feeling confident, and he hesitates and rolls over A-K like he thinks hes beat after I tank for 5 minutes before calling WTF.

If he doesn't think A-K is good if he gets called, then what is he doing shoving the river??? I really don't get it. Does he think he's bluffing? Why doesn't he check-call if he doesn't think I have a good hand and at least let me bluff if i missed what he thought coulda been a flush draw?

Am I really just over-thinking this and assuming he's thinking on a higher level than he really is? Was he just value-betting his A-K the entire way without thinking about what I could have and what range of hands I'm calling/folding on each street with?

Has he paid attention to any of the table dynamics so far? I dunno. All I know is that I got completely leveled, outplayed and owned that hand, and I'm not proud of it lol.

I'm really working on improving my live reads, and I can't be afraid to pull the trigger if I think I'm right. I'm one step closer to getting into their minds by making that call I think, and I'm definitely not afraid to be wrong as long as I trust my gut.

It might look stupid, but there's always a reason to the madness and u have to be wrong at first to eventually be able to turn things around and get it right. I'm still a live n00b, but I'm getting better every day :).

I also would like to mention that I won two awards at the Scandinavian Poker Player Awards here in Denmark before the EPT started, I won for "Best Female" and "Best Performance of the Year." I'm extremely happy to get those prizes, and I've never really had a chance to thank anyone.

I really wanna say that I love all my fans to death... seriously. I would never have gotten to the level I'm at today without all the ppl supporting me through good and bad times, and always saying positive things to me on the rail or whereever it may be.

The same goes for all my friends (u know who u are). Also big TY to Betfair for giving me this opportunity to show what I'm good for, and making life a lot easier for me :D.

I hope u all have a great week, and we'll write/read again soon. Take care everyone!

-- Annette

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