#245 – London Journal #11 – Ode to a Queen of Europe

Posted by mcraig | Filed under Uncategorized

Walking along the upper level of The Empire, I see from the video monitor that they are on break, with 13 players left. It’s 7 PM and it’s gone FAST today. Just 5 hours ago, there were 32. I want to find out who is still left – most of these players are unfamiliar to me so I want to find out if Annette Obrestad is still playing, because the concept of an 18 year-old female WSOP European Champion is intriguing; Gus Hansen, because he’s with Full Tilt and attracts a lot of attention; and Annie Duke, because she’s my friend.

I peek into the Shadow Bar where they have the featured table but, being break time, no players are there. As I walk away from the Shadow Bar past Flame, the Asian restaurant of inconsistent quality where I have eaten three times, Annette walks past in the other direction. She has her finger to her ear and is talking.

“Don’t worry about it. Shut up!” she says, giggling.

I didn’t realize at the time but she was the one who eliminated Annie Duke on a questionable use of aggressiveness (raising under the gun with Q-7s and flopping a flush) and had gone from a big stack to a short one since then on another questionable aggressive move (reraising all-in with 3-3 and getting called by Q-Q). But when you’re young and fearless, you can play that way. And if the first king of Europe is going to be a queen, it has to be Annette because she’s the last chick standing.

By 7:45 PM, I had spoken with Annie Duke, before she went with Joe and some friends to see Avenue Q before she flies back to the U.S. tomorrow. She busted out not too long ago in 20th place. She was disappointed but a bundle of energy, releasing some of what was pent up during a day without cards or opportunities.

“I felt like I had handcuffs on. There wasn’t one hand I had where, if I played it, I would have won at the end. When I was in position, I had 7-4, 9-3, and my table was so aggressive someone else had already open-raised. I had A-Q once, raised, and picked up the blinds and antes. I had J-J and Ovyind Riisem moved in on my left. I sat next to him all day yesterday and I knew he wasn’t making a move. I folded and, after I was eliminated, he told me he had aces.”

“Then there was the hand I went out on, A-J. Annette open-raised under the gun and I didn’t think she had anything. I could have moved in but that would have gotten me only to 210,000. I thought if I miss the flop I can get away and if I hit something I can double up. Because 100% of the time, Annette bets the flop.”

“So it was ace-high, all one suit. All the chips went in and she had Q-7s for a flush. I picked up another ace on the turn so I still had 10 wins, but I didn’t hit on the river.”

The £30,770, in devalued dollars, amounts to $61,761.54. This gives her career World Series earnings of $1,000,081.54, making her the first woman to join the Million Dollar Club.

Annie and Joe leave tomorrow morning, so we said our good-byes. I told her how proud I was of how she played. I know Annie Duke doesn’t play to garner accolades from Michael Craig, but as I learn the game in ever greater depth, I appreciate things that most players don’t.

Merely watching Annie play late at night several evenings during the Series last June helped me make two final tables myself. She is a marvel in the art of survival – not hiding in a shell with a short stack or becoming a short stack by playing only the nuts, but finding chances to pick up chips at little risk, making laydowns, sticking around where other players plunge and bust, and waiting for a time when the opportunity arises to make some magic. During the online summaries of the Main Event on Friday, when they went from 80-some players to 32, Annie’s name showed up hardly at all. But she kept her stack intact and added to it a bit. That’s because she found ways to get chips but without getting into the kind of 3-raise/all-in situations that attract the attention of the tournament reporters.

“I almost wish I had made some giant bluff and went out when it failed,” she told me. “The way it went today, I feel like I had handcuffs on. I never had a chance.”

The operative word there is ALMOST. Playing the way she did, there was no wondering whether she should have waited for a better opportunity, no lament over committing herself before she really had to, no second-guessing of her decisions. She got the most she could out of her table, her cards, and her skill.

Maybe with luck you can do a little better, but unless you win, you can’t enjoy the world’s most expensive puppet show with friends right after you bust out and have no regrets.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Share and Enjoy: