Annie Duke is a nice exception to the rule of poker, the game for men. The tiny woman called the Duchess of Poker always surprised fans with her persistence and confidence while beating men at the poker table

Annie Duke admits she might never become poker guru if father let her win

Annie Duke is a respected authority in poker circles. Her books regarding poker strategy are best-sellers. The most popular TV companies are inviting Annie for shows with the largest audiencess. The GamblingGates.com is pleased to publish Annie’s interview conducted by Luminomagazine.com.

After graduating from Columbia University in the heart of New York, Duke in her early 20s was not ready for the real world. Annie did what any other lost graduate would do – she went back to school selecting the University of Pennsylvania.

When graduation arrived again, Duke was lost again. But this time she went to Montana and purchased a small shack. With a mortgage payment more than $125 a month, Duke needed a job quickly. She had an extensive education, but her drive had not yet been established. That was until she found a legal poker game that she knew she couldn't master without the help of her brother, Howard Lederer, one of the top players in the country. After a phone conversation with her Lederer, Duke convinced him to send her some cash and some books on the game. He took her under his wing and taught her the game – and also gave her $2,400 to get started.

"There was no one better that I could have learned the game from," Annie says. "After my first week of playing I won $2,800. The minute I sat down at a poker table, I was like, man this is the life. This is great. I was making money at it, so I just kept chugging along. I wasn't really thinking I would be a poker player, but then I found myself playing in the World Series in 1994."

"I would have never become a poker player if my brother wasn't already doing it. I wouldn't have been aware that you could do this as a profession 'cause it wasn't on TV. There was no publicity. I just kind of fell into it."

"I was playing cards with my family from the second I was old enough to hold a card, so this game came pretty naturally to me once I learned the basics. I have always been good at playing cards because my Dad would never let us win. That made me very competitive from a very young age and helped me develop math skills and how to read people.”

"As a woman, there is literally no way I would be doing this if a) my brother hadn't been doing it, and b) I had happened to have math skills, and c) I had a family that encouraged and nurtured competitiveness, which isn't really pushed in society. So, I just happened to have an upbringing that gave me the ability to be good at poker and I had the fate that my brother was able to teach me how to play."

"Women come up to me and tell me how inspirational I am to them. And not as just a poker player, but as a woman, too. What's so great about that for me is that I have spent most of the early part of my poker career taking a lot of abuse. I was playing in smoky bars with all these old men. In the large sense I wasn't particularly welcomed there. And a lot of nasty sexual-driven charges were made to me on top of the fact that poker is very stressful and these guys are losing a lot of money."

"So, when they would look around the table they aren't going to let their stress out on the big guy in the corner, it's going to be me. I took a lot of abuse and was the brunt of a lot of anger. It was sexual harassment, but I love the game so much, and am such a competitive person, and I happen to have very thick skin that in order to play the game that I love, I was willing to endure it. The first women who entered the boardroom took the same sort of abuse I have taken, and it was them who paved the way for me," Duke says. "And I have been fueled by them to help other women."

"In some sports, it's tough to break in because of physical differences, but what's beautiful about poker is that there are no physical differences needed to play. And women are just as smart, if not smarter than men, so it gives us room to break into the game. There isn't a ton of abuse any more, but it is definitely still the case that when someone is feeling stressed out at the table, I am going to still get the brunt of it."

"When I passed the ladies event at the World Series, I got some heat for that," Duke explains. "People were telling me that I was insulting women for not playing in that. What are you talking about? I am the one taking the feminist stance. I'm the one saying we don't deserve to be segregated. I'm the one saying screw that, I can enter an open event and win a bracelet and I don't have to be grouped with the women. Women should not be segregated. I want to show these women that they should be playing in the open event because we are just as good, if not better."

Annie says about poker passion: "It's really cool for people like me and my brother who have been doing this for a really long time and doing it because we love poker and it's an incredible game and very intellectually stimulating and financially rewarding if you are good at it. And we have been doing this because it's our job. And to have people tell you how awesome you are for what you do is so cool."