Annie Duke - Biography

As a child, Annie grew up in a household where cards, games and competition was the norm. Together as a family, in order to spend quality time together, Annies family would spend countless hours playing all sorts of card games, where the competition to become the winner was the outcome desired by everyone in the family. Needless to say this strong sense of competition and way of thought has helped shape Annie into the professional card player she is today.

With both her parents as teachers, Annie attended Colombia University with the desire to follow in their footsteps. But before she could finish her graduate school, Annie picked up and moved to Colorado to live with and marry Ben Duke, an old friend. Ben and Annie were in love but were struggling to get by so she put her old card playing skills back into play and started playing at local poker rooms, in order to help pay her mortgage.

At this time, her older brother, Howard Lederer was seriously playing poker and making a strong name for himself, so she would contact Howard and pick his brain about every aspect of the game. Eventually Howard talked Annie into really testing her skills and got her to enter a World Series of Poker event. Annie finished in 13 th position and began to enter more professional tournaments in Las Vegas. When she discovered that she was making a lot of money, Ben and Annie packed up and moved to Las Vegas where Annie could play in more professional poker competitions.

This was a good move as today Annie is known as one of the top poker players on the circuit and has won a number of top tournaments. In fact, Annie holds the current title for the woman in poker to earn the most money in WSOP events. Included in her many wins was her first WSOP bracelet (for her win of a $2000 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo event in 2004) and most honorable, her first place, $2 million win in the WSOP Tournament of Champions event where Annie beat out a lot of very well known top poker players.

The mother of four is currently a consultant for Ultimate Bet Poker, where her poker expertise of the game is used to perfect the online poker room. She has also written an autobiography (which has just been released) titled, Annie Duke: How I raised, folded, bluffed, flirted, cursed and won millions at the World Series of Poker. Annie is also working on a project with NBC to develop a sitcom that is related to her own life. On top of all this, Annie took on the responsibility to tutor actor and poker lover Ben Affleck.

« Back to Poker Pro Profiles

© 2005 TexasHoldem-Info.com All Rights Reserved
Contact Us | Disclaimer