A woman in a man’s sport, Annie Duke refuses to play in poker tournaments for women only. She even said, “Poker is one of the few sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man, so I don’t understand why there’s a ladies only tournament.” Annie Duke is an attractive, athletic, hip and admired poker player. Annie Duke has been partly responsible for the surge of women’s interest in poker. She was popularly known in the WSOP tournament with $3,500,000 in tournament wins and coined as one of the two best women players alongside Jennifer Harman.

Annie Duke grows in New Hampshire with his family who were all fond of playing card games in their kitchen table. Her brother Howard Lederer went on to pursue a career as a professional chess and poker player. Duke on the other hand chose to follow her father’s academic lead and went to the University of Pennsylvania to study cognitive psychology. But in spite of her successful career – including a coveted National Science Foundation Fellowship, – when she was one month away from defending her PhD she dropped her studies, got married and moved to Montana.

In Montana she started playing poker to support her family financially while her brother coach her and insist that she play in the WSOP. She decided to join and she finished 13^th place on her first WSOP tournament. Later on she moved to Las Vegas together with her family to pursue professional poker playing in different casinos in Vegas.

Duke’s popularity goes beyond the poker table, she has appeared on several TV shows, including NBC’s “1 vs. 100” and “Deal or no Deal. In 2006, Annie won the World Series of Roshambo (Rock-Paper-Scissors) tournament, earning $10,000. A funny fact: a Jersey horse breeder named a filly after Annie Duke, hoping that she will grow to be as successful and competitive as her namesake.

Duke finished 10^th in the 2000 World Series of Poker main event carrying while eight months pregnant with her third child. She is a dedicated mother to her four children than just a known poker player, that’s why she is admired and respected by her co-players and fans.

Duke’s game analysis by her co-poker player Barry Greenstein

• Aggressiveness: 6

• Looseness: 3

• Short-handed: 6

• Limit: 7

• No-limit: 4

• Tournaments: 6

• Side games: 6

• Steam control: 6

• Against weak players: 7

• Against strong players: 5