Putting on the pressure

Date: Fri, Oct 30, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I find a lot of value in piling pressure on your opponents in the early stages of tournaments when the blinds are small and most people are playing way too tight, because that's when people are looking to avoid pressure.

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WSOPE Updates

Date: Tue, Sep 22, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Two events down at the WSOPE and no cashes! Event 1 was pretty tough due to the blind structure. Well done to JP Kelly on being the first Brit to win at the series held on British soil!

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Quick Vegas Update

Date: Thu, Jul 2, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Well, I'm in Las Vegas, chillin' out, enjoying myself, playing online poker and looking forward to the Main Event which starts on July 3.

It's a bummer I can't play but it's the third year I've been out here and been underage so I'm kinda getting used to it. Roll on next year.

Best news outside of poker since my last post was seeing my home country Norway winning the Eurovision Song Contest live in Russia. It was an amazing event watching it in Moscow and the best song won:) Check it out below.

I'm really enjoying commentating on poker these day and I got another chance at the Womens World Open. It should be live on Channel 5 (UK) later this year. I was really surprised at the level of play...much higher than I expected.

So, after a brief trip back to Noway, I arrived in Vegas. It's so good catching up with people I've not seen for a long time and it's a great place to meet new people. I've seen some good shows and films and just taking it easy really.

Bad luck about Sorel missing out on a bracelet once again. I know he'll win one soon. He's been blogging some good strategy pieces recently. Check them out.

Had to laugh at fellow Betfair Pro John Tabatabai's trouble at the Wynn Hotel....still it didn't stop me going for dinner there the other night...the food is amazing.

Betfair have kindly re-written my account of winning the WSOPE bracelet in 2007...corrected my grammar and all! Check it out on the WSOPE Official site when its live. I know...bragging is lame but it's just for those who've not seen it yet.

Got myself some horses in the WSOP Main Event and looking forward to see how they get on. Got a press conference about the Caesars Cup shortly - really looking forward to that...the Caesars Cup not the press conference:)

Must go.

Annette

***UPDATE***

Well, I did the press conference. Here it is below...it wasn't too bad:) Europe's first pick was Peter Eastgate while The Americas got Phil Ivey. Never heard of him <3

Join me in Team Europe in the Caesars Cup
Follow Team Betfair in Las Vegas

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Quick Vegas Update

Date: Thu, Jul 2, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Well, I'm in Las Vegas, chillin' out, enjoying myself, playing online poker and looking forward to the Main Event which starts on July 3.

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EPT Monte Carlo, The Poker Show and Visas

Date: Wed, May 13, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I'm writing this blog from my room in Venice even though I should be in Moscow right now for the Russian Poker Tour because my stupid visa never came through on time. At least I have time for more shopping!

Not much happened at EPT San Remo but I did come so close to a massive score in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo when I busted out in 13th for €77k when I slowplayed my As preflop and the bb flopped a set of nines on a 79sQs board. Obv the money went in with my 20bb stack, but I don't think I played the hand poorly at all. Just wasn't meant to be. I'm happy with the way I played but it sucks to bust out so close to the final table, especially when 1st prize was €2.3m! Ah well, always next year.

Nothing really went my way at WPT Venice and to make things worse the structure absolutely sucked. One great thing from the trip was an interview I did for The Poker Show Live with Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson. I had to take the phone call in the hotel lobby because the service on my phone was really bad in my room even though the internet connection was really good! Go figure.

Anyway, the interview was really fun even if Jesse did bring up THAT hand against Isabelle Mercier from a $10k online event last year. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I got slowrolled badly by Isabelle and said a few things in the chat that maybe I shouldn't and everything got blown out of proportion.

Basically, I called her raise in the cutoff with 6h5h and the flop comes 4c3h6s, giving me top pair and an open-ended straight draw. She checks and I bet 2/3 pot which she calls. Turn is Ac and she leads, I shove and she tanks for like three whole minutes before calling with a set of threes! Like anyone is folding there against me!

Even Padraig thought it sounded like a slowroll but whatever, it's in the past. I was looking forward to the Russian Poker Tour Main Event as I didn't recognize much of the field so it would have been pretty weak even though it was a $1k buy-in but my visa didn't come through in time.

After Moscow I will be going back to England for the Women's World Open, which should be good fun. Jesse May asked in the interview if I was going to be as opinionated as I was in the Premier League a few months ago if I joined him in the commentary box at some point but I don't think I'll be too rude about people I don't know or haven't played much against! It's my first Women's World Open and I have a good record in my debut tournaments, especially ones in London:)

Oh and don't forget to check out Betfair's Freeroll promo for the WSOPE - a million dollars - that's pretty sick.

WSOPE MILLION DOLLAR PROMO

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EPT Monte Carlo, The Poker Show and Visas

Date: Wed, May 13, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I'm writing this blog from my room in Venice even though I should be in Moscow right now for the Russian Poker Tour because my stupid visa never came through on time. At least I have time for more shopping!

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On the Road in Europe and EV Freerolls

Date: Fri, Apr 17, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Well, after a couple of months break from live tournaments I'm back on the road and will be hitting events in San Remo, Monte Carlo, Venice and finally Moscow....I'll be away for a month and the packing just sucked!

My vacation in Thailand was cool (not literally) but it rained way too much. Everyone enjoyed themselves but I was glad to get back to my nice bed..it's like sleeping on concrete out there and getting woken one morning by thunder was not my idea of fun. I was pretty scared tbh.

Gotta laugh at one incident when I guy grabbed me outside an ice cream parlour and yelled "I'm so horny!" lmao.

Was quite pleased in the end to get back to lovely cold Norway:)

As I said, not being playing much poker recently apart from a few Betfair tourneys and some others but not running too good atm so I'll bore ya with my shopping exploits. Bought myself one of those compact laptops - so no excuse for not blogging regularly;) and I'm happy with my new i-phone...tweeting is much easier now with this Tweetie app.

Just one thing before I go. I've been asked to mention the Betfair Million Dollar Game. You can read all about it here but a special heads up to any non-UK readers....the regional freerolls ARE NOT FILLING UP as word does not seem to have got round yet....meaning a lot of players are getting a walk to the regional weekly freeroll. +EV

Here's a piece containing some tips about winning freerolls although with $1 million up for grabs I think the standard is going to be way higher than normal free tournaments.

Annette.

Download Betfair Poker to take advantage of those +EV Freerolls

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On the Road in Europe and EV Freerolls

Date: Fri, Apr 17, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Well, after a couple of months break from live tournaments I'm back on the road and will be hitting events in San Remo, Monte Carlo, Venice and finally Moscow....I'll be away for a month and the packing just sucked!

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Freeroll Poker Tournaments

Date: Fri, Apr 3, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

A lot of people ask me to write some strategy stuff on this blog and it's something I've never got round to for whatever reason....er... laziness!!

These tournaments provide a great way to start a bankroll from nothing, and also give you valuable practice at the basic mechanics and situations of no limit hold'em

I wrote a short piece on tournament freerolls a while back but never got round to posting it. If it doesn't sound like me its cause one of the guys at Betfair has helped me with it - remember English isn't my first language lol!

The first thing to remember about free rolls is that players do not value their tournament life very much. This is simply because they got in for free - so who really cares if they bust? Unlike in the higher buy in tournaments, where a huge amount of pressure can be applied to players in marginal situations, in free rolls such marginal situations will always nearly result in a call, and as a result bluffing is a much harder proposition.

When you cannot bluff in poker you only really have one choice left - to let the cards do the talking. All the way up to the bubble of these tournaments the only realistic strategy you can play is to just try and hit big hands and bet them very aggressively.

Once these tournaments hit the money they do start to change slightly. Firstly, the players left usually have a vague idea of how to play as they have survived - all the very weak players have busted out by this point so some more advanced plays are possible.

Secondly, there is now real cash on the line which always changes peoples behavior in some way. This second point is particularly true on the final table bubble and the top three bubble, where relatively big money is now on the line (relative to a game with a free buy in that is!!). Opening up your game and trying to steal the blinds a lot more becomes a decent strategy here if the table seems to have tightened up.

These tournaments provide a great way to start a bankroll from nothing, and also give you valuable practice at the basic mechanics and situations of no limit hold'em. Although it is much harder to bluff and make creative plays, often in high stakes poker it is difficult to bluff and make creative plays if the table is set a certain way, and being able to play a good tight aggressive game is important all the way to the top.

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Betfair Freerolls

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Freeroll Poker Tournaments

Date: Fri, Apr 3, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

The first thing to remember about freerolls is that players do not value their tournament life very much.

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Betfair Poker Blogs

Date: Fri, Mar 27, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I've never really looked around this site - don't know why. Think I had a look when I first started blogging here but it was fairly awful then but now, as poker sites go, I think it's pretty awesome.

Been reading some of Marcus Bateman's articles and I think some of them contain some great stuff that can help any player, whatever level they play at.

So I've tried here to pick out the ones I like with special reference to multi table tournaments.

First one I liked was about bubble play and although it doesn't mention anything that hasn't been written before, its worth a read if only to refresh minds on what type of bubble players to look out for and identifies places to re-steal and put pressure on some of your opponents.

His entry adjusting to the antes is also worth a proper read - while it might be standard stuff for regular mtt players, new players will cetainly pick up some useful information and while talking about antes have a look at surviving to the antes as well.

Being the first to act is another common concept for advanced players and this article goes some way to explain why short stack poker is alot simpler than playing with a deep stack. Putting pressure on your opponents and cutting down their choices can be the difference between tournament survival.

Next, a piece about what to do after winning a big mtt. It something people overlook after that big success and there is plenty of common sense points raised especially how sick the variance is!!

Every good mtt player need to negotiate large fields and here the article stresses ways of concentrating on your opponents at the table rather than looking at the leaderboard throughout!

That's it....though there's loads more articles on the site. In the future, I'll try and pick out some of his plo and cash game articles I think it's great Betfair gets these articles written as I suppose most online poker sites don't really want people to get better but saying that.... don't get too good:)

Off to Thailand tomorrow W00t!

Annette

Download Betfair Poker now for your chance to claim an iPod Touch

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Betfair Poker Blogs

Date: Fri, Mar 27, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

I've never really looked around this site - don't know why. Think I had a look when I first started blogging here but it was fairly awful then but now, as poker sites go, I think it's pretty awesome.

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I'm a Twittering Idiot!

Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Things change quickly in the Internet world and you sometimes you don't notice. I liked Facebook at first but now I've got a new toy.....

Basically, Betfair asked me to start on Twitter - probably cos I don't update my blog so often :) - and for the time being, I'm loving it!!

If you don't know Twitter, it's a bit like the Facebook feature 'What are you doing now?' but this just seems a lot better and the fact that I can now write stuff from my mobile makes it even cooler....and easier.

The whole concept sounds a little strange but I suppose its like mixing Instant Messenging, blogging, a forum and texting....with less hassle.

Feel free to follow me (address below) and I'll try (until I get bored) to keep it up. In theory it should be good for chip counts and stuff during tourneys but whether that will work when the pressure is on I don't know. I warned you here first!

The other pros are doing it as well...managed to get hold of John Tabatabai's password.....here ....I own his soul lol:)

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Find Annette on Betfair...if you can!

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I'm a Twittering Idiot!

Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2009 Professional Internet Live Tournament Women

Things change quickly in the Internet world and you sometimes you don't notice. I liked Facebook at first but now I've got a new toy.....

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