Obrestad's Tournament Play Honored at European Poker Awards

Annette Obrestad has become the youngest player ever to win the "Tournament Performance of the Year" award at the prestigious European Poker Awards at the Aviation Club in Paris last Friday, where her play at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) was described as "phenomenal" by Poker Europa Chief Nic Szeremeta, who presented her with the award.

Aged only 19, Annette Obrestad is a poker prodigy.

Having made a name for herself playing online poker she shot to fame after defeating a field comprising of "one of the toughest fields in poker" to win more than $2m at the Main Event at the WSOPE presented by Betfair.com in London's Leicester Square. As well as the coveted WSOP bracelet and the $2m prize Annette scooped up a five year sponsorship deal with Betfair.

She beat fellow nominees and potential favorites for the award Carlos Mortensen and Bruno Fitoussi. Mortensen won $3.97m at the WPT in Las Vegas while Fitoussi took $1.2m in 2nd place in one of the most prestigious tournaments in the poker calendar, the WSOP HORSE event, also in Las Vegas.

Obrestad was nominated in two other categories including "Leading Lady" and "Rookie of the Year". She narrowly missed out to Katja Thater, who also won a WSOP bracelet this year, in the "Leading Lady" category.

Less than two months after winning the WSOPE, Obrestad narrowly missed besting the field at her first European Poker Tour event. She had to settle for second place and a $429,181 payday in Dublin.

Her comments suggest there is more to come from this wonderkid:

"I am so happy to win this award. I prefer this one than rookie of the year because I was up against such great players."

"I am still learning so much," she added. "There are still a lot of areas of my live game that can improve. My instincts, my ability to know what certain tells mean. But I am getting better all the time."

Betfair's Director of Poker Bruce Stubbs said: "Congratulations to Annette. She is a pleasure to work with and a special player. She is also possibly one of the most competitive people I have met. In fact I suspect she wanted to win all the awards."

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