Annie Duke
Encyclopedia
Annie Duke is a professional poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 player and author who won a bracelet in the 2004 World Series of Poker
2004 World Series of Poker
The 2004 World Series of Poker was held at Binion's Horseshoe after Harrah's Entertainment purchased the casino and the rights to the tournament in January...

 $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event and was the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
The World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions is an invitational freeroll poker event. Wins in this event do not count as official WSOP bracelets, but the winner receives a large trophy in the shape of the official World Series of Poker logo. In 2010, the WSOP Tournament of Champions returned...

, where she earned the Winner-Take-All prize of $2,000,000. In 2010 she won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship
National Heads-Up Poker Championship
-2006:- 2007 :-2008:In additional to the poker professionals, several poker-playing celebrities from other fields were invited: Gabe Kaplan, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander and Orel Hershiser. Also invited was Alisha Kunze of Greensburg, Indiana, who won her seat...

, earning a cash prize of $500,000 in addition to the title.

Personal life

Duke was born Anne LaBarr Lederer in Concord, New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

, the daughter of Rhoda S. (née Spagenberg) and Richard Lederer
Richard Lederer
Richard Lederer is an American author, speaker, and teacher best known for his books on word play and the English language and his use of oxymorons...

, a writer and linguist who taught at St. Paul's School. Her brother, Howard Lederer
Howard Lederer
Howard Henry Lederer is an American professional poker player and brother of poker professional Annie Duke, and author and poet Katy Lederer. On September 20, 2011, the U.S...

, is also a professional poker player. Her sister, Katy Lederer
Katy Lederer
Katherine "Katy" Lederer is an American poet and author of the memoir Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers.Lederer is the daughter of bestselling non-fiction author Richard Lederer and the sister of world-class poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke. She graduated from St...

, is an author and poet who wrote a book about the Lederer family, titled Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers. Duke has four children: Maud (1995), Leo (1998), Lucy (2000), and Nell (2002).

Annie attended Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 where she double-majored in English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...

 and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

. Subsequent to her undergraduate years, Duke was awarded an NSF Fellowship
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

 to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 to study psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...

, a field within cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....

. 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.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 work. She married Ben Duke, a close friend from the same university, and moved to his home in Columbus, Montana
Columbus, Montana
Columbus is a town in and the county seat of Stillwater County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,748 at the 2000 census.-History:The community originated as a stagecoach station on the Yellowstone River....

. It was at this time that, with the support of her brother, she began playing poker in nearby Billings, Montana
Billings, Montana
Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, and is the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area, the largest metropolitan area in over...

.

In 2002, she moved to Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 to work for ieLogic, a company that produces software for online real time casino gaming, which eventually came to life as UltimateBet. She and Ben were divorced in 2004, but she did win a $500 wager made with fellow pro Steve Zolotow
Steve Zolotow
Steve Zolotow is an American businessman and professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada. He has won two bracelets at the World Series of Poker. He was one of the regulars at the famed Mayfair Club while he lived in New York City.-New York Years:...

, who bet her that her marriage wouldn't last five years. In 2005 she and her children moved to the Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...

 neighborhood of Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. Duke and her then new, Mediterranean-style
Mediterranean Revival Style architecture
The Mediterranean Revival was an eclectic design style that was first introduced in the United States about the end of the nineteenth century, and became popular during the 1920s and 1930s...

 home — with fiance Joe Reitman — were featured in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

article "At Home With Annie Duke" on January 19, 2006.

Poker

After leaving her academic work, Duke began playing poker in the legal card rooms in Billings, Montana
Billings, Montana
Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, and is the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area, the largest metropolitan area in over...

. Her brother, Howard, was already a successful professional and he both coached and helped finance her poker play initially. In 1994, she and her then-husband moved to Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

 in order to play poker full time.

In early 2004, Duke received considerable publicity for tutoring actor Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...

, who then went on to win the 2004 California State Poker Championship
Commerce Casino
Commerce Casino is a cardroom located in the Los Angeles suburb of Commerce. With over 240 tables on site, Commerce Casino is the largest cardroom in the world...

. In the 2004 World Series of Poker
2004 World Series of Poker
The 2004 World Series of Poker was held at Binion's Horseshoe after Harrah's Entertainment purchased the casino and the rights to the tournament in January...

, she eliminated her brother, Howard Lederer, from four separate events, including the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
The World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions is an invitational freeroll poker event. Wins in this event do not count as official WSOP bracelets, but the winner receives a large trophy in the shape of the official World Series of Poker logo. In 2010, the WSOP Tournament of Champions returned...

, where she took first place and her brother took third. During this same World Series, she won her first gold bracelet
World Series of Poker bracelet
The World Series of Poker bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP. Even if the victory occurred before 1976, WSOP championships are now counted as "bracelets". ...

, in an Omaha Hi-Lo
Omaha hold 'em
Omaha hold 'em is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards...

 tournament. She was one of three women (Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert
Kathleen H. Liebert is an American professional poker player.- Poker :Liebert started her professional poker career as a prop player in Colorado...

 and Cyndy Violette
Cyndy Violette
Cyndy Violette is an American professional poker player who won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2004.-Early life:...

 being the other two) to win an open event in that year's WSOP.

Duke is one of many poker players who 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 [poker players] are not even slaves. We're people paying to pick the cotton."

In 2006, Duke won the second annual World Series of Rock Paper Scissors (WSORPS). The WSORPS is an annual charity tournament hosted by Phil Gordon
Phil Gordon
Philip Stewart Gordon is an American professional poker player, commentator and author.-Personal life:Gordon was born in El Paso, Texas. He spent his formative years in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Gordon began attending Georgia Tech at the age of 15 while still attending high school...

 at the World Series of Poker. The winner receives free entry into the WSOP Main Event and the proceeds are donated to Gordon's charity Bad Beat on Cancer.

Tournaments

As of 2010, her total live tournament winnings exceeded $4,270,000. Her 38 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,128,951 of those winnings.
World Series of Poker

As of 2010, Annie holds the women's record for most "in the money" finishes at the WSOP, ranking 32nd overall with 38 cashes. 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. At the time, this victory was the most money paid in a single event to a female poker player. That record was broken by Annette Obrestad
Annette Obrestad
Annette Obrestad is a Norwegian poker player. Obrestad is the youngest person to ever win a World Series of Poker Europe bracelet...

 as a result of her victory in the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe
World Series of Poker Europe
The World Series of Poker Europe is the first expansion effort of World Series of Poker-branded poker tournaments outside the United States. Since 1970, participants had to travel to Las Vegas if they wanted to compete in the World Series of Poker...

 Main Event.

Duke has won one World Series of Poker bracelet, in Omaha HiLo, and more than three million dollars 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
2006 World Series of Poker
The 2006 World Series of Poker began on June 25, 2006 with "satellite" events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event, and the Tournament of Champions held on June 28 and 29...

, 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 $123,699.)
World Series of Poker bracelets
Year Tournament Prize (US$)
2004
2004 World Series of Poker
The 2004 World Series of Poker was held at Binion's Horseshoe after Harrah's Entertainment purchased the casino and the rights to the tournament in January...

$3,000 Omaha High-Low 8/OB $137,860

Other notable tournaments

In 2010, Duke won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship
National Heads-Up Poker Championship
-2006:- 2007 :-2008:In additional to the poker professionals, several poker-playing celebrities from other fields were invited: Gabe Kaplan, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander and Orel Hershiser. Also invited was Alisha Kunze of Greensburg, Indiana, who won her seat...

. In a field of 64 top-ranked players, Duke defeated in order: Andy Bloch
Andy Bloch
Andrew Elliot Bloch is a professional poker player. He holds two electrical engineering degrees from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School.-Poker:...

, Darvin Moon
Darvin Moon
Darvin Moon is an American self-employed logger and amateur poker player who was the runner-up of the 2009 World Series of Poker US$10,000 no-limit Texas hold'em main event. It was his first time playing in the World Series of Poker...

, Paul Wasicka
Paul Wasicka
Paul J. Wasicka is a professional poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada who was the runner-up at the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event and the winner of the 2007 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship....

, Jerry Yang
Jerry Yang (poker player)
Xao "Jerry" Yang is an ethnic Hmong poker player from Temecula, California and the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event champion.Yang started playing poker in 2005. An amateur player at the time, Yang entered the 2007 World Series of Poker after winning a $225 satellite at the Pechanga Resort...

, Dennis Phillips
Dennis Phillips (poker player)
Dennis N. Phillips is a poker player and an account manager for Broadway Trucks, a commercial trucking company in St Louis, Missouri. Phillips qualified for the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event through a $200 satellite tournament at Harrah's St. Louis, his local Harrah's casino...

 and Erik Seidel
Erik Seidel
Erik Seidel is an American professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets and a World Poker Tour title.In 2010, he was inducted as a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.-Early life:...

.

Online poker

Until December 30, 2010, when she and Phil Hellmuth announced their departure, Duke was an UltimateBet Cardroom Consultant and a member of Team UB.

Other poker activities

As well as competing, Duke writes and speaks on poker-related subjects, and promotes poker-related organizations. Since 2000, she has been a spokesperson for UltimateBet and has written many articles for the online poker website, mainly on Omaha HiLo. In 2005, Duke penned her autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

, How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at The World Series of Poker.

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, The Game Show Network
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...

 (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
Ultimate Blackjack Tour
The Ultimate Blackjack Tour was a televised series of Elimination Blackjack tournaments that aired in syndication. It debuted on September 16, 2006. The show consists of a series of televised Elimination Blackjack tournaments...

 playing Elimination Blackjack
Elimination Blackjack
Elimination Blackjack is a tournament format of blackjack invented by Russ Hamilton, and is played on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour and in various casinos. It combines the game of blackjack with elements of No Limit Texas Hold'Em...

.

Annie Duke has appeared on NBC's Poker After Dark
Poker After Dark
Poker After Dark was an hour-long poker television program on NBC. The show made its debut on January 1, 2007, and was cancelled as another victim of the "Black Friday" criminal case due to the show's sponsorship by Full Tilt Poker, one of that case's defendants. on September 23, 2011 For its first...

three times but has not won.

Along with Phil Hellmuth Jr., Duke is a coach on Fox Sports Net
Fox Sports Net
The Fox Sports Regional Networks, or simply Fox Sports Net , are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.- Beginnings :...

work’s Best Damn Poker Show, which is sponsored by the poker site UltimateBet
Tokwiro Enterprises
Cereus Poker Network is an online poker network comprising Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Cereus is owned by a private company, Blanca Games. Blanca Games purchased all Network assets in August 2010 from Tokwiro Enterprises. The Cereus network was one of the world's ten largest online poker...

.

WSOP Poker Academy

Annie Duke is a teacher at the WSOP Poker Academy poker school. She appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show and donated a WSOP Academy Experience Package which was auctioned off to benefit the Humane Society.

Other ventures

In addition to poker, Duke is involved with various other ventures. On December 1, 2006, Duke appeared as a member of the Mob on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 program, 1 vs. 100
1 vs. 100 (US game show)
1 vs. 100 is an American game show that was broadcast by NBC from 2006–08, and is revived on GSN with a new series which began in November 2010. As in other formats, a single player goes up against 100 other contestants . The 1 gains money for every Mob member eliminated, but loses all winnings...

. She correctly answered every question and was the only celebrity who wasn't eliminated. She returned for the next few weeks, answering her questions correctly. She reappeared on the Christmas Day 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
Ken Jennings
Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows...

, were eliminated.

On March 24, 2008, Duke appeared on the NBC show Deal Or No Deal
Deal or No Deal (US game show)
Deal or No Deal is the American version of the international game show of Dutch origin of the same name. The show was hosted by Howie Mandel, and premiered on December 19, 2005, on National Broadcasting Company . The hour-long show typically aired at least twice a week during its run, and included...

to support a contestant named Mary Beth Holtzheimer who, after taking a $341,000 deal from the bank with only two cases left, found her case #13 had the $1,000,000. Annie gave Mary Beth an offer earlier that included a dinner with herself, Mary Beth, and her fiance John Salmieri; private lessons; and an invitation to attend an All Ladies Poker league if the bank's offer was accepted, but it was not.

In 2009, she appeared on the reality television show, Celebrity Apprentice
The Apprentice (U.S. Season 8)
The Celebrity Apprentice 2 is the eighth installment of the United States version of the reality television series, The Apprentice. It premiered on March 1, 2009. The Celebrity Apprentice 2 aired for two hours on Sundays at 9:00 Eastern time...

. on which contestants raise money for charities of their choice. Duke raised more money for her charity, Refugees International
Refugees International
Refugees International is a humanitarian organization supporting refugees and stateless people. It publishes annual reports, as well as approximately twenty-five field reports throughout the year on refugee issues, as well as comments on international aid issues around the world...

, than any other contestant. Of the field of 16 competitors, Duke survived to compete in the finale against her primary rival throughout the show, Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...

. Duke's fund-raising donations were more than triple those of Rivers'. However, total donations were only one of five criteria adjudged in the final task, and Rivers was ranked superior in three out of the five, placing Duke in second place overall.

External links

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