An Interview With Annie Duke - Part I

By Justin West

Some professional poker players are quite easy to approach, others are quick to speak their mind, and even others use their prominent role within the realms of both poker and popular culture to make their voices heard. Annie Duke most certainly falls into all three categories.

After a professional career spanning 15 years, Annie has come to be known as one of the best female poker players in the world. However, when one considers that she has more than $1.5 Million in winnings and a World Series of Poker bracelet to her credit, one must simply consider her one of the best players, period, putting the "female" part aside.

During the 2007 World Series of Poker, Annie, along with celebrity Don Cheadle, helped organize a tournament called Ante Up For Africa. Ante Up raised hundreds of thousands of dollars with the sole purpose of helping to relieve those suffering from the humanitarian crisis currently going in in Darfur. With the event drawing a wealth of celebrities and the biggest names in poker, Ante Up cast a spotlight onto a situation that is in desperate need of it.

Following the 2007 WSOP, which featured a Gaming Life Expo officially dubbed "Girls, Games, and Gear," whether or not ladies-only events at the WSOP should go the way of the Dodo became a hot topic. Add into the mix the fact that the winner of the '07 Ladies Championship was given a Corum watch and a makeover in addition to her WSOP bracelet and prize money, and many people were crying "fowl!"

On this divisive issue Annie Duke's mind is made up, and she's not afraid to give her two cents. Care to know her thoughts? Well, I suppose you'll have to read on, won't you?

What follows is part one of a three-part interview with Annie Duke.

Justin: So, first I want to ask you about the Ante Up for Africa tournament you helped organize in Las Vegas at the 2007 World Series of Poker. How did it get started, and were you happy with the turnout?

Annie: You know, we were really very pleasantly surprised. Don Cheadle and I founded the charity in September with a friend of ours named Norman Epstein. We then got in touch with WSOP Commissioner, Jeffrey Pollack, and started meeting with him in October of '06. Immediately, he was on board, saying, "We want to give you as much support as possible!" The World Series of Poker was really into it.

Poker pro Annie Duke (left) actor Don Cheadle (right) congratulate co-winners Dan Shak (second left) and Brandon Moran after they donated a combined $385,000 in the Ante up for Africa Tournament. (Imagemasters Photography, Photo Courtesy of PokerCares.com)

Then, we started the process of working with the Nevada Gaming Commission. That can be a really, really slow process. Don and Norman and I just sort of naively thought it would be an easy thing, that we'd go to the control board and since it was for charity there would be no problems. It wasn't that easy. We started trying to get approval in November, and we got approval in May.

We were very worried, obviously, with the event scheduled for July 5th. We had only six weeks to get the word out that we were doing this, which in the PR world isn't a lot of lead time. So, we sort of felt that our goal was to raise $250,000. We thought that if we raised that amount it would be amazing, with only 6 weeks of lead time.

Justin: I was very surprised by the turnout to the event. Quite a few celebrities showed up!

Annie: Oh, we had the most amazing support from the poker community and from celebrities. We had Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Adam Sandler, Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Kevin James, Charles Barkley, Cheryl Hines, Jason Alexander, Shannon Elizabeth... who am I forgetting? It was an amazing group of celebrities.

And then, the poker community was so supportive. Chris Ferguson, my brother, Doyle Brunson, Robert Williamson, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Phil Laak. It was like every single big-named pro came out to support us.

Erik Seidel, who had promised to come out and support us, actually ended up being busy winning his 8th World Series of Poker bracelet on that day. I texted him after the tournament was over, saying, "I'm so happy for you!" We've been best friends for like 15 years. And his response back to me was, "Hey, sorry I dodged your event. I'll give you a $5,000 check tomorrow." That shows you what kind of a guy he is. Here's a guy that just grabbed his 8th bracelet, I write him in congratulations, and he's making sure I know that he's still going to donate $5,000 to the cause.

We ended up with almost 170 players in the event, which was incredible. So exciting. And the whole image of poker players as selfish or uncaring, I think we proved that that's not true. I think we proved that poker players can be incredibly giving people.

Justin: I remember that each person in the event signed a document promising to give at least half of their winnings to charity. Were you surprised with the number of people that went over that?

Annie: Oh, it was great! The majority of people who played that final table actually ended up donating 100% of their winnings, most notably Dan Shak and Brandon Moran, who shared first place and gave all their money away.

Think about what that money can do for Darfur! When I first started calling around to them back in the fall of 2006 to gauge interest, I was surprised by how many people asked me what Darfur was. That's not to make them look bad, it's a statement on how much attention Darfur gets in the media.. You don't watch MSNBC and see what's going on in Darfur, but you do get 24-hour coverage on which wig Britney Spears is wearing.

Without question, what's happening in Darfur is the first real humanitarian crisis and atrocity of the 21st century. It's something that really deserves attention. We thought if we could take some of the intensely bright light that's shining on poker players and the WSOP, and send it over to Darfur, we'd be doing our job. I feel like we did that.

Justin: Last year following the event I remember there being concerns over the prize pool among the media, as people had assumed Harrah's had taken a cut from the charity event.

Annie: There was a misunderstanding last year that I'd like to clear up. I have a lot of people come up to me and ask why Harrah's took a vig out of Ante Up For Africa. Actually, Harrah's did not take any fees out of the tournament. What they did do was take out the normal tip money.

The dealers were working really hard to put this tournament on for us and they certainly deserved to get tipped for it. I want to make sure that everyone understands that the only money taken out of the tournament was for that purpose..

Justin: Tell me your thoughts on the whether or not ladies only events at the WSOP should become a thing of the past.

Annie: I just had an argument in the player's committee about this, actually. All I do in there is talk about this. They're probably tired of hearing about it by now, honestly. Here's my issue...

Can we all agree that poker is a game in which you're putting your intellect against someone else's intellect? The reason they have ladies leagues in sports like soccer or tennis is because you're pitting body against body, and women are smaller and not as strong. We can agree on that, right? There's an important anatomical difference between men and women, so when you're talking about something that's physical you actually need to separate them.

Poker, however, is an exercise that is intellectual. The last time I checked, women are as smart as men are. So, why is there a ladies event? The mere fact that we have ladies only events suggests to me that people believe there is some fundamental difference in the minds of men and woman that causes a distinction to be made, as far as poker is concerned.

When you're making that kind of a distinction, it tends not to be favorable to the group that's being singled out.

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Annie's opinion on the matter is far from expressed in this article. She goes on in Part 2 to discuss some of the common arguments for ladies events, and precisely why they are incorrect.

Check out Part 2 on Thursday! For something to tide you over, check out this article written by former Poker Pages reporter, Jennifer Newell. Jennifer went into the WSOP last year with a decidedly different opinion than she emerged with, and she lays it all out for you in an article she titled, "Changing My Mind."

part I | part II | part III

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Justin West played poker since the age of 17, he spent more than a year earning a living on the green felt; a modest living, to be sure, but a living nonetheless. His aim was at one point to win the WSOP main event, thus causing Hell to freeze over. However, given his penchant for sin and his extreme dislike of cold weather, Justin has put that dream to rest.