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 2250 players online in theWorld Poker Crown $3 million guaranteed tourney that was held online couple of weeks ago. The last ten 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

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 will 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

I also had some time to play online the last 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. Ive also been catching up on the training vids across the sites that I haven't had time to watch until now. Its 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 their on. All those small things adds up and its how u get an advantage over skilled players. I absolutely recommend all of u to join a trainingsite if u haven't already. I'm not gonna suggest which sites here because im 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. Definately 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. 1h30min 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 its not just me being lazy. I do try my best to show up every week, but sometimes I just have other plans and cant play. So please don't take it out on me too hard .

Will be updating a lot the next weeks so keep vsiting my blog. I wont disappoint!

Annette

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 couple of times just because I've been thinking too much about not making the same mistake everything. 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 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 at my table. 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 As post-flop, got away cheap with Js vs Qs on 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 KdQd 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 its been folded to me or so. I can tell hes getting a little pissed off. Hes been defending a lot vs me, trying to outplay me post-flop i think and seeing 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 fired two barrels with a draw and got called down by top pair. He rather quickly re-raises to 1500. It was such a small re-raise, and would only be 10% of my stack to see a flop in position thinking his rr raise 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 Kx2s4s. He bets 1750 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 hes 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 2750. 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 hes milking me with As or AK. 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. Lets 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 Its very possible I have a K, but hes 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 hes 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 theres a bigger chance that hes bluffing if he shoves the river because theres in reality no hands that I'm calling with 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, btu then it quickly slows down again because they realize what they're doing and they try to hide it, btu he just kept going. Its 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 starts saying 'nice call' even before the player flips his hand, so I'm feeling confident, and he hesitates and rolls over AK like he thinks hes beat after I tank for 5 minutes before calling WTF.

If he doesn't think AK is good if he gets called, then what is he doing shoving the river??? I really don't get it. Does he think hes 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 did missed what he thought coulda been a flush draw? Am I really just over-thinking this and assuming hes thinking on a higher level than he really is? Was he just value betting his AK 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 cant 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 where ever 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

Aside from the live tourneys, we had tons of fun. Me and Negreanu were discussing my play with the TJs for a loooong time. He didn't agree with me at first, but that's understandable, cuz we play different styles, and he's probably not used to having the image I do. I think I got close to convincing him before his break in the tourney was over haha. He still owes me dinner tho from a last longer we had in an online tourney that I won... obv brag lol

I spent a lot of time playing online in the lobby. Probably doesn't sound very fun to most ppl, but I don't get to play a lot anymore because I'm travelling so much, so playing online with a lot of my friends was really cool just like last year. It was a very relaxing trip overall with no interviews or media attention for me. Nice for a change.

After PCA, I flew straight to Melbourne for Aussie millions. I've heard rumours from ppl that taking the long flights from Bahamas to Australia is a nightmare, but I didn't find it too hard as I slept most of the time :). Might do the same thing again next year or maybe skip PCA and go early to Melbourne for prelims. We'll see.

I'm very happy with how I played in the main event. Was able to create a good image on all the tables I played at, and at the same time stayed out of trouble with my marginal hands even tho I was tempted to make a move more than once lol. I managed to pull myself together every time and just fold my hand. I hope I can keep doing that until I get a better read on the players I'm playing against, and not just assuming they're good even if it seems like it when playing a level or two with them. I know I gotta work on not getting impatient in these big live tourneys. There's so much time to recover if u make a wrong step, that trying to rush things will only make things worse. Hopefully I can follow my own advice in the next tourneys I play in.

I got unlucky to bust in this one when my As got cracked by 8s after we got all in on a 664 flop in a reraised pot.... wp 88 lol. Was a rather big pot too of 55k at 200-400. Oh well. It feels better to bust with the best hand tho, knowing that's all I could do.

The hotel we stayed at (The Crown) was spectacular! It was enormous! I've been to Vegas before, and it was as big as, if not even bigger than the ones they have there. It's very easy to get caught up with everything there and not leave the hotel because it has anything u can imagine. I went bowling with Jon Turner (Pearljammed), Tracey (his gf), Dag Martin (Dmmikkel) and a friend of him called Ygga. I was a little nervous before we started because they all knew that I used to play bowling before I started with poker... I was just praying they didn't expect too much from me as I hadn't touched a bowlingball in 2 years, and I didn't have my own balls and shoes this time lol. Got off to a really good start when I tripped twice because I couldn't slide with the damn shoes, so I just took it off and played with one instead ;). I played like shit, but still scored a 110. I used to avg 160 or so, so the competitive side off me was a little pissed off, but it was just for fun, so I let it go. Felt like we got robbed when we paid for it... was $16/game! (Per person!) Sad... Its not that we cant afford it, its just pathetic how much they can charge for a game of bowling.

We also played arcade games and did sidebets and stuff... was great fun (Even tho I lost money making -EV bets cuz I'm stubborn).

Not so much about poker this time I guess, but I really enjoyed these trips even if the tourneys didn't finish the way I wanted them to. Def ready for EPT Dortmund coming up, and I promise I won't do anything stupid this time!

Annette

Annette's Blog Tournament II:

When: Sunday 20th January 1900 (GMT)

What: $1.10 entry No Limit Texas Hold'em freezeout tournament with $1000 guaranteed (2000 starting chips)

How?

You need to open an account by clicking here, download the software and look for Annette's Blog Tournament in the tournament lobby.

The password for this week's tournament is: BB1000

Assuming UTG at 9 handed table: (Very small or no ante)

Edit- This of course depends on the table and their calling ranges, but this is just some pointers if you are at a random table with no reads on the players

50x bb+
limp or raise

25x bb +:
raise all pps

20x-25x bb
22-55 fold
66+ raise

15x-20x bb
22-66 fold
77+ raise

12x-14x bb
22-88 fold
88+ raise and call shove

10x-11x bb
22-77 fold
88+ shove

9x bb
22-44 fold
55+ shove

8x bb or less
shove any pp

With antes later in tourneys:

14x-15x:
22-55 fold
66-88 raise and fold to shove
99+ raise and call shove

13x:
22-77 fold
88+ raise and call shove

11x-12x:
22-77 fold
88+ shove

10x:
22-33 (cant decide what to do with 44 lol) fold
55+ shove

9x or less:
shove any pp

Just felt like taking some responsibility and get some poker back up on the board after all this drama :)

Annette

The next day I registered for the main event. I started out really well. Didn't play any big pots was but raising quite a big in the beginning to establish a good laggy image so I'd get action on my good hands. I hadn't reraised anyone at this point until this hand comes up: 75-150, I have about 8500. The sb is sitting out and the bb just got back to the table to see his hand getting mucked cuz he wasn't sitting down. Was very easy to see that utg+2 picked up on this as well and decided to raise to 400. I'm in the CO with J4o. I had pretty much decided to reraise before looking at my cards so they were kinda irrelevant. I made it 1150 fully expecting him to fold. I knew he was a decent player cuz he was playing pretty aggressively, not doing anything stupid and he was also talking to a really good internet player earlier that day, so if they're friends they might have discussed strategies etc with eachother online, so I just assumed he knew what he was doing. He surprisingly calls my raise and the flop comes JJ9 with two hearts. Dream flop for me. He checks and I make a big bet of 2050. I'm pretty sure he's gonna put me on a hand like AK, AQ here not wanting action because if I had an overpair id prolly bet smaller to induce a check/raise shove, but by making this bet it looks like I'm committed when I'm really not. I was right and he ships it in with KcQc and misses the four outs. I'm up to about 18000 after this hand.

About an hour or so later and 3k chips shorter from having to fold a lot to reraises and missing a lot of flops with my strong hands, this is how I bust: A guy in the 40s limps in the CO for 200. Don't have a very good read on him yet, but 90% of the time when someone limps in LP they have trash and just wants to see a flop. The button, who is a very very good online player makes an isolation raise of 800 trying to get the pot HU with the limper. I'm pretty sure his range there is prolly about 50% of the hands, so this is free chips for me. I reraise to 2800 with 95o. Again, the cards don't mean anything because I know pretty well how he plays and he's never gonna just flatcall this without a monster hand. Maybe JJ+AK. If I do get called by him I'm shutting down completely. What really threw me off was that the limper cold called! The reraise and the raiser folded as expected. I didn't really know what to think of this since I had already put him on a weak hand. Figured maybe he had a hand he wanted to see a flop with like QKs cuz ppl never fold that hand. Maybe even AK, small pair etc. No way I put QQ+ in his range playing the hand the way he did. The flop 8c2x2c. I check with the intention of check raising all in if he bets or trying to represent a big pair slow playing on a dry flop. If I bet I'm giving him a chance to push me off my hand with something like 66-TT which will fold to a check raise for sure. So I just decided I wanted to have the last word here and try to make my hand look very strong. He checks behind. The turn is a J. Good card for me to bluff at so I lead for 3800 leaving myself with about 10,000 behind so I have a good stack to shove river if he calls. He does call rather quickly which again really smelled like a draw to me cuz I had no clue what to put him on. The river was a blank 3 I think. I ship in the rest not wanting to give up on the pot after putting in that many chips, and all draws missed so he'd have to fold a fair amount of the time. He calls and flips KK and I just mucked and left the table. The whole hand was just weird and his line made absolutely no sense to me so I can honestly say I got owned really hard there lol. I'm not the type to sit around and grind at 10k the first day just hoping to make it to day two so busting early isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as I do good when I do make it deep :)

Went up to my room after this and played some online tourneys. My tournament on Betfair went to hell again as usual haha. Don't know why I can't cash in it. Prolly because of the bounty and the fact that I haven't adjusted to the play on the site yet. The dynamics and type of players are way different than I'm used to and I haven't quite figured out how to deal with it I think. Hopefully I'll get it right soon!

Will be doing some damage in the 2k side event tomorrow! Looking forward to it :P

Annette

(Annette's special $20k GTD $212 buy-in deep stack tourney is on Tuesdays and Fridays at 1930 GMT. Click here to sign up.)

The European Poker Player awards were tonight as well and I was nominated in three cathegories:

'Rookie of the year'
'Leading female player of the year' and
'Best performace of the year'.

Ending up winning the last one. Kinda surprised because thats the one i least expected to win, but hey! At least I won one :)

Now I have 3 days off to just spend money and check out Paris. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Untill then.... gtfo.

Annette

P.S. Dont forget my blog tournament - Sunday Night at 1930.

The password for this week's tournament is: BB1101

It all happens this Sunday so check out the details from Betfair below to find out how to get in =>

Annette's Blog Tournament:

When: Sunday 9th December 1900 (GMT)

What: $1 entry No Limit Texas Hold'em freezeout tournament with $1000 guaranteed (2000 starting chips)

How?

You need to open an account by clicking here, download the software and look for Annette's Blog Tournament in the tournament lobby.

The password for this week's tournament is: BB1101

I just got to Oslo today. Had a meeting with my manager and my other manager from Betfair. Talked some about upcoming stuff. Will be heading over to Finland (Helsinki) tomorrow to do some promos and interviews.

Had a deep run in both the Sunday Million and the 750k on Fulltilt on Sunday but managed to screw up with 100 left or so in both. Still pissed about that as I've never gotten that deep in any of them before. Hopefully it wont be the last time.

Looking forward to EPT Prague and will post a lot from that tournament when I get back and hopefully some before that as well.

Take care folks,
Annette

Play against Annette now on Betfair Poker

Whatever...

Play against Annette now on Betfair Poker

Play against Annette now on Betfair Poker