Nobody Thought Annie Duke Would Become a Poker Pro
What Annie Duke wanted to become when she was still a student was to be like her father, Richard Lederer, a linguist, author and teacher. Although she has a brother, Howard Lederer, who plays poker professionally, nobody ever thought that she would someday be a female professional poker player.
Born on September 13, 1965 in Concord, New Hampshire, Annie Duke graduated at the Columbia University with a double degree, one in Psychology and another in English. Because she was doing well academically, she was granted a National Science Foundation Fellowship that gave her the opportunity to study psycholinguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. She only had a few months to finish graduate school but still opted to discontinue her studies in 1992. She was already married to Ben Duke at that time. During that time too, she was frequently visiting her brother in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her visits exposed her to the game of poker until she became skillful in playing it. Such exposure to poker became her eye-opener as she became determined that becoming a poker player was the profession that she wanted to pursue.
And so in 1992, Annie Duke and Ben moved to Billings, Montana to make her dream of becoming a female professional poker player come true. It was her brother who trained her and financed her plays when she was still starting out. Eventually, in 1994, she decided to relocate to Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband to make a full-time career in poker. Her husband had always been supportive of her decisions. Unfortunately, the two had to divorce in 2004.
Annie Duke placed tenth in the main event of the World Series of Poker in 2000. It was her very first claim to fame as she was eight months pregnant when she participated in such event.
This female professional poker player also had several achievements in 2004. She joined the World Series of Poker wherein she was able to successfully eliminate her brother from four different events. In the same tournament, Annie Duke won first place in an Omaha Hi-Lo event, which earned her her first World Series of Poker bracelet. In this tournament, she was actually one of the three female professional poker players who won bracelets. The other two female professional poker players were Cyndy Violette and Kathy Liebert.
It was also in 2004 when this female professional poker player became the poker tutor of Hollywood actor Ben Affleck. Annie Duke seemed to be such an effective tutor because Affleck emerged victorious in the California State Poker Championship.
According to Annie Duke, her secret to becoming successful in the poker world is that she does not let her play affect her emotions. Being emotionally unattached and treating each play as plain business help her relax when she's in front of her opponents.
Now, this female professional poker player does three things best: she plays poker professionally, she teaches poker, and she writes articles and books about poker.