Annie Duke is a professional poker player, author, and brother of fellow professional poker player Howard Lederer. She is considered one of the top female poker players in the world.
Born in 1965 in Concord, New Hampshire, Duke grew up in a family that played card games often. Her dad, Richard Lederer, a pretty famous writer and linguist taught at St. Paul's School. After she turned 18, she matriculated at Columbia University and eventually completed a double major in English and Psychology. After graduation, she went on to graduate school in psycholinguistics (a field within cognitive psychology), at the University of Pennsylvania.
She decided to leave school in 1992, after five years of graduate school and one month before defending her Ph.D. work. She married Ben Duke, a close friend from the same school, and moved to his home in Montana.
She played poker in nearby Billings, Montana at the state's legal card rooms. Her brother, Howard Lederer, already a successful professional player, gave her tips, talked to her about the game, and also helped with her beginning stake. He recommended that she read David Sklansky's books in order to learn basic theory. After she read them she became a regular winner at the tables.
In 1994, Howard suggested that she she try her hand at the WSOP in Las Vegas. She did - and finished 13th in her first tournament, knocking her brother out of play. After this initial success, Duke and her husband moved to Las Vegas so she could play poker professionally.
She became famous for her 10th place finish (one short of the final table) in the 2000 WSOP main event while eight months pregnant.
In 2002, she moved to Portland, Oregon to work for a company that produced online gaming software, which was eventually used on UltimateBet. Duke and Ben got divorced in 2004. Because of this, she won a $500 wager with fellow pro Steve Zolotow, who bet her that her marriage wouldn't last five years. In 2005 she and her children moved to Los Angeles. Duke later started dating actor, and producer Joe Reitman.
At the 2004 WSOP, Duke eliminated her brother from four separate events. She also beat out 234 players in the $2,000 buy-in Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better for her first WSOP bracelet.
That same year, she knocked out 8 of the best poker palyers and won $2 million in the No-Limit Texas Hold’em WSOP Tournament of Champions, a winner-take-all, invitation-only event. At the time, this was the most money paid in a single event to a female poker player. The record was broken by Annette Obrestad during the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event.
In the 2006 WSOP Main Event, she finished in 88th place out of 8,773 players for $51,129 in winnings. She was the 2nd highest female finisher, behind Sabyl Cohen.
As of 2009, she has 1 WSOP bracelet, 37 WSOP cashes total live tournament winnings exceeded $3,600,000. She is the top female WSOP money winner in history and holds the record for most WSOP cashes by a female.
Duke has said that she doesn't play in women's only tournaments because "poker is one of the few sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man, so I don't understand why there's a ladies only tournament."
When she first stepped up into high-stakes games, she had to rush to the ladies' room to vomit.
She has been made fun of at the table because she has at times played at the table without wearing any shoes.
Duke, along with a few other professionals, has issues with the restrictions placed on players during televised tournaments, like the ability to wear sponsorship logos.
Annie works with UltimateBet.com, where she promotes the site and writes articles on poker.
In 2005, Duke published her autobiography, "Annie Duke: How I raised, folded, bluffed, flirted, cursed and won millions at the World Series of Poker”. She talked about her experiences during the 2004 WSOP where she won her first bracelet in the $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event. She also talked about a memorable TV incident with Phil Hellmuth on her way to winning the 2004 Tournament of Champions and its $2 million prize. The book also talked about her personal life, including: her anxiety disorder that plagued her in her early adult years, and the battles between her and her husband about her poker career, which eventually led to their divorce.
Her sister, Katy Lederer, an author and poet, also wrote a book about the Lederer family, titled "Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers".
Annie also released a series of instructional poker DVD’s in 2005 and 2006. In 2004, Duke tutored Ben Affleck at poker, who then went on to win the 2004 California State Poker Championship.
Duke has made appearance on: "The Colbert Report", "The Ultimate Blackjack Tour" playing Elimination Blackjack, "Deal Or No Deal", and "The Ellen Degeneres Show". She spent a season on the Donald Trump reality television show, "Celebrity Apprentice", and raised more money for her charity, Refugees International, than any other contestant. But Joan Rivers won the contest and Duke finished in second place.
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Originally Posted by wizardofroz
Neither Annie nor Phil deserved to be the final 2, but luck and plenty of help from Greg Raymer's poor calls never hurts. And Phil folding aq with more chips than Chan was incredibly stupid. Annie played real tight and scared early, and it should have bitten her in the a ss. She just kept catching cards when the blinds rose, and people falsely credit that to skill.
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