The Best Female Poker Player Ever

A biography of Annie Duke by Damian M. Moorman, Dayton2Vegas.com

Annie Duke is a professional poker player. She holds the record for most World Series of Poker cashes by a female and also has one gold bracelet. She is simply the best female poker player in the world.

Annie was born on September 13, 1965, in Concord, New Hampshire. She went to school at Columbia University, where she double majored in English and psychology.

Annie started playing poker professionally with the help and guidance of her older brother. Her brother is Howard Lederer, two-time WSOP bracelet-winner. Howard had already been a winning poker player when he mentored Annie to her own success. At Annie’s first tournament, she finished 13th and ironically knocked out her brother on the way to scoring a nice cash. She won over $65,000 in her first month of playing professionally, which led to her move to Las Vegas, NV.

Annie finished 10th place at the 2000 World Series of Poker Main Event. The amazing thing about this accomplishment is that she was eight months pregnant at the time! Annie won her first WSOP bracelet in Omaha Hi-Lo in 2004.

She also won the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, where she defeated Phil Hellmuth heads-up to win $2,000,000. At the time of her victory, Annie broke the record for the most money ever won in a single tournament by a female.

Annie, a sponsor of Ultimate Bet, has also received a lot of publicity for coaching Ben Affleck on how to play poker. Affleck credits her with his major tournament win at the 2004 California State Poker Championship.

Annie is still a big threat today at the poker table. In last year’s Main Event, Annie finished 88th out of 8,773 entrants! As of 2008, Annie has won more than 3.4 million dollars.

There is a good chance Annie is on television whenever poker is being covered. She is featured on many shows for her outgoing personality and expert analysis. In 2006, the Game Show Network (GSN) aired Annie Duke Takes on the World, a special which showed her playing against unknown poker players. Annie proved her vast knowledge in multiple fields as she set a record on the NBC show 1 vs. 100 when she answered 35 straight trivia questions.

When Annie’s not with her four children, she will most likely be around a poker table in someway or another. She will easily be remembered as one of the best female poker players of all-time. However, Annie would argue that she is one of the greats of the game. She often times skips the “women only” tournaments to play with the guys. Her record has proven that she is one of the top tournament players, male or female, in the game today.