Famous Poker Players: Annie Duke
Annie Duke

Annie Duke does not look like most professional poker players.  For one thing, she's a woman.  But she proves without any doubt that poker is certainly not a man's game.  She recently proved this in an all star poker championship (World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions Event) in which she beat some of the best players in the world including her own brother Howard Lederer and poker legend Doyle Brunson.  In fact when it came to heads up against poker brat Phil Hellmuth Jr. she showed some of the most impressive psychological warfare ever seen in a televised match.  Hellmuth went on tilt after she re-raised his top pair with her top two pair.  Hellmuth was convinced his hand was best but was eventually forced to lay it down, showing one of his two cards, the top pair.  Annie Duke, frustrated with his bad sportsmanship showed her second pair but kept him guessing about her other card.  This wonderful play put Phil Hellmuth on tilt for the rest of the match and she continued her masterful play until she eventually knocked him out claiming the $2m top prize. Poker was not her first choice of career though, she started life as a hard working student in Concord, New Hampshire.  She attended an elite prep school called St. Paul's, not because she was from a rich background, but because her mother worked there as a teacher.  She certainly did not waste the opportunity she was given.

Annie Duke

Annie Duke graduated Columbia University with a double major in Psychology and English, but still wanted more so went on to a masters degree in Cognitive Psychology with a view to becoming a professor.  During her Masters program she won the coveted National Science Foundation Fellowship.

In between her studies she would sometimes go and watch her brother Howard Lederer play poker in New York card rooms.  He also invited her to Las Vegas on a few occasions and began to get her interested in the game.

After five years of graduate school Annie decided the academic life was not for her and moved to Montana with her new husband.  Her brother sent her $2,400 and some invaluable advice on playing poker.  She began to spend some time in local card rooms and was very successful.  In spring 1994, impressed with her results, Howard persuaded her to enter the World Series Of Poker where she not only knocked out her own brother but finished in the money and won $70,000.

This win prompted her to take poker more seriously and she moved her family to Las Vegas.  Despite her brilliant poker play she still puts family first and has frequently said she would choose a school play over a poker tournament.

Despite her casual style of sometimes sitting on one leg and barefoot at a table she has shown herself to be a very dangerous opponent.  She is now considered to be the best female player in the world and many male players have fallen victim to their prejudices or inherent sexism and found themselves losing all their chips to her. 

Annie Duke has a wonderful website with plenty of playing tips at AnnieDuke.com.