Annie Duke (born September 13, 1965 in Concord, New Hampshire) is a professional poker player and sister of poker pro Howard Lederer.

Contents

1 Academia 2 Poker pro 3 Other ventures 4 External links

Academia

Duke came from an academic background. Her father, Richard Lederer, was a writer and linguist who taught at Saint Paul's Prep School in New Hampshire. She went to Columbia University where she double majored in english and psychology.

Duke was awarded a NSF Fellowship to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania to study cognitive psychology, specifically psycholinguistics. Her intention was to become a professor but she left school in 1992, after five years of graduate school and one month before defending her Ph.D. work. She left academia to pursue family life with her husband, Ben Duke, and moved to Billings, Montana.

Poker pro

Duke began playing poker in local card rooms while living in Montana. In 1994, she and her husband moved to Las Vegas in support of her decision to start playing poker full time. Prior to 2004, her main claim to poker fame was her 10th place finish in the 2000 World Series of Poker main event (one position short of the final table) while nine months pregnant with her third child.

In early 2004, Duke received considerable publicity because she tutored actor Ben Affleck in poker, who went on to win the 2004 California State Poker Championship. Most recently, in September 2004 Duke won $2 million in the inaugural World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, a 10-player, winner-take-all invitational event.

Today Duke is regarded as one of the most famous female poker players, along with Kathy Liebert and Jennifer Harman. As of 2004, Duke has won one World Series of Poker bracelet and more than $2.8 million in tournament play.

Other ventures

Duke has been a spokesperson for UltimateBet (http://www.ultimatebet.com) since 2000 and has written many articles for them, mainly on Omaha hold'em. She has several nicknames including "Annie Legend", "The Duke", and "The Duchess of Poker". Her sister, Katy Lederer, wrote a book about the Lederer family, titled Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers.

In 2003 she moved to Portland, Oregon to work for ieLogic, a company that produces software for online real time casino gaming. Although ieLogic has since moved to Canada, she still resides in Portland with her husband and four children.

External links

• Official site (http://www.annieduke.com/)
• Poker Babes profile (http://www.poker-babes.com/bio/annie-duke/)
• Hendon Mob tournament results (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=74)
• Columbia College Article about Duke from July 2004 (http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/jul04/features4.php)