Top News – Annette's WSOP Story and Poker in Baltics

This week in Top News we want to tell you all about the new PokerStars deal with the Spanish Basketball Federation to support the Spanish national basketball team for the whole year, also about the biggest poker event in the Baltics – the PokerStars Baltic festival in Tallin and to take a look at Annette Obrestad's performance in this year's World Series of Poker. Annette_15's WSOP debut was a long awaited event in the world of poker, however, the Norwegian was not able to keep up with the expectations and has yet to show the fans that she actually is one of the best young players in the world. And, of course, we've got all the Top10's from 2010 WSOP events that finished during the week.

We Miss You Annette

The 2010 WSOP is a roller coaster – big victories are followed by even bigger disappointments, big players keep getting busted and some you've never heard of come out as the winners. But that's what the World Series is all about – you can never be sure of what's going to happen and who's gonna win.

We've seen some of the world's major players like Michael Mizrachi, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Sam Farha and Phil Ivey justify their names and collect their WSOP bracelets, while some of the other big names continue to struggle for their moment of glory in 2010 WSOP. One of such players is Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad.

Just after her record-braking more than $2 million win in 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event at the age of 18 everyone in poker world started waiting for her debut at the World Series in Vegas. And 2010 was the year when Annette was finally able to attend it. However, despite the big hopes that fans, media and Annette herself had before the start of the series, she was not able to make any big money finishes so far. The tournament is already in it's second half and Annette is no where to be seen. She keeps dropping out and has only managed to finish in the money for two times although the payouts were less than minimum.

Poor Annette's performance is one of the biggest stories in this year's WSOP as well as the debate whether or not will the women poker sensation redeem her name and win a bracelet or at least make a final table before the end of the tournament or will 2010 be the year of Annette's disappointment. Only time will tell, let's just wait and see.

The Baltic Festival

The biggest poker event in the Baltics, the PokerStars Baltic Festival has finished and team PokerStars pro William Thorson came out victorious. 222 players took a shot at the €310,857 grand prize, but it all came down to Thorson and the Lithuanian Dominykas Karmazinas. After an intense three hour heads-up play Thorson has overplayed the long-time chip leader Karmazinas and collected his first ever major no-limit hold'em title.

Although the swede already had six European Poker Tour cashes and four final tables the Baltic Festival was the first tournament won by the PokerStars pro. “I've been waiting for this so long. I'm so happy you just can't imagine it. This means so much to me. it's unbelievable. I really wanted this title”said Thorson after his win.

Among those who competed in Tallinn were Finnish Formula 1 world champion Sami Seliö, new Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck, the Estonian ex-NBA player, PokerStars-sponsored Martin Müürsepp, PokerStars Team Online's Grzegorz Mikielewicz, Eurovision Song Contest star Maarja-Liis Ilus and Mart Mardisalu from Estonia, both sponsored by PokerStars.

Tomas Larsson, the PokerStars Baltics country manager said: “This is the second Baltic Festival tournament and it's been a great event with the largest prize pool in Baltic history. It's also really set the scene for a great EPT here in August. People have seen what a superb venue this is and can't wait to come back.”

The €1,400 Main Event held at the Swissôtel in Tallinn, Estonia, was the richest poker tournament ever held in the Baltic states.

Want to get into one of the major live poker events yourself? Join PokerStars today and play one of the numerous EPT, WSOP and other satellites.

Poker and Basketball

PokerStars is the new sponsor of the Spanish national basketball team. The deal between the world's largest poker site and the Spanish Basketball Federation was signed just a few months before the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey. The leading online poker brand and the reigning European and World Champions and the Olympic silver medalists the Spanish national team is considered to be the basketball powerhouse and the favorites to defend the World championship title in this year's competition.

“Our client PokerStars is very proud to become sponsor of the Federación Española de Baloncesto. Being a global brand, this is a significant opportunity to join a leading sport. PokerStars sponsors numerous teams and sportsmen of international standing and being able to co-operate with the World and European champion is an exciting project by which to convey values like excellence, competition and fair play,” Juanjo Marquez, CEO of the agency representing PokerStars in Spain said.

In the current sports and poker cooperation environment it comes as no surprise that basketball is being supported by an online poker site. We all know that poker's “Big Papa” Doyle Brunson used to be a basketball player of an NBA perspective and most of the poker pros enjoy a good ball game. So the bond between poker and basketball seems to be simply natural and PokerStars have just proved that. Let's just hope this is not the last we've heard about poker and basketball coming together.

More from WSOP

Another week had passed along with 10 more World series events. Onlinepoker10 give you the lists of all Top10 players, and, of course, the winners of these events.

Event #26: $2,500 Six-handed No Limit Holdem

1. William Haydon – $630,031
2. Jeffrey Papola – $391,068
3. Joe Baldwin – $248,265
4. Eddy Scharf – $163,649
5. Jarred Solomon – $110,903
6. Steve Cowley – $77,228
7. Javier Etayo – $55,236
8. Justin Smith – $55,236
9. Martins Adeniya – $40,547
10. Tyler Witteman – $40,547

Event #28: $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

1. Miguel Proulx – $315,311
2. L.J. Klein – $195,147
3. Michael Greco – $129,691
4. Stephane Tayar – $96,243
5. Joerg Engels – $72,227
6. Karl Gal – $54,736
7. Trevor Pope – $41,850
8. Tommy Le – $32,254
9. Patrick Hanoteau – $25,044
10. Dilyan Kovachev – $19,588

Event #29: $10,000 Limit Holdem Championship

1. Matt Keikoan – $425,969
2. Daniel Idema – $263,244
3. Kyle Ray – $190,702
4. Jameson Painter – $140,760
5. Brock Parker – $105,783
6. Zvi Groysman – $80,884
7. Simon Morris – $62,898
8. Michael Mizrachi – $49,733
9. David Chiu – $39,760
10. Anh Van Nguyen – $32,614

Event #30: $1,500 No Limit Holdem

1. Mike Ellis – $581,851
2. Christopher Gonzales – $360,906
3. David Wilkinson – $254,996
4. Martin Jacobson – $183,345
5. Billy Griner – $133,574
6. William Kakon – $98,605
7. Jason Hallee – $73,719
8. Chris Kastler – $55,814
9. Jeff Cohen – $42,790
10. Alexander Queen – $33,191

Event #31: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E

1. Konstantin Puchkov – $256,820
2. Al Barbieri – $158,647
3. Dustin Leary – $107,849
4. Ken Lennaard – $75,058
5. Hani Awad – $53,321
6. Andrew Revesz – $38,651
7. Blake Cahail – $28,569
8. Robert Mizrachi – $21,525
9. Chip Jett – $16,523
10. Regis Burlot – $16,523

Event #32 $5,000 NLH Six-Handed

1. Jeffrey Papola – $667,433
2. Men Nguyen – $412,746
3. Mark Radoja – $262,902
4. Bruno Launais – $173,123
5. Orlando Delacruz – $117,595
6. Erick Lindgren – $82,303
7. Taylor McFarland – $59,291
8. Darren Elias – $59,291
9. Paul Sheng – $43,941
10. Evan Panesis – $43,941

Event #33: $2,500 Pot Limit Holdem/Omaha

1. Jose-Luis Velador – $260,517
2. David Chiu – $160,902
3. Rob Hollink – $116,359
4. Craig Gray – $85,030
5. Kevin MacPhee – $62,791
6. Victor Ramdin – $46,861
7. James Mitchell – $35,331
8. Gavin Cochrane – $26,906
9. Matt Sterling – $20,698
10. Burt Boutin – $16,075

Event #34: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship

1. Harold Angle – $487,994
2. Michael Minetti – $301,839
3. John Woo – $213,612
4. Eric Stemp – $154,624
5. Daniel Camillo – $113,225
6. Preston Derden – $83,872
7. Jack Ward – $62,833
8. Carlos Pianelli – $47,591
9. Jay Hong – $36,450
10. Edward Weiss – $28,221

Event #35: $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship

1. Ayaz Mahmood – $625,682
2. Ernst Schmejkal – $386,636
3. Jason Somerville – $214,289
4. Alexander Kostritsyn – $214,289
5. Vanessa Rousso – $92,580
6. Faraz Jaka – $92,580
7. Ludovic Lacay – $92,580
8. Kido Pham – $92,580
9. Gavin Smith – $38,424
10. Phil Gordon – $38,424

Event #37: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.

1. Phil Ivey – $329,840
2. Bill Chen – $203,802
3. John Juanda – $129,553
4. Kenneth Aldridge – $93,418
5. Jeffrey Lisandro – $68,417
6. Dave Baker – $50,871
7. Albert Hahn – $38,391
8. Chad Brown – $29,406
9. Ryan Hughes – $22,849
10. Brent Wheeler – $22,849

So that's about all we had for today. Log on to OnlinePoker10 next week for more Top News from the ever-exciting world of poker.

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