Poker Room Review
Recently Annie Duke, professional poker player and self-described mom, girlfriend, health nut, humanitarian and all around good decision maker, ended a lengthy affiliation with the online poker site UB.com.
Commenting on her website, she had this to offer regarding the split, “It’s bittersweet, but I’ve decided to leave UB. I have nothing but positive things to say about UB and my experiences with the brand, management team, and dedicated employees who work hard every day to deliver a terrific online poker experience for players like you. I’ve sincerely enjoyed wearing the UB patch, but it’s time.”
Duke, who left UB at the same time as Phil Hellmuth, said she would not be seeking sponsorship at another poker site, although it is very likelyHellmuth will do so.
Annie Duke has always been independent, growing up in Concord, New Hampshire, part of a family that readily embraced cards and competition. Her parents were highly educated academics and she grew up on the grounds of St. Paul’s prep school, in what she has called “ a sea of conservatism and privilege.” Her brother, poker player and one of the founders of Full Tilt Poker, Howard Lederer, was her ally and chief competitor.
She attended Columbia University, picking up double degrees in English and Psychology, then moved on to graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania with the intention of following in her parent’s footsteps in a career as a teacher. Instead, she proposed to Ben Duke, a longtime friend, and the two headed west, ending up inn Billings, MT, where Duke began playing poker to pay the bills.
Her brother initially helped finance her poker playing, acting as a coach and mentor. In 1994, he suggested she check out the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Vegas. She entered the Main Event and ended up in finishing in 13thplace in what was her first WSOP experience, and even managed to knock out brother Howard, holding A-A versus his A-K. Excited about her poker career prospects, she moved to Vegas full time and prospered, becoming the well-known poker tutor to Ben Affleck.
Duke steadily progressed as a player, and eventually became a record holder for the most cashes at the WSOP by a woman player, with 38. She also won a bracelet n 2004, outlasting 234 players in the WSOP $2000 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo Split. That same summer, she won $2 million in the No-Limit Texas Hold’em winner-take-all, invitation-only WSOP Tournament of Champions. That had been the most money ever won in a single event by a woman, and that feat held until outdone by Annette Obrestad in the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.
In 2005, she wrote an autobiography entitled, Annie Duke: How I raised, folded, bluffed, flirted, cursed and won millions at the World Series of Poker. She has also made a series of DVD’s called Annie Duke’s Advanced Texas Hold’em Secrets, How to Beat the Big Boys, Annie Duke’s Beginner’s Guide To Texas Hold ‘em, and Annie Duke’s Girl’s Guide To Texas Hold ‘em.
She also is known for her appearance on the TV show Celebrity Apprentice where she went head to head with Joan Rivers.
