Annette Obrestad (annette_15) and John Juanda. One is the face of the young players groomed on the virtual felt. The other a longtime pro making a living out of poker long before the online boom. Both are World Series of Poker Europe Champions.

The WSOPE had a storybook inaugural event in 2007 that couldn’t have been scripted better by the most talented of screenwriters. On the day before her 19th birthday, Annette Obrestad took what had been a legacy born and hardened through online play and forever etched herself into poker history by winning the first ever WSOPE.

The next year, John Juanda came out on top after a long and intense heads up battle giving the WSOPE a perfect record of having a big name top pro win the event, though the two defending champs are significantly different versions of a professional poker player.

Both years of the World Series of Poker Europe the field has clocked in around 360 players, making the top pros a larger percentage of the total field and leaving it less likely that an unknown will emerge as the victor, as has been the case in the World Series of Poker Main Event for the last few years as field sizes there have blossomed to well over 6,000 players.

The preliminary events at the 2009 WSOPE have seen a marked increase in attendance but the Main Event field will still be a much much smaller field than the WSOP Main Event in Vegas. The setting is once again the Empire Casino, giving the tournament a more personal feel than the massive tournaments that usually mark WSOP events. The tables are spread around the casino throughout the gaming area with some upstairs, some downstairs and without the huge block masses of tables that players are used to seeing at major tournaments.

This results in the crowd being a little closer and the feel of the casino atmosphere more imposing than many players are accustomed too. With any WSOP event there is excitement that comes along with it, but so far the WSOPE events have commanded their own level of electricity, drawing fans of the game that are unable to make it across the Atlantic for the larger WSOP in Las Vegas.

With the gambling age in the United Kingdom set at 18 years of age, the WSOPE always turns out a handful of players that have made a name for themselves in online play but haven’t yet been able to take their talents to the tables in any of the United States poker tournaments.

In 2007 the champion came from the young guard and in 2008 Juanda represented the old school. For 2009 who will it be? Another young gun from the online realm or can the old guard of live poker players go back to back? Or is it time for a relative unknown to rise through the pack and make a name in the poker world?

The other storyline at the 2008 WSOPE was then-member of the November Nine Ivan Demidov making the final table where he ultimately finished third. The 2009 crew of November Niners will surely have a few representatives in the WSOPE. Can they continue their hot streak in the European version of the Main Event?



Anyone playing in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event can register for coverage on PocketFivesLive.com by REGISTERING HERE.

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