Annie Duke

A poker biography of Annie Duke.

Quick Information

Name - Annie Duke

Born - September 1965, Concord, New Hampshire, Usa

Poker Room - Ultimate Bet

Biography

Who says women can't rule men's world?

Annie Duke, among the globe's leading female poker players, is gradually invading the world that was then thought created for men. Her lump sum live tournament winning is $3,250,000 and increasing. What makes her a very successful all-around poker player is a story full of bubbles, bluffs, and jackpots.

Annie Duke was born in September 1965 and is a native of Concord, New Hampshire. A daughter of a couple both from the academe, she enrolled in Columbia University where she majored in Psychology and English. She was a very competitive student and intended to be a teacher like her parents, but she left the university and pursued Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1992, she stopped schooling and focused on raising her family. While staying in Montana with Ben Duke, her ex-husband, Annie started playing in Billings' legal card rooms. Her sibling Howard Lederer, a professional poker player, financed and coached her play. He also suggested her to join the World Series of Poker (WSOP) held in Las Vegas where she won 13th finish and outplayed her brother. She won $70,000 in her pioneer month of playing and in the year 1994, she and Ben moved to Las Vegas to let her pursue playing poker full time.

Annie was not at all intimidated with men who rule the world of poker. In early 2004, she bested over 200 players in the WSOP buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo Split where she got her first ever WSOP bracelet. Her winning created a benchmark in her career in playing poker and made herself as among the greatest players in the globe. Duke was unstoppable and in August 2004, she beat eight of the globe's best poker players and bagged $2,000,000 in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. It was an invitational and winner-take-all competition established by Harrah's Entertainment and ESPN.

Apart from playing poker, Annie Duke created her autobiography, Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker, with David Diamond in September 2005. The book discusses Duke's struggles in her personal life and in achieving her WSOP bracelet. Her other sibling, Katy Lederer also featured her in the book Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers. She also recently endorsed the product line of The ESPN Poker Club, which vends poker products such as tabletops, poker chip sets, and other accessories.

Today, Duke is a consultant of UltimateBet.com, an online poker site, to help in assuring that the site's poker rules and tournament framework equals the rules of known poker rooms in Las Vegas. She also coaches Hollywood celebrities like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to play poker. If she is not seen in the tables raising or folding, she stays home taking care of her four beautiful kids. Now in her 40s and over ten years of playing professional poker, Annie Duke continues to be among the greatest female poker players and lives up to her title as The Duchess of Poker in a male-oriented league.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 December 2007 )

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