Player Biography – Annie Duk
One of the most respected names in tournament UB poker is Annie Duke’s who professional poker champ, Phill Hellmuth describes thus: “Annie is the best all-around woman poker player in the world today” and this is a statement that even her detractors (there wouldn’t be many, we are sure) cannot deny.
Considering her rather conventional upbringing and slant towards educational fields, this Concord, New Hampshire born lady poker champ went to school at St. Paul and thereafter graduated from Columbia University with a double major in English and Psychology. One would be hard pressed to understand the shift in her career focus to pro poker when all her educational life pointed to more academic pursuits and a job in lines more suited to subjects she dedicated a good 3-4 years of her life to.
Yes, Annie even went in for a doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania where she chose psycholinguistics for her higher studies but once the poker bug bit her, Annie ditched her study program in pursuit of more entertaining and rewarding aspects of a truly thrilling card game.
Her brother, Howard Lederer, had been playing pro poker for some time and he introduced her to the game; from that moment onwards, Annie went on to play in higher-limit tournament poker sessions and many other Las Vegas based events.
She has 4 children and is a devoted family person, a fact that distinguishes Annie from other poker stars who would be in a fix to choose attending a child’s play or going to a poker tournament – but for Annie that’s a no-brainer because her kids will always have a priority over her career choice of pro poker no matter what.
But, warm family sentiments don’t stop Annie from continuing to play tough poker games or even sharing her knowledge of the game with other players, like actor Ben Affleck who had been training under Amir Vahedi but was happy to receive poker tutoring from Annie. He proved to be a darn good student too: Affleck won the $10,000 California State Poker Championship for the No Limit Hold’em event hosted at the Commerce Casino in June 2004, making Annie proud of her poker tutelage since Affleck raked in $356,000 as the first prize!!
Annie’s 10th place during the WSOP $10,000 main event even as she was in her 8th month of pregnancy (her third child) only goes to show that having a family and playing pro poker don’t have to be two different things. Annie’s first WSOP bracelet came to her for her $2000 Omaha High-Lo tournament win in 2004, which proved to be a good year for her because she also won first prize at the ESPN WSOP tournament titled ‘Champions Invitational’ – a solid two million dollars!!
That was certainly welcome progress from her 2nd place in the 1999 Limit Hold’em event and the 2003 WSOP besides another second position in the Bellagio World Poker Classic for Omaha High Low.
Annie Duke’s most recent win is the 2010 title win at the NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship and continues to bring more glory to the game by also partnering with social service organizations to raise funds for humanitarian projects, like ‘Ante Up For Africa’ – a joint effort with Don Cheadle and Norman Epstein to help Darfur victims receive more than $400,000 from a WSOP event they jointly organized for their welfare.