WSOP’s next generation?

In this section we look at some of the poker pros showing promise on the circuit and assess their chances at the WSOP. As well as the seasoned pros like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and the like, we look at the new generation of pro players who have been making heavyweight names for themselves despite their young years.

Annette Obrestad

Annette Obrestad known as Annette_15 in online poker rooms is the youngest person to win a World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) bracelet at the age of 19. Not only that, but the $2.1 million prize made her the record holder of the largest single-event payout to a female player.

Annette started playing poker when she was 15 years old. While girls of her age would like going to the malls, she was busy making a name for herself in the world of online poker. The Norwegian, now a Betfair Poker Team member, made her initial online bankroll by winning freeroll poker tournaments. She said she never deposited her bets online; she used her bankroll from freeroll winnings. By February 2007, she won a total of $836,000 from different poker sites. After two months of winning the WSOPE bracelet, she then was at the final table of the 2007 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Dublin event where she was a runner-up.

On her 21st birthday, she competed in the World Series of Poker having previously not been allowed to compete because of the gaming laws in Nevada which states that players must be at least 21 years old. On her online tournament in July 2007 where she won a $4 buy-in 180 person online sit-and-go, Annette claimed that she once peeked at her cards when she was faced with an all-in bet. She said she did that to show the importance of position and paying attention to the players at the table.
In 2008, she won first place in several tournaments including a game held in Stars Sunday Hundred Grand among the 20, 000 players and in the Betfair Sunday $125,000 GTD event. As of 2009, the sum of her live tournament winnings exceeds $2,700,000.

Jason Mercier

Jason Mercier is a 23-year old professional poker player from Fort Lauderdale, Florida who won the European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo Main Event in season 4, the largest live poker event held in Italy. He shared the EPT final table with renowned players such as online professional poker players Darion Minieri and William Thoroson. In season 5, he made his second European Poker Tournament (EPT) final table in the 2008 EPT Barcelona event where he came in 6th. In this event, he earned $324, 946.

Jason also won in the European Poker Tour £1 Million Showdown in London. This is a non-title event that gave him an additional $944,847 in a final table that also included runner-up John Juanda, winner of the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe. Also included were online professional poker players Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Isaac Haxton and outstanding professionals Scotty Nguyen, David Benyamine, and Isabelle Mercier.

In the World Series of Poker 2009, Jason quickly joined elite poker company by winning the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha event. He is the only poker player to have an EPT title and a WSOP bracelet.
In March 2010, Jason known as “treysfull21” ranked second in the world for all players by Entertainment Sports Programming Network (ESPN). As of 2010, his total winnings over live tournaments exceed $4,850,000. His 9 cashes at the World Series of Poker for those winnings is $815,465.

This American hottie dreams of becoming the 2nd poker player to win the Triple Crown.
When it comes to changing something about the world of poker, he said that he would want online deposits to be easier for people in United States so that many people can play. Aside from poker, he is also into basketball, golf, and travelling. In high school, he played baseball and soccer. Also known as J-Merc, Jason Mercier started playing poker when he was 15 years old.

Phil Ivey

Phil D. Ivey was born on February 1, 1976, in Riverside, California. Ever since Phil was a kid, he wanted to be a professional poker player. It was his grandfather who taught him how to play Five-Card Stud. Knowing that Phil really wanted to be a poker player, his grandfather used and taught Phil several poker tricks to make Phil aware of the dangers of poker and its lifestyle.

As he grew up, he continued practicing poker and adapting different techniques when playing it. He also observed and watched a lot of poker home games and learned a lot from them. Phil’s first notable experience and growth in playing poker was when he played poker against his co-workers at the telemarketing firm he worked for in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This was the time when a lot of people acknowledged his skills. People even hailed him as the “Tiger Woods of Poker”.

Phil worked hard, practiced, and saved up to be able to join the World Series of Poker. In 2002, he was able to make it to the final table. He won his first bracelet and made history by beating poker royalty and getting his crown. He was able to make up to $200,000 for that game.

Moving on several years and the things have just kept getting better. 2009 was definitely one of the most memorable years for Phil. Not only did he win his 6th bracelet for the No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball game, he was able to win over 147 players. After his seventh bracelet win, Phil was the youngest poker player to ever win that number of bracelets at the tender age of 33. Also, Phil was able to acquire the number of bracelets for only nine years, compared to other pros who take a lot of years to even win their second or third bracelets. In addition, he was able to make it to the final table many times.

Cole South

Cole South is one of the most popular and youngest poker players today. He is mostly known as an online poker player and made his debut in November 2005 playing low stakes at Party Poker where he invested $50. He continually practiced and played online poker and in just two years, he was able to make $2 million because of the online poker games.

Other than his winnings online, Cole also produced instructional poker videos. He not only taught poker as a game full of techniques, but he also applied a lot of mathematical concepts to the game that can truly help players better understand poker.

Cole improved and gained more and more money by playing. Almost every single day he made millions at online tables. Although he loses sometimes, he never gives up and continues to practice and gain experience to become one of the best poker players in the world. In 2009, from being an online player, Cole was able to step out of his comfort zone and joined the 40th live World Series of Poker. He ranked 162nd and earned a total of $40,288. Not a bad haul for a student at Georgetown University majoring in Economics.

Yvgeniy Timoshenko

At a very young age, Yvgeniy had already made a mark in poker. Yvgeniy was born in the Ukraine, but when he was 10 years old, his whole family migrated to the United States. It was in 2008 when Yvgeniy was first recognized. He played in the casinos in Macau, China to join the Asian Poker Tour. He won and garnered up to $500,000. In late 2008, he was the third placer at the Event Number 1 of the World Series of Poker held in London.

On the Season 7 of the World Poker Tour in April 2009, Yevgeniy became the champion and earned a total of $2,149,960. His winnings exceeded up to $3,200,000 in 2009.Yevgeniy was also active in the online poker scene. He played on several online poker rooms, adapting different screen names for each. In 2009, he was the champion of the Main Event of World Championship of Online Poker and beat 2,144 players. He won $1,715,200 for that event, plus $75,000 for the weekly Full Tilt Poker and No Limit Hold’em event. Up to this day, Yevgeniy works hard and continues to practice and prove more that he is one of the youngest poker pros to emerge in the Poker world.