Carbon Poker, pride and joy of the Merge Poker Network, is offering an intriguing promotion that requires even the most skilled poker players to rely on a little bit of luck. The ‘Open The Luck Box’ promotion at Carbon Poker is awarding online poker players with a chance at more than $6,000 in cash.

There is no need to register or sign-up for the promotion. Simply play poker online for real money at Carbon Poker unveils the opportunity to make some extra free cash.

The Luck Box promotion is triggered by collecting certain levels of comp points. Each time a level is reached, the Luck Box screen will appear. The player is shown three Luck Boxes, and may choose any one they wish. All three boxes contain free cash, but selecting the correct box will award the highest amount.

The profitability of the three Luck Boxes will increase with each comp point accumulation level (i.e. the more points you earn, the more you can win). Unlocking all levels of the Luck Box promotion and choosing the correct box at each turn will award more than $6,000 in free cash. There are a maximum of 31 Luck Boxes to be opened per player.

Members of CarbonPoker.com can play real-money cash tables, Sit’n’Go tournaments and Multi-Table tournaments to rack up comp points. The promotion will run from January 1st-31st, 2009. The only requirement to claim prizes is to have made at least one deposit at Carbon Poker from the time of joining up until January 31st.

Annette Obrestad, known throughout the online poker world as ‘Annette_15’, has had an amazing run in her poker career of late, including live poker events and her online poker exploits at UltimateBetPoker.

Obrestad became globally famous when, after having just turned 19, she routed the entire field at the first annual World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) for a cool £1,000,000 (USD $1,874,700). Over the last 15 months since that phenomenal victory, Obrestad has become an influential poker pro, winning consistently at online poker tables, while continuing to make her mark in live poker events.

She followed up her WSOPE win with a $390k, 2nd place cash at the EPT Dublin of Season 4, NL Hold’em event. Her most recent major live tournament cash came in May of 2008, collecting nearly $22k for a 3rd place finish at a Pot Limit Omaha event in the WPT.

Her online poker play at UltimateBet.com has been just as rewarding, including a recent win at the online poker room’s weekly $100k GTD. On Sunday, December 7th, ‘Annette_15’ jumped into the field of 227 players, posting the $500+$30 buy-in to participate in the tournament. Crunching those numbers reveals a hyped prize pool that equaled $113,500 due to the high rate of entries.

Obrestad did not find the competition to lay in her wake, forced to battle it out against some incredibly tough opposition just to make the final table, which turned out to seat a lot more ferocious player’s than just Annette herself. Among them were the likes of ‘FeedMeMunE’ (winner of the UltimateBet $200k GTD in January), Russel ‘rdcrsn’ Carson (3rd place finisher at a Full Tilt $1 million guarantee in early 2008), Benny ‘psykobenny’ Spindler (winner of the $80k Re-Buy at Full Tilt last month), Mike ‘spin31’ Spinasanta (4th place finisher at a Full Tilt $750k GTD last month) and Tim ‘tmay420’ West, who’s live and online poker tournament cashes have racked up more than $1.3 million since he turned 21 (now 23).

Oh yes, it would be quite a task for any final tablist to win the top prize at this UltimateBet event, but in the end, it was Annette Obrestad who took the honors. ‘Annette_15’ drew in a 1st place prize exceeding $31,000, adding to her already spectacular year.

Full Tilt has set the scene for some enormously sick pots in recent months as many of today’s poker pros are often found at the ultra-high-stakes cash tables. Last weekend was no exception as Saturday, December 13th, Gus Hansen found had his usual, confident nature handed to him in a paper bag.

The 6-Max $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha table, “Pantheon”, contained the usual suspects – Gus Hansen, Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond, Di ‘Urindanger’ Dang, Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies, along with ‘LokoIsBack’ and ‘sunra18’. Unfortunately, routine attendees Phil Ivey and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan weren’t on hand to watch this one go down.

The blinds were posted by sunra18 (SB) and Urindanger (BB) before the starting hands were dealt. Pre-Flop action saw LokoIsBack and Ziigmund folding out early, followed by an $800 raise from Gus Hansen.
Galfond (OMGClayAiken) quickly re-raised to $3,200 as sunra18 and Urindanger dropped out of the pot.

Hansen called.

The Flop came down, 3h-Th-As, and Hansen checked. Galfond raised another $3,200, followed by a $16,800 re-raise from Hansen. Galfond responded with a re-raise of his own; all-in for $30,200. Hansen calls and they revealed their cards.

OMGClayAiken: Ah-5h-Ad-2h
Hansen:3d-2d-4c-Tc

Galfond had hit an amazing Flop, holding the Top Set of Aces, a Nut Flush draw and a gut-shot Straight draw all in one. For Gush Hansen, the Bottom and Middle Two Pair was weaker than a number-2 pencil at a termite convention, but it was enough to make him stay in the pot.

The Turn: (3h-Th-As) Ks
The River: (3h-Th-As-Ks) 2s

Phil ‘OMGClayAiken’ Galfond raked in the $73,997 pot with a Full House, Aces over 2’s.

To watch this kind of action take place for yourself, sign up at Full Tilt Poker. If you have a sizeable bankroll and a cast iron stomach, you could take on these high-stakes pros yourself.

If you want to play against the big name FullTilt.net Pros, but don’t yet have that kind of bankroll, that’s not problem as the pros at Full Tilt play at all levels – including play money and microlimits!