Miss Holdem

My kind of girl

Watch out men, here comes a poker woman who is not contented to being the best woman poker player. What she wants is to be the best poker player, among women and men. She's considered to be the best all around woman poker player by Phil Helmuth, and her name is Annie Duke.

Annie Duke is popular to those who really are addicted to poker and tournaments, online poker and celebrity poker. She writes articles on poker in the internet, giving tips to beginners. She also had won in the World Series of Poker. Annie Duke is also a member of ultimatebet.com, an online poker room in which you may have the chance to play with her. She's also popular in celebrity poker, having taught Ben Affleck what he needs to win the $10,000 California State Poker Championship No Limit Hold'em tournament, held in Commerce Casino. Because of his skills and Annie Duke's help, Ben Affleck won $356,000 out of that tournament, and became one of the best celebrity poker players.

Being a sister to the equally famous poker player Howard Lederer, she was taught by her brother the basics of poker. After that, everything else, she has worked for herself. She worked her way up by playing in small time poker games at first, then slowly creeping up to the big tournaments. Also, her degree in psychology might have helped her win many of those games, because we all know that poker is indeed a psychological game.

Greater than her dream of winning in most of her poker games, she wants to tell the world that being a good poker player does not come from gender, but from the person himself or herself. That's why she seldom accepts tournament where she's placed in women's division. When she was invited to the First World Poker Tour Ladies Night Invitational, she accepted but she lost. Many people suspected that she was not really in focus in that game because she must have wanted to play with both men and women poker players.

Aside from the respect and the prestige attached to her name, Annie Duke has also managed to win bags and bags of money. One of her countless winnings is the 2 million dollars cash prize at the September 2004 ESPN World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions.

So whoever said that poker is just for men should rethink his thoughts. It's high time people must accept that all is fair in love, in war, and in poker.