Doyle Brunson Beats Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad 2-0

In a battle for the ages, poker legend Doyle Brunson defeated reigning World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad heads-up in two straight games to win the best of three series. It was a match that pitted one of the top poker players of all time against the symbol of a younger generation and was held as a warm-up to the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.

In the first match of the best of three series, Obrestad and Brunson got all of their money in on the flop. Brunson held a pair and Obrestad held a straight draw. The turn gave the young internet poker phenomenon a queen high straight, but Brunson one-upped her on the river with a king high straight. It marked a see-saw ending to the first match in the historic encounter. If Brunson won the second battle, he would win the war.

In the second match of the best of three series, a jack high flop brought both players’ money into the middle. Brunson held J-3 and Obrestad flipped over K-J for a better kicker. The namesake of online poker room Doyle’s Room managed to turn a three for two pair, sending Obrestad packing and sweeping the best of three series. In the endings to both tournaments, Brunson managed to hit lightning in a bottle for the win. He sits in second on the all-time World Series of Poker bracelet list with 10, which is tied with Johnny Chan and second to Ultimate Bet personality and 1989 Main Event winner Phil Hellmuth.

Brunson’s most recent bracelet came during the 2005 WSOP in a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event, which he won for $367,800. The talented final table of that tournament included Minh Ly, Scotty Nguyen, and Layne Flack. Brunson dominated poker in the 1970s. He won the 1976 and 1977 WSOP Main Events and had six bracelets during the 1976 to 1979 World Series events. His online poker room currently accepts U.S. players and offers a weekly bounty tournament that features Brunson, his son Todd, poker author Mike Caro, and the “Alabama Cowboy” Hoyt Corkins.

Obrestad burst onto the live poker scene last year by winning the Main Event of the WSOPE. Her grand prize was worth ₤1 million. She defeated John Tabatabai heads-up; the runner up took home £570,150. Other notables who cashed in the field included Gus Hansen (10th), Kenny Tran (16th), Annie Duke (21st), Marco Traniello (22nd), Erick Lindgren (26th), Patrik Antonius (29th), and 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold.

A native of Norway, Obrestad is a highly-accomplished online poker player. In July, she won the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt Poker for $51,666. She has taken down multiple $100 rebuys on PokerStars, which is widely regarded as having one of the toughest tournament fields online. Three weeks ago, Obrestad, who goes by the name “Annette_15” online, finished sixth in the Sunday Warm-Up for $31,000. Finally, she won the Full Tilt Poker $500,000 guaranteed, according to her profile on PocketFives.com, for $117,000.

The £10,350 buy-in Main Event of the 2008 WSOP Europe begins on Sunday at 1:00pm local time. The six-day event will feature two starting days. The champion of the tournament will be crowned on Thursday, October 2nd.