Annie Duke, Telling It Like It Is

By Kelli Griggs

When opportunity knocks, trust me, I open the door and invite it in—especially when it’s the opportunity to peek into the life of a seasoned pro and true champion!

I recently had the good fortune to get a one-on-one coaching session with poker phenomenon, Annie Duke.   Annie is one of poker’s all time best players, and the highest grossing female with the most cashes in the World Series of Poker. In addition to cashing in thirty-nine events to date, Annie captured first place and the coveted gold bracelet in the 2004 WSOP $2,000 Buy-in Omaha Hi-Lo Split event by outlasting 234 players. She’s a solid competitor!

Great life coaches will tell you, find someone who has accomplished what you want to achieve and find out how they did it before charting your own course! This was my chance.  I tossed my stuff in a suitcase and flew to Los Angeles where I met Annie in a trendy little Thai restaurant on the Sunset Strip. A regular to this establishment, Annie greeted fellow guests and introduced me around. It’s easy to be captivated by her effervescent personality.

After dinner we headed back to her house in the Hollywood Hills. She graciously gave me a tour of her 1920s era home and then we headed to the living room to get down to business. As we kicked off our shoes and snuggled into the sofa with her dogs, something in the corner of the room caught my eye. There it was!  Sitting on a modest bookshelf was Annie’s WSOP championship bracelet—a sparkling reminder of all her hard work and success in this highly competitive and stressful world of poker. I was struck by its significance and reminded, again, that Annie is a great champion who has proven her worth on the world’s stage. The gold bracelet is validation of her unique skills and her remarkable ability to take on all comers—male or female—and come out on top. That little bracelet means that Annie’s name will go down in poker history as one of the World’s best of the best.   I had come to this meeting with abundant confidence, but as I walked into Annie’s world and listened to her story, I started to realize how difficult the path to victory can be.  And that Success does come at a price. 

Annie opened up and freely shared some of the many challenges she has had to overcome being a woman and mother in this business. She’s endured comments that verge on slander posted on Internet blog sites by some big name competitors. These blatant attacks on her character, her appearance, and her ability to work and still be a good parent were cruel and unfair, but she has held her head high and ignored them. I could tell by the change in her voice, however, that it was very difficult for her. Like most working moms, Annie’s most important job is being a good parent.  Her motivation to continue to improve as a poker player comes from her desire to be a good role model for her four children. She generously and openly shared the keys to her success in this business and warned me not to make the same mistakes she has made along the way. 

Annie’s “tell it like it is” views on playing the game changed the course of my poker destiny that night. She didn’t sugar-coat the facts regarding how brutal the game can be, and she cut through the crap and got right to the point. I listened intently to Annie’s words of wisdom about making it big in poker, how difficult it is, what you must become to be the best.

She demystified odds and implied odds and when to use them when making decisions.  At times, when she could sense that I wasn’t getting something, she would deliberately call me on it. “Are you getting it?” she’d ask me. “Do you understand?”  It was as if she was injecting me with a bit of her poker knowledge. She encouraged me to embrace my competitive nature and develop my skills as a player. I’ll carry one of Annie’s gems of wisdom with me always: “There’s no shame in going out on a bluff.” Those are words to live by.

I felt empowered when I left Annie’s house and I made an impressive showing at my very next tournament.  Can my current success be attributed to my intensive one-on-one training with a poker legend? Did Annie’s power poker training session make a difference in my playing? Yes, absolutely, you bet it did, Annie took my game to the next level!  Annie has taken only a few students under her wing in the course of her career and all of them have gone on to win major events. I expect to be one more.

Annie has done more good for women in poker than some people realize. She is a pioneer who set a precedent for the rest of us because she refused to be treated any differently than a man. Women have been given respect in a game dominated by men because of women like Annie. I respect how hard she has worked for her success and I am inspired by her accomplishments.

Recently, I caught up with Annie as she was preparing to teach at the World Series of Poker Academy Ladies Only Event at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas on June 8 and 9, 2007, on the eve of the WSOP World Championship Ladies Night No Limit Hold’em Event.  Here’s what she had to say:

KG:  Annie, you hold the record number of cashes by a female player at the WSOP. Tell me why our readers should attend the WSOPA Ladies Only training and how it will help with their game?

AD: “Whether you’re serious about poker or just play recreationally, the game is more fun the more you know about it. Unlike, say, a game like tic-tac-toe that becomes boring once everyone knows how to play and how to win, the complexities of poker reveal themselves to you as you continue to play. As you learn new strategies it gets more interesting. For example, I know what I have, but what does my opponent think I have? How does my opponent think I’ll react to the cards I have and so on.  New players should be gobbling up everything available to help them improve their game and their strategy. When I started out, there just wasn’t that much available. Fortunately, I had my brother (Howard Lederer) to instruct me along the way. The WSOP Academy gives people one-on-one access to the best players in the world without any censoring, which is exactly how I learned from my brother. Nothing can replace one-on-one training where you get your questions answered on the spot.”

KG: Annie, why are you teaching poker now, at this point in your career?

AD: “This game has given me so much pleasure and success in life that I feel strongly about giving knowledge back. I believe in sharing all that I know. When I teach, I’m not just giving some of what I know and holding back the rest. Sharing everything that I have learned is good for the advancement of the game and good for my soul.”

KG: You’ve been quoted several times on the subject of Ladies Only events,  but would you like to comment here?

AD: “Poker is one of the only sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man, so I don't understand why there's a ladies only tournament.”

“I do believe in Ladies Only Events overall, as they are a great way to get women interested in the game in a non-intimidating environment.  What I don't believe is that ladies only events should be CHAMPIONSHIP events.  That is insulting to women...as if the only way for a woman to win a bracelet is by only competing against other women.  Women can meet the men just fine, and several women have proved that over the years by winning bracelets in open events.”

KG:  Can you elaborate?

AD: “Okay, last year female players represented 270 out of the field of 8800. That same percentage of female players has been consistent through the years, despite the huge boom in poker. We should be seeing more women. There is no reason for women to be scared of this game; no one gets tackled! The women who are playing at the professional level are very, very good players; I would love to see more women get in the game so they can express their competitive and intellectual sides. This is a level playing field.”

KG: What advantages do you believe women have in the game?

AD:  “One main advantage is that men, or a certain sub-set of men, are chauvinistic. Poker is very testosterone-driven and some men will instantly stereotype you as a female player. When someone comes to a game with stereotypes, you can—and should—use it against them. The mere fact that you are a woman is your stereotype. They prejudge the way you are most likely to play. You can use a man’s stereotyping to your advantage.”

KG: What disadvantages do you believe women have in the game?

 AD:  “There is a lot of social pressure about what women are supposed to be in our society. Women aren’t encouraged to be mathematical or competitive in this country. This is changing slowly, but most women are still encouraged to go in directions such as liberal arts. In business, if a man is incredibly competitive, he is simply considered a good businessman. But, a woman who is super competitive is considered bitchy. Over the last 20 to 25 years, this attitude has changed in business because women changed, but I don’t think it’s changed yet in poker. So few women seriously compete in poker that many people still think a woman who’s taking someone’s chips is not a good ‘care taker.’ Hey, just because I take your chips at a poker table doesn’t mean I’m a bad parent! That feeling of ‘wanting to win’ is discouraged in women and I think that’s too bad. That has to change.”

KG: What is the biggest mistake that you see women make at the table?

AD: “They tend to be much too passive. They tend to play too few hands, which is a better mistake, perhaps, than playing too many.”

KG: Annie, tell us about Joe Navarro and how you met him.

AD:  “I met Joe Navarro while appearing on the Discovery Channel’s hit show More Than Human.  Joe, a retired FBI investigator, and I basically performed on equal terms on the show. And both of us performed better than a polygraph machine in reading people! Those two days really changed the way I think about playing the players. I hadn’t realized that I was unconsciously applying profile techniques to read people. After talking for several days, Joe and I discovered that there is a lot of similarity between what he does and what I do. Joe started getting interested in poker and started teaching his knowledge base to poker players. I’m really looking forward to seeing Joe at the Academy. Trust me, once you’ve learned how to read people from Joe Navarro, your husband and kids will never be able to lie to you again!”

 

Thank you, Annie, for your contribution to the education of female players and, personally, for what you’ve done to improve my game! We appreciate your time and look forward to seeing you at the World Series of Poker Academy - Ladies Only Event.