May / June 2006:

Poker Pro: Annie Duke
Sister of Howard Lederer and best-known female poker champion.

by Bradford R. Pilcher



One must imagine that Annie Duke had a competitive upbringing. The daughter of Richard Lederer, a well-known author and linguist, Duke was well on her way to a life in academia, but the idea of spending the rest of her life in a classroom didn't appeal to her. Instead she left school one month before she was to defend her Ph.D. dissertation and ended up in Montana, relatively poor and ready to settle into a life with husband Ben Duke.

It was her brother, Howard Lederer, that helped her pick up the poker bug. As children, they had played alongside sister Katy (author of a book on the family, Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers) as children, but post-grad school she would take up games in the legal cardrooms of Billings, Montana. By 1994, Duke and husband Ben had moved to Las Vegas so she could play full-time.

Mini-Profiles:

Learn more about these Jewish poker pros. They're just a few of the many. Annie Duke Howard Lederer David Sklansky Mel Judah Barry Greenstein Josh Arieh Mike "The Mouth" Matusow Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi Jack "Treetop" Straus

In 2000, Duke stepped out of her brothers large shadow (literally and metaphorically, he's a bear of a man) by finishing tenth in the 2000 World Series of Poker. The finish, which is partially chronicled in the well-known book Positively Fifth Street, left her one seat away from the final table while eight months pregnant with her third child.

She later gained further recognition as the poker tutor to actor Ben Affleck, coaching him to a win at the 2004 California State Poker Championship, and also for snagging the $2 million World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions innaugural title that same year.

With one WSOP bracelet to her name -- a win in the Omaha Hi-Lo variant of poker, a form she was relatively unfamiliar with before entering the championship -- she is often regarded as one of the best female players in the world. Notably, she refuses to play in womens-only events, of which there are many. Instead, the often emotional and sometimes controversial Duke, has made a name for herself in the male-dominated field.

Now divorced from Ben Duke, the mother of four lives in Los Angeles, California and her poker focus has spun off into a slew of endorsements, an autobiography, her own TV show and consulting work.


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