Betfair | Annette15 | "I love poker - always have, always will!"

"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 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

Related Articles

Set Mining is cool but don't overdo it - Annette Obrestad
Closing out satellites - Sorel Mizzi
After that first win - Marcus Bateman
Volume and Variance - Marcus Bateman

Subscribe

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

follow me on Twitter

20 November 2008 / About Annette 15

Tags: annette 15, annette obrestad, coping with success, live tournaments, online poker, wsope /

Comments (7)

Nice post! I like the way you write! You are lucky to be a successful player, I'm not....I'm still learning every day! GL!

Dope | 21 November 2008

Great motivation for new players. Everybody can become poker pros and make his dream real. Thanks for post

Jack | 21 November 2008

and we love you here in Portugal.

please com back. ( 5/6/7 December - Espinho )
Solverde Main Event, Gala, NLHE,Omaha.............................did I mention the Poker Gala??

partying from Friday till Monday with a little poker in between.

regards,
Luidgi

Joao Costa | 21 November 2008

Hi Annette,

I was wondering about your Aruba2007 seat. You won it in tournament or you bought in?

Beside that I wish you all the best in upcoming time and would just like to know, since you mentioned you are more of forum type, on which forum can we find you?

Regards,

Marko

Marko | 21 November 2008

Hey Annette, great blog!! Very honest and refreshing. p.s. I like the picture above your article. LOL smilez!!! peace..

Danny W. from U.S.A. | 22 November 2008

That is an very good and interesting story. I'm a great fan of you and look always, if something written about you.I played poker for two and a half years and during a game, I often think: "What would you do in this special moment." But I think, I'm not so aggressive, like I want to be. But I'm still learning and I also like poker very much. So I wish you always pleasure by your game and good luck (sorry for my bad English, I'm from Germany).

Mary77 | 23 November 2008

Very nice post! I'm 100% motivated to grind very high. Good luck for all

Simon

SimEFP | 26 February 2009