Annette Obrestad is now a professional poker player with a long list of accomplishments and a growing hefty stash of cash. In 2007 just the day before her 19th birthday, Obrestad became the youngest winner of the World Series of Poker bracelet and later took second place in the European Poker Tour Dublin Main Event. At 20, she claimed first place in the Stars Sunday Hundred Grand and the Belfair Sunday $125 GTD Event. At 21, Obrestad was the number one player in the Ultimate Bet $100k GTD. At 22, she took first place in the Sunday 500. Her successes lead to her being signed to Full Tilt Poker’s elite team in 2010.

Obrestad is an intense, passionate and aggressive player. At the same time her facial expressions and mannerisms give no hint about what she is thinking or the content of her hand. Seasoned players notice her consistent composure Obrestad maintains. Meanwhile she is an expert at studying the other players and what is happening around the table. The combination makes her a top player.

The future looks bright for the champion professional poker player. Early in 2012, she was recruited by Lock Poker to the LockPRO ELITE team and Obrestad added winning The Wynn Classic No Limit Hold’em to her list of accomplishments. Her total winnings is already over $4 million and growing. Annette Obrestad is a force to be reckoned with at the poker table whether it is a cyber table or a face-to-face tournament table.

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Vanessa Ashley Rousso, daughter of Marc Rousso and Cynthia Bradley, was born on February 5th, 1983 in White Plains, New York. She has two younger sisters, Tiffany and Leticia. Ms. Rousso and her family relocated to the city of Paris, France when Vanessa was only three. She remained there until the age of ten, at which time she was relocated for a short period of time to northern New York, relative to her parents’ pending divorce.

After this, Vanessa was moved to live near her mother’s parents in Florida, where she participated in a great deal of athletics at Wellington Landings Middle School. Ms. Rousso played lacrosse, swam and also participated in the debate team via the school, but was entertained in her spare time through casual participation in softball and basketball. Vanessa showed a particular propensity for policy debate during her time spent on the school debate team, and excelled in school throughout her middle and high school years, graduating from Wellington High School with a 4.0 GPA and the honoured title of Valedictorian. She participated in both the French Honor Society and the National Honor Society as well as being the founder and president of the Wellington High School Environmental Club. Vanessa was a skilled violinist and also spent spare time volunteering in organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Vanessa Rousso attended Duke University, where she studied game theory, inspiring a love of strategic gaming such as chess and the Rubik’s Cube. She was, however, majoring in Economics and minoring in Political Science, graduating from the university after only two and a half years as a Dean’s List student, making the duration of her study and graduation at Duke the fastest the school had ever seen. In 2004, Ms. Rousso decided to study law at the University of Miami. It was during this time in her life that she began playing competitive poker seriously, a move which resulted in a career in professional poker rather than a law degree. She soon earned the nickname Lady Maverick, one which has stuck with her through her professional career.

Rousso’s poker career began on the internet, but started to take off seriously as she reached the legal age for casino gambling and began actively participating during her time in Miami. She continued to play and save, collecting the funds for entry into the World Poker Tour, an event where she would gain great notoriety. By April 2006, Ms. Rousso had become a member of the professional poker tour and within several months, her earnings were among the top 80 of tour professionals. Her career as a professional poker player has only escalated from there, as she is currently a member of the PokerStars cardroom as Lady Maverick, and is considered to be one of the best women in poker. She has posed for Sports Illustrated Magazine and had many other publicity opportunities on her way to becoming a star. She was married for several years to fellow poker player Chad Brown, but they parted ways in 2012.

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Harman obtained a fake ID at 16 and began playing in Reno poker rooms. She continued playing following her first of two kidney transplants and while she earned a biology degree at the University of Nevada. After college, Harman moved to Los Angeles and began playing professionally, a decision that left her estranged from her father for years. She briefly quit after two years to start her own business, but returned to the game when her company failed. By the early 90s, Harman’s game was flagging, but she rallied and began seeing success in tournaments in the mid-90s.

Harman won the first of her two World Series of Poker bracelets in 2000 and her second in 2002. In 2004, the kidney disease that had killed her mother and sister and had led to her first transplant sidelined her for a year. During that same year, she wrote the chapter on the limit hold ‘em game for “Super System 2.”

Harman returned to poker playing following her transplant and has appeared in a number of tournaments as well as on the television shows “High Stakes Poker” and “Poker After Dark.” She specializes in cash games, and in addition to tournaments, she plays four nights a week in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Harman formed a non-profit called Creating Organ Donor Awareness (CODA) after her second kidney transplant to better educate people about the need for organ donation. She frequently plays charity poker matches in which she has raised money for the National Kidney Foundation and the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She is married to Marco Traniello, also a poker player, with whom she has twin sons.

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There are plenty of examples of professional poker players who met in the game and are going strong. Pokernews have even been recording their own “WAG Diaries”. Examples of poker players in a relationship are Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak, Liv Boeree and Kevin MacPhee, Annette Obrestad and Scot Montgomery, and the list goes on. As with all relationships, it is important to have something in common with your partner be it work, a hobby, lifestyle, friends, travel, sports, could be anything but there just needs to be something.

Here are two videos of the Pokernews WAG of Diaries, first video features Annette Obrestad and Scott Montgomery whilst the second video features Maria Mavrinck & David Baker.

Video 1 – Annette Obrestad and Scott Montgomery

Video 2 – Maria Mavrinck & David Baker

Poker Romance – the good and the bad
It is important to understand that poker is an intense game which takes up lots of time and the best games are on in the evening after work hours, especially weekends. It’s great when both partners play whether it’s recreationally or full time because they are both occupied however what happens when one drops out?

Even though poker can unite the couple creating a connection between the two, if one partner drops out and does not have enough hobbies to keep them busy, they might get bored and expect their partner to keep them entertained, but alas, their partner is playing poker and rather into the game, why would they suddenly stop playing? Thus the heated discussions begin and sometimes it can get to an extreme where the player is asked to choose between their partner or the game. Sad but true poker can break up a couple just as much as it can connect them.

Moral of the story, if you like card games, especially games of skill you should consider playing for you and not anyone else. Poker helps sharpen your mind , keeps you busy, you can get to know lots of new people in the poker community , play and travel to live events around the world and make money if you play winning poker . It’s simply a super star lifestyle anyone would want to have. Meeting the new love of your life would just make the game more special.

Play Poker. Get started – find a poker room here

Goodluck and maybe see you at the tables.

You might have seen some of the professional poker players on TV already so you probably have heard about some of their sick winnings exceeding the 1 million mark. Money in the bank, fans around the world, media exposure, travelling around the globe, these professional poker players got it all. Living like a poker celebrity must be fun. What would you spend your winnings on if you had all that money?

Here are the top five female players by poker winnings; Vanessa Selbst with over $5.5million followed by Kathy Liebert with $5.4million, Vanessa Rousso in third position with $3.4million, then Annette Obrestad with $3.3million and finally, Jennifer Harman in fifth position with $2.5million in poker winnings. You can see all top fifty on Poker Player Profiles.

What do think pros have treated themselves to?

1. Vannessa Rousso, proud owner of a sexy yellow Lamborghini Gallardo

2. “The Nuts” interviews these professional players to find out what they bought with their first big win. Good on Jennifer Harman who booked her flight to Hawaii the next day and big loss for Daniel Negreanu who lost all his winnings right after.

3. The Pros invest in Baller watches ….to distract their opponents?

What would you buy if you won over a million dollars in poker winnings? Holiday, car, watch or all? Which would be the first on your list?

This year was a successful year for the ladies at the open events but it was rather disappointing to see a drop of 119 participant’s in this year’s Ladies No- Limit Hold’em Championship. Expectations were set to see an increase in the number of entrants, however, the reports clearly show a total of 936 entrants compared to last year’s 1,055.

Girlsdopoker compiled a list of ladies who made it to the top positions in the open events at the WSOP 2012. This year, 14 ladies made it to the top ten in 10 events out of 61 compared to just 4 ladies in 4 open events last year. Legendary Vanessa Selbst won Event #52: 10-Game Mix / Six Handed, where she walked away with $244,259 and a WSOP main event bracelet for the second time! Vanessa previously won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the WSOP 2008. Besides being the only female since 2008 to win an open event she also made it to the top ten positions for:

Oh, and before moving onto the Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship, we need to mention another GirlsDoPoker favourite, Annette Obrestad who came in 8th position in Event #3: Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha (512 player max) winning $28,409.

Now, onto Event 51 where Yen Dang is this year’s bracelet winner for the Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship, after heads up battle with Debbie Pechac. The cards;

Pehac: ,
Dang ,

Actions:
Dang Raises to 75,000 from the button
Pechac reraises to 200,000
Dang calls

The Flop: , ,

Actions:
Pehac is all in
Dang calls

The Turn:
The River:

Dang wins the Ladies Poker Championship 2012 taking home the bracelet and $170,587 in cash, whilst Debbie is eliminated in second place with a $105,586 in her bank account!

The top twenty finalists of the 2012 Ladies Championship are:

You can see the full results here. Who did you think was going to win? Did you attend the event? Will you consider attending this event next year?

Want to try out poker but never played? Find a poker room and start practising now. You can read the poker basics of texas hold’em.

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Poker Live Events may be fun for the ones who like getting around, meeting people face to face and playing the game in a live environment. Players spend hours on end sat at a table checking, calling, folding or raising their hands, so they want to feel comfortable during the game. Sitting down for long hours may not sound like fun but the winning part is! Here is a list of the most popular items worn by ladies in poker.

Top 5 ladies poker fashion items:

As you can see female players adopt the smart casual look slightly more tilted towards the casual side. Comfort is the way to go at Poker Live events, televised or not, this is no fashion show. Viewers are their to watch the game, they want to see how good or bad a player is, not how well they dress.

Getting the poker look is easy, just slip into a pair of jeans, a top, wear a cap or a hat, a pair of sunglasses and voila! You got the poker look. Adding a touch of personality is what differentiates you from the others. Lets take a look at some of the stylish outfits poker chicks wear.

In the image below, Vanessa Rousso looking sophisticated with a blazer and trendy hat.

In the image below we see Maria Ho in two different skin tight sexy tops, the one to the left is a bright blue top worn off shoulder with a contrasting red bra. Nice idea, contrasting colours are nice together, especially these bright colours on a suntan. The top in the right image is a khaki fitted top featuring fancy studded straps.

Who do you think is the most stylish poker chick? Have you thought of any other poker fashion items? What do you usually wear to poker events? Is there anything which other players can identify you from what you wear?

Last but not least, it is important to remember poker is a competitive game, if you are playing a tournament or cash games, don’t waste any time staring at clothes but concentrate on your opponent’s style of play. Watch their every move and take mental note of how do they play their hands.

Quick video of all the lovely ladies who attended the Ladies Poker Championship at the WSOP 2012. My only comment is – Jennifer Tilly’s boobs are not exposed for a change (only women tournament …explains it).

The lovely Maria Ho is in the money …

Vanessa Rousso explains how the skill in poker is about controlling Luck

Melanie Weisner talks about Heads-up Sit-n-Go Poker.