"The best all-round woman poker player in the world today" - said Phil Hellmuth about Annie Duke, about a woman that wasn't going to become a professional poker player. There was no sign that she would ever become one...
So predictable future In Annie's family card games were played only for entertainment: "My dad had a chip set, and we played a bit as a family. Cards were one of the only ways our family interacted". So there is no wonder that one of the family members decided to make his way in poker, but it wasn't Annie Duke. It was Howard Lederer. He moved to New York to play poker. Meanwhile, Annie went for the undergraduate work to Columbia University. You'll be surprised but she double-majored in English and Psychology. She wanted to become a professor like her father. Though "wanted" doesn't reflect the whole situation. In fact she didn't know what she wanted. Her brother tried to involve her in the poker game but in vain. He was still interested in following her father's example and graduating school in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She even had won National Science Foundation Fellowship. But don't think she was so busy with her studies that she couldn't visit her brother in Las Vegas...Viva Las Vegas! Howard taught her how to play Texas Hold'Em. Then she came to Vegas again... and again... and again... She began to love the game! This love made her leave teaching and research work in graduate school. Annie began her new life and poker career in Billings, Montana, where he moved with her husband Ben in 1992. At first she played only local games: "I was the only woman, and I started making money right away. Five days a week, I would get there in the afternoon and play a few hours. There was a 45-minute commute each way. I treated it like a job".Two years later... ...her famous brother invited her to take part at the WSOP. Howard knew Annie's poker potential better than Annie herself did. Her first WSOP brought 13th place and $48.000. The next year she moved to the third place. Poker became Annie's passion. Even nine months pregnancy didn't stop her in 2000, when she had got the 10th place in the WSOP main event. Annie's teaching talent was a good addition to her poker skills. Though it's not the only one factor of her success. She doesn't rely on her fortune: "I approach the game completely as a business. I don't let my emotions get in the way of how I play".Now she plays poker, teaches poker and writes about poker and women in poker. As for the later - Annie Duke is the first-ever woman who decided to devote her life to poker and made the best of it... at the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. She doesn't think that it's harder for women to play poker. Quite the contrary: "As a woman playing this great game of poker you have a distinct advantage over your male counterparts." Read more about her $2.000.000 victory at the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions here
