Annie Duke - The Poker Winner Takes It All!

Annie Duke is a noted name in poker. Her prowess at the poker tables and the fact that she can outsmart the men at the game, including her own brother, makes her quite a unique species at the table. In 2006, she went on to win the second annual World Series of Rock Paper Scissors or the popularly called WSORPS. Thus she became part of the annual charity tournament. This tournament hosted by Phil Gordon is a major event at the World Series of Poker. As the winner, Annie Duke took away a free entry into the main event at the WSOP. Of course as the charity rules go, she willingly donated the proceeds to the Bad Beat on Cancer initiated by Gordon.

This is not all! Annie Duke's winnings have generated quite a strip in the supposedly man's poker world. Till 2008, Annie flaunts the record held by women for the maximum number of finishes in "in the money". This feat is unique to the WSOP and they have a unique record holder too! Going back four years, in September 2004, Annie Duke bagged $2,000,000 at the 10 player World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. This was accomplished at the winner-take-all event which was purely invitational. She not only became the only woman on record so far to have bagged the most money in a single event, but she also set a higher benchmark for her male colleagues.

As a female poker player, she only lost that credibility to Annette Obrestad three years later at the 2007 main event at the World Series of Poker Europe. Beyond these credits, Duke has in her kitty a World Series of Poker bracelet in the poker variant Omaha HiLo. She also flaunts a bankroll of more than three million dollars! Unique to her career and personal life, Annie Duke maintains till today that the game of poker gives women and men an equal footing and that both should compete on common tables. In fact, it is this stance of hers that makes her refuse playing in any women's only tournaments. She openly declares that the ‘ladies only tournaments' make no sense to her.

Annie Duke finished in the 88th place at the 2006 World Series of Poker, main event. This ranking was awarded to her out of a total of, hold your breath, 8,773 entrants! She took away $51,129 in winnings. In fact, it is interesting to note that Annie Duke was just one of the two women left at the tables until the time that she finally got eliminated. This she survived alongside the genius of Sabyl Cohen, a colleague who completed hr stance at the poker tournament tables in the 56th place and took away $123,699 at that time. Annie Duke today is credited with (as of 2009) a total live tournament winning amount of more than $3,600,000. Of these wins, she flaunts 37 WSOP cashes that account for $1,136,846 alone. This woman of substance has proved her mettle amidst the tough guys of poker!