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Annie Duke
Annie Duke in the 2006 World Series of Poker
Nickname(s)	Annie Legend, The Duke, The Duchess of Poker
Residence	Los Angeles, California
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	1
Money finish(es)	33
Highest ITM Main Event finish	10th, 2000
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	0(+1)
Money finish(es)	2

Annie Duke (born September 13, 1965) is a professional poker player and author.

Family and early life

Duke was born in Concord, New Hampshire where her father, Richard Lederer, a writer and linguist, was teaching at St. Paul's School. Her brother Howard Lederer is also a professional poker player; her sister Katy Lederer is an author and poet who also wrote a book about the Lederer family, titled Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers. She is married to Ben Duke, and they have four children: Maud (1995), Leo (1998), Lucy (2000) and Nell (2002).

Annie went to Columbia University where she double majored in English and psychology, and was awarded a NSF Fellowship to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania to study psycholinguistics, a field within cognitive psychology.

She married Ben Duke, a close friend from the same university, and moved to his home Columbus, Montana. Although originally intending to continue her studies, she decided to leave school in 1992, after five years of graduate school and one month before defending her Ph.D. work.

Career as professional poker player

After leaving her academic work, Duke began playing poker in the legal card rooms in Billings. Her brother Howard was already a successful professional and he both coached and helped finance her play initially. In 1994, she and her husband moved to Las Vegas in order to commence playing poker full time.

In early 2004, Duke received considerable publicity for tutoring actor Ben Affleck, who then went on to win the 2004 California State Poker Championship. Before this time, her main claim to poker fame was her 10th place finish in the 2000 World Series of Poker main event (one position short of the final table) while eight months pregnant with her third child. In the 2004 World Series of Poker she also eliminated her brother Howard Lederer from four separate events, including the Tournament of Champions. She has several nicknames including "Annie Legend", "The Duke", and "The Duchess of Poker", and unlike her brother, is known for being somewhat emotional at the poker table.

In 2002, she moved to Portland, Oregon to work for ieLogic, a company that produces software for online real time casino gaming. She and Ben were divorced in 2004, but she did win a $500 wager made with fellow pro Steve Zolotow, who bet her that her marriage wouldn't last five years. In 2005 she and her children moved to the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her new Mediterranean-style home and boyfriend, actor and producer Joe Reitman, were featured in the New York Times article At Home With Annie Duke on January 19, 2006.

Duke is one of many poker players that take issue with the restrictions placed on players during televised tournaments. Although the players pay mandatory entry fees to enter tournaments, some venues do not allow players to wear sponsorship logos. Duke raised some controversy when she made a statement in a news article regarding this issue: "We are not even slaves. We're people paying to pick the cotton."

Awards and winnings

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As of 2007, Annie holds the women's record for most "in the money" finishes at the WSOP. In September 2004 Duke won $2,000,000 in the inaugural World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, a 10-player, winner-take-all invitational event. She subsequently appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.

As of 2006, Duke has won one World Series of Poker bracelet, in Omaha HiLo and more than $3.1 million in tournament play. Nowadays she refuses to play in women's only tournaments, saying that "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."

In the Main Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, she finished in 88th place (out of 8,773 entrants) for $51,129 in winnings. She was one of two women left in the field when she was eliminated. (The remaining woman, Sabyl Cohen, later finished in 56th place for $123,699.)

As of 2007, her total live tournament winnings exceed $3,400,000.

TV appearances

On January 30, 2006, Duke became the first poker personality to appear on The Colbert Report. During the show, she talked about her book and what it's like to be a woman in a male-dominated event. In 2006, GSN premiered a television special titled Annie Duke Takes on the World, which features Duke playing against amateur poker players. Duke has also made appearances on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour playing Elimination Blackjack.

On December 1, 2006 Annie Duke appeared as a member of the Mob on NBC's 1 vs. 100. On the show she correctly answered every question and was the only celebrity that wasn't eliminated. She returned for the next few weeks, continually answering her questions correctly. She reappeared on the Christmas episode on December 25, answering a total of 35 consecutive questions correctly during her time on 1 vs. 100, making her the longest running mob member in the history of the show to that point. Duke returned on February 9, 2007 under special "Last Man Standing" rules where the game continued until only one person remained. She survived to reach the final five of 100 contestants, before she, along with three of the other four mob members including Ken Jennings, were eliminated.

Other ventures

As well as competing, Duke writes and speaks on poker-related subjects, and promotes poker-related organizations. She has been a spokesperson for UltimateBet since 2000 and has written many articles for the online poker website, mainly on Omaha HiLo, and an autobiography.

Trivia

During the 2006 World Series of Poker, Annie won the $500 buy-in World Series of Roshambo tournament, earning her $10,000.
In 2005, Duke helped her brother Howard Lederer promote a line of poker video games which featured both siblings as virtual characters.

Books

Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at The World Series of Poker, an autobiography (ISBN 1-59463-012-7).

References

^ Annie Duke, Poker Pro, Columbia Magazine, Spring 2002

External links

v t e Winners of the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
Annie Duke Mike Matusow Mike Sexton Huck Seed

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