Most poker players prefer to look at their hole cards and find they have been dealt a pair of aces, but some of the top players, such as Norwegian sensation, Annette Obrestad, are happy to play literally any two cards.

Whilst two aces are the best starting hand in Hold'em, the raggedy seven-two off suit, nicknamed ‘The Hammer', is at the opposite end of the spectrum.

The main reason ‘The Hammer' is such a poor starting hand is it is the lowest valued hand that is separated by at least four other card ranks. This means there is a miniscule chance of making a straight (it is actually impossible to do so using both cards) and the high-card value is low.

In recent times, playing ‘The Hammer' has become popular, as players love to show their opponents that they have bluffed them with the worst hand in poker!

Even the top professionals have got in on the new craze. There is a rule on the televised series High Stakes Poker where anyone who wins a pot with the lowly seven-deuce receives an additional $500 from each of the other players at the table!

There was no additional bonus on offer at the World Series of Poker Europe but Annette Obrestad still decided to make a play with the mighty hammer.

The table was six-handed, with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and a running ante of 2,000, creating a pre-flop pot of 30,000 chips.

Theo Jorgensen opened the action with a 24,000 raise hoping his Ah 9c would steal the pot uncontested, but that was not to be the case.

Dominic Kay found 6d 6c and made the call, putting the action onto Annette Obrestad, who is well known in online circles as being an extremely aggressive and fearless opponent, despite her tender age.

Looking down at her hole cards and finding ‘the Hammer' in the form of the seven of clubs and two of hearts, a hand most players would toss into the muck within a second of seeing it, Obrestad calmly put in a big raise of 103,000 chips!

Jorgensen quickly folded but Kay was in a tricky situation, as he knew Obrestad could easily be making this play with a weaker or much stronger hand than his pocket sixes.

After almost a minute of deliberation, Kay folded, despite being a 72% favourite over Obrestad's lowly holding, leaving the teenage sensation to scoop an 84,000 pot.

Obrestad's play in this hand was an extremely high-risk manoeuvre but one that paid dividends on this occasion. Whilst I myself would not advocate making this play on a regular basis, it does go some way to show that to win poker tournaments, you do not actually need good cards.