Poker in 2007 review – Part 2

Author: Simon Dexter

Continuing the look at last year in the world of poker, we dive straight into events in July. The WSOP Main Event was taken down by US social worker and relatively known player Jerry Yang, who out lasted over 6,000 rivals to take the huge first prize. In the same tournament, one player was knocked out in the very first hand having gone all-in when re-raised holding AA. Unfortunately for him, he busted out with his rival drawing a flush.

Phil Laak and Ali Eslami were the two professionals picked to play poker against a computer in August and thankfully for mankind, the humans emerged victorious. The experiment took place at Alberta University but the result was closer than expected, with scientists fully expecting to develop the ultimate poker machine in time - though only at heads-up poker!

There was no bigger story in September than a little known Norwegian girl winning the WSOP of Europe. Using the alias Annette_15, the 18-year-old beat off stiff competition to pick up the title and go down in history as the youngest ever winner of a major poker event. The success brought many thousands of new players to the game and her aggressive tactics are copied daily across all the major sites.

October brought news of some scandal at Absolute Poker where security breaches were tracked down by the some amateur sleuths, who worked out that a certain player appeared to know everyone else’s hole cards. The news brought major discussions around the forums and blogs with the culprit being outed - his name was revealed as Potripper.

Annette_15 made the news again in November when narrowly failing to take down her second successive major tournament. Despite holding a huge lead going into the final table of the EPT Dublin, the youngster was beaten by Rueben Peters for the cash prize.

A sad ending to the year in December with the news that poker legend Chip Reese died peacefully at his home in the US. The former WSOP champion was a well liked and much respected player, who preferred to play the big poker games in Vegas rather than travel the world on the various tournament tours.