Annie, The Conqueror

When poker queen Annie Duke matched wits with the late Joan 'Big Mouth' Rivers on Donald Trump's 'Celebrity Apprentice' television show in 2009, there was no question on who got my vote. Both were raising money for their favorite charities, with billionaire trump having the power to decide who would win the big prize. Rivers won -- she was a pal of Trump's -- but Annie won my admiration for her high style in front of millions of TV viewers.

Annie's name came up recently during a bounty poker tournament at Indigo Sky Casino just outside Seneca, OK., 13 miles south of Joplin, MO. We were on a 15-minute break and someone brought up the question of who would be the first woman to win the male-dominated World Series of Poker.

When the question got around to me, I said, 'Annie Duke. Or someone like her.'

Just like Billy Casper had the most perfect swing on the Professional Golfers Assn. circuit and Ted Williams was said to have the perfect swing in major league baseball, Annie Duke is the perfect poker player.

While there are probably hundreds of reasons for her perfection, I shall mention just a few. Annie is brilliant -- her high grades and PH.d at Columbia University attest to that. She is fearless when it comes to pushing chips, whether the move is based on a nut hand or a stone cold bluff. And she has a killer instinct as she proved when she went after the formidable Rivers and even beat her own brother Howard Lederer in a $2 million winner-take-all televised poker event called the Tournament of Champions. She did it with charm, class and by being totally female.

I lived in Las Vegas for two years, leaving for the Caribbean just before the famous under-the-poker-table camera was invented -- the one that turned Texas Hold'em into a household term -- and I never had the fortune of meeting Annie.

We traveled in the same circles and I should have met her. I was writing for several gambling publications and played in many tournaments at most of the action poker spots in Las Vegas -- Binion's Horseshoe, The New Orleans, the Riviera and others. But the fates decided not to let it happen.

Annie was born Annie LaBarr Lederer in Concord, NH. half a century ago. Her father was a writer and linguist who taught English Literature at St. Pauls School.

She was an honors student in high school and enrolled at Columbia University where she graduated with a double major in English and psychology.

Following graduation, she pursued a PH.d in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. For her graduate studies, she received a National Science Foundation Fellowship.

With all her brain power, her brother Howard thought she should try poker. He was doing well at the poker tables in Las Vegas and on a whim staked her $2,400, saying, 'Sis, you can make it as a pro.'

Annie took the money, played some winning poker in Billings, MT. and traveled to Las Vegas where she entered several poker tournaments and won $70,000 in her first month.

The poker champ went on a tear, finishing in the money at the World Series of Poker 16 times before the year 2000. In 2004 she won her first WSOP bracelet in an Omaha High-Low, eight or better tournament. that same ear, Annie was the top female money winner in WSOP history, pocketing over $650,000.

Just before 2004 ended, she joined nine other poker champions, including her brother, in a televised Tournament of Champions and shocked the poker world by beating all of them.

There is a lot more about Annie Duke I can tell you. She is the mother of three daughters and a son. She coached actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck on how to play poker in a couple of movies about gambling. And how she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity by hosting charity poker tournaments and other events.

Following in the footsteps of her father, the writer, she has published three books -- 'Decide To Play Great Poker,' 'The Middle Zone' and her very readable autobiography, 'How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed and Won Millions at the WSOP.'

In 2007, along with actor Don Cheadle, she founded a non-profit organization called 'Ante Up For Africa to raise funds for missionaries who are doing good works in the Dark Continent. She is also a strong proponent of legalizing on-line gambling and has testified before legislative committees in Washington D.C.

In closing this piece, I am fully aware of the problems Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer have experienced over the past couple of years. Some of the issues have been resolved and others are still pending.

But if anyone was to ask me to name the person I think could be the first woman to win the WSOP, I would without hesitation name Annie Duke. She is the true conqueror.

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter. If you have a unique gambling story to share with him, you may qualify for a cash award. Send your story with all the details to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).