Annette Obrestad is back, and it’s like she’s never been away.
On Day 3 of the record-breaking WSOPE Main Event, in her first major tournament in eight years, she thrilled the rail with some of the moves that saw her crush back in the day.
Patrick Leonard was among those enjoying the show.
And he wasn’t the only one tuning in today to watch her roll back the years.
“It's crazy that Annette is just back and crushing again,” said BarstoolNate. “Where did she go? What a phenom. What a legend.”
That set up a great joke from KevMath.
And it’s true. Obrestad ran a successful YouTube makeup channel after retreating from the poker world and has spent the past few years playing competitive Scrabble.
But the return to poker is real, and the question on Day 3 was simple: how deep could she go?
Obrestad fires triple barrel
She had to dig in and surf a below-average stack for most of the day, and things didn’t always go her way. She attempted a triple-barrel bluff against Lazare Kalebashvili that almost got through.
Kalebashvili had 
to Obrestad’s 
and he flopped best when the dealer fanned out 
.
Obrestad bet 20K and he called.
The turn brought the 
, giving Obrestad a flush draw, and she continued, betting 55K. Kalebashvili had a stack of 267K left and made the call.
There was 298K in the pot on the 
river, but Obrestad wasn’t done. She put Kalebashvili to the test, putting him all-in.
He tanked and finally made the call to drag in the 622K pot.
Obrestad: At the end of the day, it’s poker
By the dinner break Obrestad was down to 24 big blinds and had two more levels to navigate.
Jeff Platt asked the question we’ve all been thinking. Has the game changed much since she last played a major tournament?
“I’ve definitely noticed a couple of things that I didn’t see on Day 1,” Obrestad said. “More aggression in general, people taking different lines, more 3-betting, and more 4-betting, but at the end of the day it’s still poker, and I feel like I can hang with them.”
It was more clinging on when she found herself all-in shortly after with 
against pocket nines.
“I’ve got a good feeling,” she said before the board came down 
to give her an unlikely straight and reprieve.
Seven-figure stacks for Day 4
Obrestad was manifesting. Five gold rings across her fingers, gold nails, gold earrings, and gold-framed sunglasses. What would go well with that look?
Into the final level, the field was reduced to double digits for the first time.
There were just two women left in – and both survived until the end as 85 players bagged for Day 4.
- Shiina Okamoto: 3,130,000
- Annette Obrestad: 1,025,000
Both have made history at the WSOP – Okamoto winning back-to-back Ladies Championships and Obrestad winning the first WSOPE Main Event in 2007.
Could either of them do it again in the biggest WSOPE Main Event of all time?
End of Day 3 – notable stacks
- 1st: Rokas Asipauskas – 6M (200bb)
- 4th: Jack Loraine – 5.3M
- 5th: Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen – 4.1M (135bb)
- 8th: Roberto Romanello – 3.8M (127bb)
- 15th: Shiina Okamoto – 3.1M (104bb)
- 20th: Josh Arieh – 2.4M (78bb)
- 34th: Steven Jones – 1.7M (55bb)
- 65th: Annette Obrestad – 1M (34bb)
Day 4 of the WSOPE Main Event starts at 12pm local time on Thursday. Watch all of the action from Day 3 below.
