Poker A big deal Dec 19th 2007 Poker is getting younger, cleverer, duller and much, much richer DOYLE BRUNSON (above, left) is a poker legend. Twice winner of the game's most prestigious annual tournament, the World Series of Poker (WSOP), held in Las Vegas, the cowboy-hat-clad southerner affectionately known as Texas Dolly also wrote what many consider to be the bible of poker theory, âSuper System: A Course in Power Pokerâ. His reputation among card-shufflers borders on the superhuman. Indeed, after fighting off supposedly terminal cancer in the 1960s, he celebrated his return to the cardrooms with 53 straight wins. Adding to the mystique, both of his World Series titles were won with exactly the same cards: a full house of tens over twos. Now in his mid-70s, Mr Brunson is still going strong. But not strong enough for Annette Obrestad (above, right), who beat the old master and 361 other entrants in September to win the first ever WSOP event held outside America. Miss Obrestad's victory, which netted her £1m ($2m), shows how much poker has changed since the days when Texas Dolly, Amarillo Slim Preston and Jack âTreetopsâ Straus held sway. She is only 19 (making her the youngest ever winner of a World Series bracelet) and she is, of course, a woman. She hails from Norway, not Nevada. And though she had previously won over $800,000 in internet tournaments, the event at London's Empire Casino was the first time she had encountered serious opposition in the flesh. The poker press refers to her by her online moniker, annette_15. Miss Obrestad's route to the grand prizeâdumped on the final table in bundles of $50 notes, as is the World Series traditionârequired her to see off such modern-day poker luminaries as Chris âJesusâ Ferguson, a hirsute scholar of game theory, Dave âDevilfishâ Ulliott, a somewhat less cerebral but wily British professional who wears diamond-encrusted knuckledusters, and Phil âPoker Bratâ Hellmuth, arguably the most celebrated (not least by himself) modern player. Jim McManus, a poker player and historian, describes the young Scandinavian's win as a âstartling milestoneâ. More: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10281315
annette's got a lot of stuff on pocket fives, for those interested... beal's not a good representation against the pros; he played straight, they rotated, and according to one of the books (craig's?) the pros were losing a chunk until either fatigue, or todd brunson / phil ivey (forget who) came in and turned huge loss into huge gain.