Annie Duke Poker
Since the collapse of several ventures that she was a part of, Annie Duke – former poker professional, winner of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and face of the former Ultimate Bet – has stayed far away from the poker tables. She first reinvented herself as a business consultant who worked in the area of decision making. Now, it appears that Duke is moving into a different arena – political consultant.
Article Promotes Duke’s “Probability” Theory
Editor in Chief Andy Serwer of Yahoo! Finance interviewed Duke for his Influencers with Andy Serwer podcast, talking about a recently penned new book from Duke called How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices. In the interview, Duke analyzes how the campaign of the Democrat in the race, former Vice President Joe Biden, made critical decisions as to their approach to the 2020 Presidential battle. Duke points out in the interview that, unlike the 2016 campaign, the Biden campaign thought that indicators from 2016 would play in the same manner in 2020 and planned accordingly.
“Biden was pulling very far ahead in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan,” Duke stated. “Yet, when you look at his ad spending, that’s where most of the spending was because…they were taking into account that there could possibly be a polling error again.”
Annie Duke Pens New Poker Book, Still Faces Criticism Over The Epic Poker League. Epic Poker Statement Shows More Than $7.8M in Liabilities. Poker champion Annie Duke gives us her top five signs that someone is bluffing.
According to Duke and Serwer, the analysis of the Biden campaign was correct. While the polls on Election Day gave Biden a huge margin (8.4 percentage point lead in Wisconsin, 4.7 in Pennsylvania), the finishing margin was vastly closer. In the end, Biden won Wisconsin by .6 percentage points and Pennsylvania by 1.2 points.
Duke credits the Biden campaign for not putting faith in what she calls “resulting,” or looking at the result to determine the success of a strategy. The Biden campaign, with the knowledge of what happened in 2016, was able to plan for that and not be focused on what the polls said was going to happen. Instead of pulling money and campaigning from those states, Biden continued to pound the state with visits and ad money spent working for the votes.
“Resulting” a Familiar Duke Theme
The “resulting” theme is a familiar one from Duke’s prior works. Even her poker books emphasized making the correct decision over what the eventual outcome brought. In one of her first business books, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, laid tremendously on this concentration on the process rather than the endgame. Duke attributes much of her observations on this field from her poker background and has stated that it impacts other areas such as investing and business.
Duke’s life in poker, despite being somewhat successful, has been a rollercoaster, however. While she owns a World Series of Poker bracelet and that victory in the NHUPC and the WSOP Tournament of Champions back in 2004 (where she tortured Phil Hellmuth for a $2 million victory), Duke endorsed Ultimate Bet in the online community. Although she left the site well before the “Black Friday” shutdowns, she still catches scorn (unlike Hellmuth) for the shutdown of the site and its treatment of players.
Duke also was a part of the Epic Poker League situation in 2011. Duke was named the first (and only) Commissioner of the poker tournament circuit, which failed within the first year of operation. The EPL was a great concept, an invitation-only poker tour built around the usage of a ranking system (the Global Poker Index) to determine eligibility to play, but it came up short in raising money to conduct the tournament schedule and folded after three of the first four events. Despite not being shown to be one of the “decision makers” of the EPL, much of the blame for its demise (and the resulting millions of dollars the group owed to creditors) was placed on Duke’s shoulders.
After the EPL failure, Duke withdrew from the poker world and reestablished herself in the business and literary worlds as a consultant and author. Now, it appears, she’s ready to take on the world of politics, which may be more cutthroat than poker ever was!
Although it’s been over seven years since her last tournament cash, and despite being persona non grata in the poker world, Annie Duke has managed to keep her name in the headlines.
Duke, who now calls herself a business consultant, speaker, and author, recently appeared on CNBC.com to promote her latest book. It wasn’t a rare media appearance for the WSOP bracelet winner, who has somehow stayed relevant since she fled the poker scene with mainstream outlets such as Forbes, NPR, Reuters, Slate, and others all offering publicity with little-to-no mention of her ties to major scandals at the now-defunct UltimateBet and Epic Poker League.
The appearances don’t sit well with many in the poker community, who were left robbed of money in both cases. Duke’s EPL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection nearly six years ago and was millions in debt when they went under. The league was forced to cancel a pair of tournaments, including a promised $1 million freeroll for the league’s top performers in the inaugural season. Executives, including Duke, with the EPL’s parent company Federated Sports and Gaming were paid hefty six-figure sums despite the financial troubles of the league.
Where Is Annie Duke
Duke also faced criticism for her work with Ultimate Bet, a poker site that closed in the aftermath of Black Friday. Many former customers of the site are still waiting to get their money back. UB was under heavy fire years earlier thanks to a cheating scheme involving so-called “super users.” The scandal featured UB founder and 1994 WSOP main event champion Russ Hamilton, who admitted to swindling other players out of about $16-$18 million from 2003-2007 using a “god mode” cheat in the software that allowed him to see other players’ hole cards.
Duke denied any involvement in the scheme, but that didn’t stop players from voicing their displeasure with her when she tried to come back to the WSOP in 2012. Top pro and bracelet winner Jason Dewitt was quoted telling Duke that “she is a disgrace to the poker community” while at her table, and in the years since, she hasn’t been around the game.
Annie Duke Daniel Negreanu Feud
The piece from CNBC’s Dan Schawbel draws comparisons between poker and investing, describes Duke as a “world renowned poker player,” and credits her tournament wins, but many of today’s players just want to her to stop speaking on behalf of the poker world.
Really setting a low bar for journalism. A little due dilligence goes a far ways. How about delete this article praising a scam artist and instead give a platform to someone like CrownUpGuy?.
— Ryan Laplante (@Protentialmn) February 7, 2018
The poker community despises Annie Duke for her endorsement of multiple products that cheated their customers. Surely there is a better representative of the poker community to interview.
— Oliver Gill (@capitao85) February 7, 2018
A minimal amount of research would have revealed to you how terrible of a choice it was for you to give her a platform. Annie and her brother scammed the poker community for millions of dollars and are widely considered scum. There is really a low bar for journalism these days eh?
— Kevin MacPhee (@KevinMacphee) February 7, 2018
You should hold it against him. Do some basic research before featuring someone for your shit. Who the hell considers her a world poker champ
— Joseph Cheong (@subiime) February 7, 2018
Sigh.. I wish Dan and Cnbc had looked more into the background of a person who was heavily involved and endorsed Ultimate Bet and Epic poker (both failed businesses that cheated their customers). So many honorable poker players- no need to pick scammy Duke https://t.co/oKVmu2bexC
Annie Duke Poker Book
— Ari Engel (@AriEngelPoker) February 7, 2018
‘Once a world renowned poker player and now, arguably the biggest disgrace the game has ever seen, Annie Duke…’
Here. I Fixed your opening line of your article. Let me know when you want to interview a decent human being next time. I know people. You’re welcome. https://t.co/3YfB9aUT9W
— Danielle Andersen (@dmoongirl) February 7, 2018
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To her credit, Duke has stated that she is retired from poker. But that begs the question, why do mainstream media outlets continue to give her time in the spotlight while glossing over her messy exit from the game? One would assume that by now she would have exhausted her celebrity capital from being on a reality show like “The Apprentice.”
When asked about her departure from poker, Duke stayed cryptic, “I moved forward, I had to let that go, which was challenging.”