Annie Duke is a strong competitor when it comes to tournament poker. She proves that women can hold their own in a game that is supposedly male-oriented. Phil Hellmuth once stated that Annie is the best all-around woman poker player in the world.
Annie was born in Concord, New Hampshire. She attended school at St. Paul and went on to Columbia where she double-majored in psychology and English. She then attended the University of Pennsylvania where she was in pursuit of a doctoral degree in psycholinguistics. She left the program to begin to play poker. Her brother Howard Lederer taught her how to play and she hasn't looked back since.
She won her first World Series of Poker bracelet in the 2004, a $2000 Omaha High-Low event. Some of her other accomplishments include winning the September 2004 ESPN World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions where a first prize of two million dollars was at stake. She also earned second in Limit Hold'em in 1999 and 2003 at the World Series of Poker, and second in the Omaha High Low at the Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic.
In 2010, she won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, earning a cash prize of $500,000 in addition to the title.
