Three Stories for the Poker Version of “The Queen’s Gambit”

Annette Obrestad

On the day before turning 19, young and promising Norwegian poker player Annette Obrestad won the inaugural WSOP Europe 2007 Main Event in London — the £10,350 World Championship No Limit Hold’em — and took home £1,000,000.

It was just her fifth live ITM finish, but historically significant because:

• Annette won the first-ever WSOP Europe Main Event.
• She remains the only woman to have won a WSOPE Main Event (2007–2024).
• She broke the record for the highest single payout by a woman in poker — exceeding $2 million.
• She became the first Norwegian WSOPE Main Event champion and held that distinction alone until Espen Jorstad won the WSOP 2022 Main Event.
• She was the youngest WSOPE champion ever — just 18 years and 364 days old.

Everything about her success had the makings of poker’s breakout star: young, sharp, fearless — and from a part of the world not traditionally represented in poker’s upper echelons.

But something went wrong.

Perhaps it was her age — too young for poker rooms to promote her without legal risk — as Barry Carter once said on X (ex-Twitter):

“Not turning Annette Obrestad into a mega star was one of the biggest own goals of the poker industry. I know there were legal restrictions promoting such a young player, but she literally was our Queen’s Gambit story in waiting.”

It might also have been about her gender or nationality — both seen as too far removed from poker’s biggest demographic at the time (the U.S.) to make her an easy marketing win.

Whatever the reason, the opportunity was missed.

Today, Annette’s passions have shifted. She stopped playing poker in 2018 and started a YouTube channel — Annette’s Makeup Corner — where she remains active as of April 2025, posting reviews of various cosmetic products.

From 2022 to 2025, she also took up competitive Scrabble, climbing rapidly into the Top 100 North American lexicon players — her rating has steadily risen for three years straight.

At this rate, if the poker industry doesn’t hurry up and claim her story for a TV series or film, Annette might end up starring in a Scrabble docudrama that sends interest in word games through the roof.

Vanessa Kade

Until December 2020, Canadian poker pro and streamer Vanessa Kade wasn’t a household name — but she was well known in the poker community.

She had been playing for over a decade, mostly in Canada and the U.S., with a handful of modest live event wins and no major titles.

That all changed when GGPoker — a brand she had promoted and held an affiliate deal with — signed controversial influencer Dan Bilzerian as a brand ambassador.

Vanessa was one of many voices who expressed disappointment. But she received a special response from Dan:

Following that, she and others tried reaching out to GGPoker to address the situation and clarify their stance. The result? GGPoker terminated her affiliate account on March 9th, 2021, stating she had “chosen to take a stand against us instead of riding this awesome wave with us.”

That heavy-handed response turned Vanessa into a prominent voice against misogyny in poker. What followed was the kind of dramatic sequence screenwriters dream about.

• On March 19th, 2021, Vanessa Kade signed with ACR Poker as an ambassador and began streaming regularly.
• On March 24th, she won the $215 Sunday Million 15th Anniversary on PokerStars, topping a field of 69,876 entries for a $1,514,920 payday — on just two bullets, with no staking or shares sold.
• PokerStars, though not in partnership with her, publicly congratulated Vanessa via a special in-lobby banner and even sent her gifts.

In June 2021, she also posted two deep runs at the PGT U.S. Poker Open, earning $94,500 and $138,000 — smashing her live cash records in back-to-back events.

Then, in February 2022, her time at ACR Poker came to an end — not because of her, but due to repeated controversies involving the brand’s leadership. When the ACR CEO made sexist jokes on Twitch in June 2021, some critics unfairly pointed fingers at Vanessa, who had been outspoken against sexism in poker from the beginning.

After leaving the team, she stated she had spent considerable energy trying to make positive changes internally — but it wasn’t worth it, as she and her teammates ultimately held different values.

Vanessa stayed true to her beliefs and continues to speak out against misogyny in the game.

If Annette Obrestad’s story would make for an inspiring prodigy drama, Vanessa Kade’s would be a psychological thriller — the tale of a woman who found herself, by sheer force of circumstance, fighting an industry Goliath and refusing to be silenced.

Photo Credit: Danny Maxwell

Linda Johnson

And then, there’s Linda Johnson — The First Lady of Poker.

Imagine the movie pitch: A young U.S. Postal Service worker discovers blackjack, takes a trip to Vegas, and falls in love with poker. So much so, she moves to Vegas in 1980 to play full-time.

At a time when poker was strictly a boys’ club — when women were judged harshly for even sitting at the table — Linda didn’t care. She loved the game, and she played. A lot.

She sat with legends like Doyle Brunson and eventually won a WSOP bracelet in 1997 in the $1,500 Seven-Card Razz event, topping a 160-player field for $96,000.

But poker wasn’t enough.

Through the years, Linda went on to become:

• Publisher of Card Player Magazine
• Partner at Card Player Cruises
• Co-founder of the World Poker Tour
• Co-founder of the Poker Tournament Directors Association (TDA)
• Co-founder of the Poker Players Alliance
• Co-founder of charity group PokerGives
• Journalist, writer, event host, and announcer for the first six seasons of the WPT

Her passion and dedication made her an icon not just within poker, but outside of it — a living reminder that assertiveness and love for the game can break down walls of prejudice.

Why her story hasn’t been turned into a biopic is anyone’s guess. But perhaps someone, somewhere, at a major streaming platform will see Linda — or Vanessa, or Annette — the way we see them.

And tell the story poker has been waiting for.

Photo Credit: Jayne Furman