Annie Duke is one of those professional poker players to change this male dominated game showing other females that they too can become successful through playing poker. She was born into a poker loving family on September 13, 1965 in Concord, New Hampshire. Annie is brother of two time World Series of Poker (WSOP) winner, Howard Lederer. Both of her parents were teachers.
The family’s success at poker and gambling has led to the publication of a book by one of Annie’s siblings. The book entitled ‘Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers’ was written by Annie’s sister, Katy Lederer.
Annie attended St. Paul’s prep school. She later attended Columbia University and graduated with a degree in English and Psychology. She then went on to do graduate studies in Cognitive Psychology at University of Pennsylvania.
While she was preparing for her doctorate Annie sought to change the events of her personal life when she married long time friend Ben Duke. Shortly after the marriage she moved to Montana to live with her new husband.
The harsh financial situations of the new couple pushed to Annie try her luck in the poker rooms. One of her objectives at that time was to earn enough money to pay the mortgage on their home. With encouraged from her poker playing brother, Howard, she began to spend a considerable amount of time playing the game. He encouraged her to compete in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in 1994. She gained 13th place in the tournament with her brother being one of her victims.
After competing in the series Annie earned a grand total of $70,000. Feeling satisfied that she could continue playing poker on a professional level she and her husband moved to Las Vegas. She continued playing successfully for the next 10 years and won her first Full Tilt WSOP bracelet in 2004. During that tournament she came out victorious from among a group of 234 competitors in the $2,000 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo split. In that same year she won $2 million in the No-Limit Texas Hold’em winner-take-all invitation-only WSOP champions’ tournament.
By now Annie had proved to the world that as a woman she could stand her own in poker. Commenting on her achievements she said, “Poker is one of the only sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man.” So determined is Annie to show her prowess that when she was eight months pregnant she entered a tournament and almost survived the 2000 main event final table.
She participated in the first WSOP Europe Championship in 2007 and was placed 21st position. Much of Annie’s life is still centered around poker. She has produced several works with poker being the central theme. Her autobiography ‘Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed and Won Millions at The World Series of Poker’ was published in 2005. In that same year she also created a number of DVDs that showcased her life as a professional poker player.