If the World Series of Poker Europe concludes as dramatically as it did last year, few will have any complaints.

It ended in spectacular fashion in 2007 after a long, drawn-out heads up battle between two of poker's brightest stars, Annette Obrestad and John Tabatabai. Both players have a reputation for playing a very aggressive style of poker, which lead many to believe the heads up encounter would be over extremely quickly indeed. How wrong the pundits were.

Tabatabai held a 4,244,000 to 2,966,000 chip advantage over Obrestad but with the blinds set at 12,000/24,000 with a 3,000 ante, neither player was desperate to make a move. With the difference between first and second place being a staggering £430,000 it was easy to see why the match was initially a cagey affair, with each player winning five of the first ten hands dealt.

The crowd watched on as Annette slowly chipped away at Tabatabai's lead and by the time the final hand played out, the chips were almost evenly distributed. At the start of hand 93, the blinds were 15,000/30,000 with a running 4,000 ante creating a preflop pot of 53,000. Tabatabai limped on the button and then called a 70,000 raise from Annette.

A flop of 7c 6c 5h prompted Annette to bet 250,000 into the 208,000 pot, a bet that Tabatabai raised to 750,000. Knowing that calling the raise would mean a third of her chips would be on the table, committing her to the hand, Annette announced she was "all-in". After a brief pause to calculate the odds and to recap the action, Tabatabai made the call and turned his cards over to reveal he had flopped two pairs with his 5s 6d hole cards.

Two pairs is a huge hand when playing heads up but Tabatabai was devastated to see Annette's 7h 7s, which gave her top set and meant that he had only 2.6% equity in the hand. A two of clubs on the turn, followed by the queen of hearts on the river did not improve either hand and after a quick chip count by tournament director Jack Effel, Annette Obrestad was declared the winner of the inaugural WSOPE.

Annette's victory placed her in the record books as youngest ever WSOP bracelet holder and the first woman to have won a $10,000 or higher buy in event. Many will be looking forward to watching Annette's defence of her title when the 2008 WSOPE begins on September 19.