/ Editor / 25 September 2008 / Leave a comment

The European Poker Tour has honoured Season 4's top performers but sadly for Team Betfair pro, Annette Obrestad, she missed out on the award that she had been nominated for, writes Rob Eddy.

The young Norwegian poker star had been in contention for the Best Newcomer gong after announcing herself on the poker scene in sensational fashion with victory in the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe last year.

The 19-year-old rewrote the record books with that success and after a runner-up finish at the EPT Dublin Open she received a nomination in recognition of her achievements.

However, the judges - player and author Lee Jones, EPT creator John Duthie, player/presenter/writer Vicky Coren and writer and editor John Caldwell - saw otherwise and she missed out to compatriot Trond Erik Eidsvig. He had made three final tables and five cashes on the tour, and so impressed that he was even in the hunt for the 'Player of the Year' award.

That particular honour was eventually handed to Italy's Luca Pagano, while the UK's own Julian Thew picked up two prizes - Best Performance and the Poker Writers Award.

Annette_15 will now of course have to be content with the coveted gold bracelet she picked up for her WSOPE win, and if it does get her down, perhaps think of ways to spend the £1m jackpot that went with it.

However, she does not have long to dwell on such things, as the small matter of the second WSOPE is just around the corner, with action at the Casino at The Empire kicking off on September 19.

Obrestad will be keen to defend her title and add to the jewellery collection, as she is still too young to compete at the WSOP in Las Vegas and will be until 2010.

There are four bracelets on offer this time around with the addition of an extra hold'em event and there is also still time to qualify, courtesy of Betfair, with freerolls and satellites running daily as well as a qualifier on Sunday - with five $24,000 packages to be won.