Can you believe they’ve even got a Wii game?
The brother/sister act of Howard Lederer and Annie Duke is one of the most famous in poker. Lederer has been around poker for a long time, and he taught his sister to play a few years ago. They both have had success, with each winning millions of dollar individually in their careers.
If the two had to play each other you would have to give the edge to Lederer. He taught Annie all she knows, and his experience is far more extensive than hers. Anything could happen in a poker game, but I think Lederer would win more if they played numerous times.
Annie Duke can be pushed around if she suffers a beat or two, and tends to play like scared money late in games. Annie has a history of knocking out her brother in tournaments, but Howard may not have that killer instinct against his little sister that he normally does.
Most professional poker players spend the lion’s share of their playing time in live games. The big-name tournament players are famous because of the television coverage of their live play. Lots of these players play online, but it’s not like the live tournament scene. Most celebrity poker players are sponsored by an online poker site. They wear the site’s logo in live events and play on the site for periodic promotions or whenever they want to.
Full Tilt Poker has professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowan, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen and Allen Cunningham on their team.
PokerStars has Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Rouso, and Humberto Brenes.
UltimateBet sponsors professionals Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Jim Worth, Devin Porter and Annie Duke.
Well it’s all over at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and a poker prodigy has had her coming-out party in London. Eighteen-year-old Scandinavian online poker prodigy Annette Obrestad stunned the world when she outlasted the world’s best players to win a million pounds ($2,013,102). She also broke two WSOP female tournament records held by Annie Duke; one for the most money ever won in an event by a female, and the other for the most WSOP winnings by a female.
The tournament was dominated by Europeans and most of the final table was from over there. No big-name players made the final table, but the “Great Dane” Gus Hansen went out in the No. 10 position, just before the last two tables formed the final one. He managed to take home over 41,000 pounds for his efforts. Both Annie Duke and Eric Lindgren made it into the top 25 for a good payday of over 30,000 pounds.
Annie Duke’s poker career got started in 1994 when her brother, Howard Lederer, tutored and funded her game. She first got noticed when she finished 10th in the 2000 WSOP main event, notably while eight months pregnant. But the year that put her on the map was 2004, when Duke finally won her first WSOP bracelet in an Omaha Hi/Low event. She followed that up with a $2,000,000 win at the WSOP Tournament of Champions in September; all that after she got a ton of publicity for training Ben Affleck to his 2004 California State Poker Championship.
Duke has won over $3 million in tournament play with 45 WSOP cashes, and is 49th on the all time WSOP money list. She also earns a good living playing high stakes limit hold’em around Vegas.
Duke is a highly intelligent woman who is not afraid to speak her opinion. She sets the example for other female players by showing that women can compete with men at an equal level, and purposely boycotts female-only events to emphasize her point. Speaking out for player rights is also important to her, and she is involved in many organizations that work towards improving the treatment of professional and amateur players alike.
She has also used her fame to cash in on the instructional poker market. She has worked with her brother on a line of video poker games, and her biography is titled “Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at The World Series of Poker.”
Duke has made numerous television appearances from talk shows to commentary duties on poker shows. She recently showed her intelligence by having an amazing run of correct answers on the game show “1 vs. 100”. She correctly answered 35 questions before she finally missed one.
She has been on the scene for long time and will no doubt be around for a while yet. I fully expect her to win many more bracelets and continue to make her mark as one of the best players in the world.
