Annie Duke

Annie Duke was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her four children. She's also pro Howard Lederer's sister. She won a World Series of Poker bracelet as well as the WSOP Tournament of Champions in 2004, making her the top woman money winner in the WSOP.

In 2009, she shifted gears and became a contestant on "Celebrity Apprentice," where she finished second to Joan Rivers.
In 2010, she won the NBC heads-up poker tournament, beating Erik Seidel in the final round to become the first woman to capture this heads-up tournament title.

Annie was completing a masters in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania when her brother, Howard "the Professor" Lederer invited her out to Las Vegas. After he taught her the basic rules, she began playing -- and winning -- and soon dropped out of school to go pro.

2010 NBC Heads-up Poker Poker Championship Winner
2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
2004 World Series of Poker $ 2,000 Buy-inOmaha Hi-Lo Split Event
2004 World Poker Tour $ 2,500 Limit Hold'em Event

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

"I’ve skipped championship events because they happen to fall on a Christmas pageant show that I wanted to go to. The first year that the Bellagio ran a championship event in December, it fell on the same day as my son’s Christmas show at school and so I just didn’t enter the championship event. Another time, there was a huge game going on in Las Vegas that was going on that I skipped because it was my daughter’s birthday. It cost me about $500,000."

--From The Badass Girl's Guide to Poker

Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed And Won Millions at the World Series of Poker