Annie Duke
Young Annie did not see any aid from her brother Howard and father Richard when home games were tough at the Lederer household in Concord and his brother and father had refused to cut her any slack at the poker table. In this extremely knowledgeable home, Annie flourished. Her both the parents being teachers, Annie soon began to hold her own during home games and excel in the classroom.
Annie found herself in the Ivy League in high school. She went and studies at Columbia University, impressively completing a double major in Psychology and English. Then Annie’s next move was another part of the Ivy League, which was Pennsylvania University. Duke devoted her five years into her quest for a doctorate when she packed up and shifted to Montana from Philadelphia with her new husband Ben Duke.
The decision of moving to Montana proved to be very rude on the Dukes, as they were often found toeing the poverty line. Annie, then, made decision to endeavor into poker games Billings back room, the young sitting in a sea of testosterone. Duke was capable to put in innumerable hours on the felt, with a bankroll from her now specialize poker playing immense brother; she was becoming a great player in the process. The young couple’s financial problems started moving away, soon enough.
The Dukes, then, made a decision to shift to Las Vegas in 1994, after Annie won a massive amount of $70,000 in her first World Series of Poker. It had become obvious that Duke had found her calling in poker. She continued to prove her forte and showed that she was not just a good female player but, a great player.
“Poker is one of the only sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man,” said Duke. After Duke barely missed the 2000 chief occasional final table, all the doubts of her claim were forced to eat their words, while she was eight months pregnant. Till date she has refused to enter any of the women-only events, deciding as an alternative to haul pots in games which were male dominated.
Duke, going profound in 2007 WSOP events thrice, still continues to play poker, including a final table, and 21st place end in the opening Europe Championship WSOP. Annette Obrestad took him the title, breaking Duke’s highest female win in a day in the process.
Duke spends most of her time as an active member of Team Ultimate Bet, while she is away from the tables, but her main focus still remains her family. She and Ben got divorced in 2004, and Annie was forced to move to Los Angeles with all her four children, ‘Maud, Leo, Lucy and Nelly’. She now has started living with her boyfriend, producer, actor, and a big time poker junkie, Joe Reitman. She affirms that her aspiration in life is, “to be the best mom she can be, while still managing a poker career.” Duke has the aptitude to take up the family time she requires, now that she has practically $3.5 million in tournament winnings from her career.
