Annette_15 Annette Obrestad has a long list of accomplishments to her name, but turning 21 is still a couple of months away. Despite not being old enough to play in this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP), Obrestad was in Las Vegas for most of the summer promoting Betfair, WSOP Europe, and catching up on all of the sightseeing Sin City has to offer. Obrestad sat down with PocketFives.com just before the WSOP Main Event to talk about the cool things she's seen in Las Vegas this summer, what is in store in London, her deep run in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final and, of course, turning 21:

P5s: You've been in Las Vegas since the beginning of June. Is it hard being 20 years-old and trying to find things to do?
Obrestad: It's not hard to find stuff to do in Vegas. All of my friends are here, so if I want to do something some day, I have a whole list of phone numbers to call and be like, "Hey, let's go out."

P5s: What were some of the highlights of your summer?

Obrestad: I've seen a lot of shows this year. I went to see Blue Man Group and that really surprised me because I thought it wouldn’t be good because I heard so many bad things about it, but it was hilarious.

Also, I went to the Luxor a couple of weeks ago and saw the Titanic exhibit. That was amazing; they made it so real. They brought big pieces of the ship up and had them on display and you could almost touch them. You know how they had first, second, and third class? They made the corridors in the ship so you could walk through and see what the [different decks] were like. They also had a room with a huge iceberg made of ice that you could touch. They were like, "So the water was colder than the iceberg. Can you see why they died?" It's just incredible. There was this one place where you went outside and they made it like you were outside on the deck of the ship. It was so real. You had this boarding pass too and when you left, you could see if your person lived.

P5s: Did your person live?

Obrestad: Yeah, mine lived because I run good (laughs).

P5s: Have you been following the 2009 WSOP at all?

Obrestad: A little bit. All I know is that Phil Ivey wins bracelets and Jeffrey Lisandro wins bracelets and those guys are pretty good. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but if I am not playing in a tournament, I don't care who wins unless it is someone I really know. If I bust in a tournament and there are like 15 people left, I don't care who wins because it isn't me.

P5s: You've got your 21st birthday coming up in September. Do you have any idea what your first Stateside tournament will be?

Obrestad: Yes. It will be in December, the $15,000 at Bellagio. They're also going to have the Poker Player World Championship. I don't know if you heard about it, but it's a new thing that they have - a 30-something person invitational freeroll. It is going to be televised and there's going to be $1.5 million in the prize pool. I'm invited to that. I have no idea why, but it is going to be filmed in Las Vegas.

P5s: Are you really looking forward to December then?

Obrestad: Yes, very much so. Probably more so than any other tournament I'm going to be playing in. I'll also probably be playing in EPT Russia, WPT Marakkesh, and EPT Barcelona.

P5s: At WSOP Europe, you've also got the Caesar's Cup. Tell us about it for those who may be unfamiliar with it.

Obrestad: That's something Betfair came up with. It's an America versus Europe kind of thing. I'm going to be the captain of the European team and Daniel Negreanu (pictured at right) is the captain of the American team. Both of the teams are going to have six players and now they've announced that Peter Eastgate is going to be my first pick and Phil Ivey is going to be Negreanu's first pick, so that's a good start. I think it is going to be pretty exciting and one player has a chance to qualify to play on our team through Betfair. Just imagine how cool that would be for some random dude to get to play against 11 of the best players in the world in that format. I mean, it is such an opportunity and if you don't take advantage of that or at least try to qualify, then you're a moron.

P5s: It sounds intimidating. Are you going to help out your teammates and give them advice?

Obrestad: For sure. It kind of depends though. I know the rest of the players on my team and I don't think they need it because they're all really good.

P5s: So you know who the other players on your team are?

Obrestad: Yes, I know, but I am not allowed to tell because that will be announced in a press release later on.

P5s: It sounds like, so far, your team is going to be a bit younger.

Obrestad: Yeah, we will be for sure. The other team is more old school.

P5s: Do you think your youth will give you an advantage?

Obrestad: I don't know because [the other team] are live players and they're really good at reading people. So, if we have any weaknesses in that area at all, they are going to crush us, but I don't think we have many. I'm not too worried.

P5s: You've been playing live for a while, but are there still things you want to work on?

Obrestad: Reading people is my biggest weakness. I still feel like I am okay at it, but I confuse myself too much. Someone will do something and I am like, "Did they just do that because they're weak or because they're strong? What did Joe Navarro say about that?" And then it's like, "Ugh. I think that's what he said." Then I call and they show me the nuts and I am like, "That's not what he said."

P5s: Do you have any players from Scandinavia or elsewhere whose games you've been really impressed with?

Obrestad: There was this guy in Monte Carlo that I played with the last two days who was annoying me. He was to my left and he just owned my soul. I just kept folding to him and I felt like such a wuss. Sometimes you run into players like that who just want to bully you and run the table and there really isn't much you can do about it unless you take a stand. That's not really something I like to do in live tournaments since there's so much play. If I have 50 blinds and someone 3bets, I don't want to ship it in for 50 blinds when I raised to two. It's such a huge risk, so I just keep folding to them until I get a reasonable hand.

I don't know, it's tough because of the whole risk reward thing. You can either play huge pots and hope to get lucky a lot or you can play a more steady style where you can try to chip up a little bit, pick up some good hands, and get paid off. The problem is if you don't get any good hands, you're in trouble. It's hard to find a balance, I guess.

P5s: Can you tell us a little bit more about your deep run in the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final?

Obrestad: It's funny. I never felt like that was my tournament. Sometimes, I get a feeling when there are 100 people left like, "Yeah, I'm going to win this." Especially online, I just get a feeling that I am going to do really well.

In Monte Carlo (pictured at right), even when I was chip leader on Day 4, I was like, "I'm not really feeling this. I don't think it is going to go my way." I'm usually really positive about stuff, so when I felt that, I was like, "Maybe I shouldn't be thinking that." I still feel like I played the best poker I've played in a long time and just wasn't getting the right cards, wasn't winning my flips, and things just weren't going my way.

P5s: You said earlier when you bust out of a tournament, you normally don't care about the results. In Monte Carlo, did you stick around to watch your friend Dag Martin dmmikkel Mikkelsen at all?

Obrestad: I was following the updates online, but didn't rail him because when I bust, I just leave the place. I don't want people coming up to me and asking, "Oh my God, are you still in the tournament?" when I am standing outside. Dude, do you really think I am still in the tournament? Do you think I am just sitting out when there are 15 people left? I usually just want to leave and people want to do exit interviews, which really sucks when you just busted.

P5s: Is fame something you expected?

Obrestad: It kind of came as a shock to me. After I won in London, everything was building around me and I was just like, "Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?" Everybody wanted to do interviews and people were telling me, "Do that, do that." I'm like, "But I don't want to do that. I want to just be a girl again and play online. I don't want to be someone that everybody knows." But after a while, it was fine.

P5s: So everything really blew up in terms of your fame after WSOP Europe? You were pretty notable before that.

Obrestad: I was, but just online. People didn't know me live at all. They didn't want me to do all of these radio interviews and television stuff. It is something you get used to and it is part of the job of being a sponsored player.

P5s: Do you feel any sort of added responsibility being a female in the poker world?

Obrestad: I do. I try to have a good image and not do stuff that is going to look bad. It's hard because I like to make fun of people (laughs). Who doesn't? Now it is just like, "I have to shut my mouth and not say what I am thinking even though I really want to."

P5s: Do you feel like there is a double standard being a girl where some of your guy friends can get away with things you can't?

Obrestad: I still like to be myself and say whatever I want and don't care what people think. I don't want to talk badly about live players the way I used to. I was really racking down on them and saying how bad they were and all of that. I realized that I am going to be playing against these players for the next 20 years, so I might as well try to be their friends. It would be stupid not to.

P5s: Have you gained their respect a little more now that you've played on the circuit?

Obrestad: I think so. I've never heard from anyone who thinks I play bad, so that is a good thing. I know a lot of the other female players hear things like, "Oh she's so bad," so I am happy they don't say that about me at least.

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* A poker phenom from Norway, Annette_15 Annette Obrestad is one of the most talked about players in the game today. She stormed onto the poker scene in 2007 with a slew of high stakes online poker victories, and then made headlines when she won the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event for $2,000,000 that same year at the age of 18.

Annette is a sponsored Betfair pro, and continues to play online part-time. She has a recent victory in the Full Tilt Poker $75k Guaranteed for $20,100 (June '09) along with a win in the AbsolutePoker $100k Guaranteed for $31,200. She also took 2nd place in the Sunday Mulligan in December '08 for $33,700.

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