Anne LaBarr Duke is an American former professional poker player and author in cognitive-behavioral decision science and decision education.
39 Facts About Annie Duke
2.
Annie Duke holds a World Series of Poker gold bracelet from 2004 and used to be the leading money winner among women in WSOP history, and is still in the top five as of April 2023, despite being retired from poker, last cashing at a tournament 2010.
3.
Annie Duke won the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in 2010.
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Annie Duke has written a number of instructional books for poker players, including Decide to Play Great Poker and The Middle Zone, and she published her autobiography, How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker, in 2005.
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Annie Duke authored two books on decision-making, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts, and How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices.
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Annie Duke co-founded the non-profit Ante Up for Africa with actor Don Cheadle in 2007 to benefit charities working in African nations, and has raised money for other charities and non-profits through playing in and hosting charitable poker tournaments.
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Annie Duke has been involved in advocacy on a number of poker-related issues including advocating for the legality of online gambling and for players' rights to control their own image.
8.
Annie Duke was co-founder, executive vice president, and commissioner of the Epic Poker League from 2011 to 2012.
9.
Annie Duke's parents were both card players and Duke became interested in cards from an early age.
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Annie Duke's father is Jewish, while her mother was a gentile.
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Duke attended St Paul's School, While still attending St Paul's, Annie worked her first job at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
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Annie Duke enrolled at Columbia University, joining the first co-ed class in its 230-year history, and pursued a double major in English and psychology.
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Annie Duke first played Texas hold'em at age 22 in a casino and continued to play for fun in Las Vegas casinos while visiting her brother, Howard Lederer, during her graduate school years.
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In 1992 after Annie Duke moved to Billings her brother encouraged her to play poker professionally, sending her $2,400 and providing her with poker instruction books and lessons by phone.
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Annie Duke began to play poker initially at the Crystal Lounge, a local bar in Billings that had a legal poker room.
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Annie Duke received a WSOP gold bracelet in 2004, placing first out of 234 entrants in an Omaha Hi-Lo Split tournament.
17.
In 2010, Annie Duke won the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship; she outlasted a field of 64 players, including eliminating previous winner Huck Seed, and defeating Erik Seidel in the final match.
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Annie Duke won $500,000 and became the first and only female winner of the event, which ended in 2013.
19.
From 2001 to 2004, Annie Duke worked as a spokesperson and consultant for ieLogic, a company that developed online poker software for multiplayer poker websites including Ultimate Bet.
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Annie Duke moved to Portland, Oregon where ieLogic was based in 2002 and remained there until 2005.
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Annie Duke represented Ultimate Bet as a spokesperson until December 2010, when she announced that she was leaving the company.
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On two occasions, Annie Duke has testified in Congress on behalf of the Poker Players Alliance regarding the legality of Internet gambling.
23.
In 2013, audio recordings released by Travis Makar proved that Annie Duke knew about the so-called God Mode but did not use it to swindle players as it was on a time delay.
24.
Annie Duke has opposed and avoided playing at the WSOP Ladies Event, arguing that having a separate WSOP bracelet event for women suggests that there is a difference in intellect between men and women.
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Annie Duke has supported women in poker through coaching women players at the LIPS Tour, instructing at several women-only World Series of Poker Academy events, and giving the keynote speech at the 2011 Women in Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
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Annie Duke has served on the World Series of Poker Player Advisory Council and has taught at the WSOP Poker Academy poker school.
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Annie Duke has coached a number of celebrities on how to play poker, including Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, whom she coached to win the 2004 California State Poker Championship.
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Annie Duke was a co-founder and commissioner of the Epic Poker League, which sponsored three tournaments at the Palms Casino Resort in 2011.
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In 2022 Annie Duke released "Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away".
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In 2009, Annie Duke entered the reality television show Celebrity Apprentice to raise money for Refugees International.
31.
Annie Duke finished as a runner up to Joan Rivers and raised more than $700,000 for her chosen charity, over half of the total amount raised by contestants on the show.
32.
Annie Duke has played in and hosted charitable poker tournaments for organizations including Life Rolls On, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Boston Children's Hospital, for which she helped to raise $500,000 in 2007 and $425,000 in 2012.
33.
Annie Duke played in a charity poker tournament organized by the Poker Players Alliance in July 2009 to benefit the United Service Organizations and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and hosted a poker tournament in May 2010 to raise money for After-School All-Stars, a non-profit supporting after-school programs for children from low income families.
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From 2007, Annie Duke served as a member of the board of directors for the Decision Education Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Palo Alto, California which provides training for teachers and mentors to produce curricula focused on decision-making skills for their students.
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In 2014, Annie Duke founded How I Decide, a nonprofit to help young people develop the essential life skills of critical thinking and decision making.
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Annie Duke performed for storytelling organization The Moth, and in January 2013, she was a featured storyteller on the Unchained Tour, a storytelling tour across the Southern United States.
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Annie Duke has appeared on a number of television shows, including being the first poker personality to appear on The Colbert Report on January 30,2006, and finishing in second place in the 2009 season of Celebrity Apprentice.
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Annie Duke reappeared for the "last man standing" game finishing in the final 5.
39.
In 2007, Annie Duke appeared on the premiere episode of the classic poker TV show Poker After Dark on NBC.