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Annie Duke -
Duchess of Poker
Poker enthusiasts watching ring games at the Bellagio may occasionally be lucky
enough to spot Annie Duke, one of the best and certainly one of the most famous
poker players in the country. Attractive, intelligent and fiercely competitive,
Duke started playing competitive poker in local card rooms in Billings Montana.
She moved with her then husband to Las Vegas in 1994 in order to pursue her
dream of entering the professional poker circuit.
Success did not come quickly for Duke, who was 29 when she arrived in Las Vegas.
However, she continued to hone her skills, and in the 2000 World Series of Poker
$10,000 main event, Duke advanced to tenth place while eight months pregnant
with her third child. In 1999, and again in 2003, Duke earned second in the WSOP
Limit Hold’em, second in the Omaha High Low at the Bellagio Five-Star World
Poker Classic and sixth in the Omaha High Low at the 2003 WSOP. Duke won her
first World Series of Poker bracelet in the 2004 $2,000 Omaha High-Low event.
Finally, in 2004, Annie Duke defeated nine other champion poker players in the
WSOP Invitational Championship and received the $2 million winner-take-all
prize. As of 2005, Duke was the leading money winner among women in WSOP
history, with tournament winnings in excess of $3,100,000. Annie Duke
signed up with UltimateBetPoker in
2003 and was one of the original Poker Pros to sign up with an online poker
room.
Also in 2004, Annie Duke tutored actor Ben Afflick, who subsequently won the
$10,000 California State Poker Championship No Limit Hold’em tournament and the
$356,000 first prize.
Poker fans who want to know more about Annie Duke can read her autobiography,
“Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at
the World Series of Poker”. A second book by Duke’s sister Katy Lederer, entitled “Poker
Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers”, tells the story of Duke’s interesting and
colorful family, and sheds further light on the origin of Duke’s skills as a
world class poker player. If you are interested in taking on Annie, check
out
UltimateBetPoker.com today and see if you can handle it.
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