Poker Player - Annie Duke
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Annie Duke was born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire. Growing up Duke struggled with the feeling that she never quite fitted in to the privileged background that surrounded her so at the age of 18 Duke decided to enrol at Columbia University. It was at Colombia that Duke completed a major in English and Psychology with the intention of following in her parents footsteps and become a teacher, instead Annie enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania for cognitive psychology. While pursuing her studies Annie proposed marriage to an old friend, Ben Duke in 1991. It was at this point that Duke decided to leave her academic studies, pack up her life, move and settle down with her husband in Billings, Montana. Times where hard for Annie and her husband financially, so Annie began to play poker at the local poker rooms in order to pay the mortgage on their first home. Duke had grown up in a home where playing cards was in the blood in fact it was the glue that held the family together, where everyone was competitive and had the drive to always want to win so Annie playing poker felt natural.
In 1994 at the age of 22, Annie's brother famed poker player Howard Lederer made the suggestion that Annie try her hand at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, she did and ended up being placed 13th knocking her brother out of competition. Within the first month of competing Annie had made 70k it was at this point that her and her husband would make the move to Las Vegas so that Annie could pursue poker on a professional level. While Annie was expanding her poker career, she was also expanding her family, being a mother to four children set her apart from almost anybody else in the poker world. Despite her poker career being a run away success Annie has always put her family before her career, and enjoys raising her children.
Over the course of her career Annie has established herself as one of the best poker players in the world, making her the leading money winner among women in WSOP history. Duke won her first WSOP bracelet in the $2000 Omaha High-low event in 2004 beating out an assembly of 234 players. In the same the year Duke knocked out eight of the worlds' greatest poker legends and won two million dollars in the No Limit Texas Hold'em winner take all. This was an invitation only World Series of Poker tournament of champions, established by ESPN and Harrah's entertainment. Duke's other achievements include coming10th place in the main $10,000 event when she was eight months pregnant with her third child, she also earned second in Limit Hold'em in 1999 and 2003 at the WSOP, second in the Omaha High-low at the Bellagio Five-star World Poker classic and 6th in the Omaha High-low at the 2003 WSOP event.
Duke is now a consultant for the on-line poker site Ultimatebet.com, Duke does this to ensure that all of the sites rules and tournament structure equal those that you would find in the famous poker rooms of the Las Vegas strip. Duke also shares her poker skills coaching the likes of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Duke also donated a private poker lesson to be auctioned on Ubid.com to raise money to help those devastated by hurricane Katrina, the private lesson was scooped up for a cool $14,000 by celebrity Aston Kutcher. Annie also contributed a dinner for a lucky on-line winner as part of the relief effort. Annie also endorses the ESPN poker club product line, which consists of poker chip sets, tabletops, tables and other poker accessories. Besides playing poker Duke has also worked on an autobiography titled 'How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker.' The autobiography illustrates Duke's personal struggles along with her struggle to win a WSOP bracelet.
Today there aren't many women who compete in the professional poker scene, but that has never stopped the determination of Annie Duke. Despite poker being seen as a more 'male orientated' game, Duke has not let this sway her from playing instead she uses the fact that men often underestimate her at the poker table to here advantage. Duke believes that just being a women, gives her a distinct advantage over her male counterparts. Annie Duke is strong competitor when it comes to tournament poker regardless of her gender, on numerous occasions has Duke proved that women can hold their own in a game of poker.
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