Annie Duke becomes a star as television popularizes poker

By Robert K. Elder
Chicago Tribune
January 24, 2005


CHICAGO -- Two years ago, few people could pick poker champion Annie Duke out of a crowd.

Today, the ruby-haired mother can't go through an airport without getting stopped. At a recent promotional poker event in Chicago, two young women showed up in homemade T-shirts that read "W.W.A.D.D?," or "What Would Annie Duke Do?"

"I can't walk through a casino anymore," Duke says. "It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen."

It's amazing, but poker's success has been much like the game itself -- coldly and calmly calculated, worked for angles and advantages. In the past two years, poker has evolved from a backroom game to a big-money media property as cable's Travel Channel, ESPN, Fox Sports and GSN push their various televised tournaments.

Endorsements, sponsorships

For players, this means more opportunities for play, endorsements and profitable sponsorships. Positioning themselves for media exposure, players are adopting nicknames, eyewear fashions, gimmicks -- anything to distinguish themselves from the crowd. For 2004 World Series of Poker champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, it's 3-D, lizard-eye sunglasses and a fossil card protector. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson throws playing cards at high velocities, cutting through bananas and various objects.

Phil "Unabomber" Laak wears sunglasses and a hood.

"Three years ago, people really couldn't have cared less about poker," says Steve Lipscomb, creator and producer of the World Poker Tour. "Two of the six players sitting at the first World Poker Tour final table in 2002 were embarrassed to tell their families."

But that's changed, says James McManus, author of the poker history "Positively Fifth Street."

"Now that poker has become so amazingly lucrative, especially since 2003, many, many players have been groomed or are grooming themselves for prime time," McManus says. "There's a sense that the sponsor money is about to flow in."

For Duke, it has already started to flow. Her face adorns the cover of "Tournament Poker 2005," a video game by Plainfield's Donohoe Digital and Eagle Games. She is managed by Brian Balsbaugh, a former golf agent who has built a stable of high-profile card players. She also is represented by the heavy-hitting agency International Creative Management.

There's a book coming out next year with her name on the spine, and Duke is developing both a movie and television sitcom based on her life (the latter through Lisa Kudrow's production company and NBC).

Although she became poker's highest-earning female moneymaker of all time in 2004 -- capping her achievement with a win at ESPN's Tournament of Champions and capturing a World Series of Poker bracelet -- Duke says her success isn't solely based on her card sense.

"I'm the right story at the right time," Duke says.

Part of that story is legacy. She's sister to poker champion Howard Lederer and author Katy Lederer, who chronicled the family card obsession in "Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers." Her double degrees in English and psychology from Columbia University further her perception as an Ivy League player. In person, she's looser than her TV poker persona, pleasantly unpolished, and at times, downright salty.

"I happen to have great results, which helps," Duke says. "Not to say that I want to downgrade my poker skills . . . but my poker skill is so unimportant to my success in the media."

Sure, looks count

Here, Duke doesn't mince words: "The better you look, the more money you're going to make when you're talking about being a media personality."

"She's very entertaining, very energetic, very articulate. Animated, for sure. She's what's the camera is looking for, and a great player too," says Linda Johnson, former editor of CardPlayer magazine and a longtime player.

Not only has the success of TV poker sparked changes in its players, it also has changed the game itself.

"People are much less likely to fold now," Duke says. "You have to make adjustments because people are harder to bluff."

There's more of an urge to pull an upset win because it makes for better television, Lipscomb says.

But does better TV does necessarily better poker?

"My answer to you would be, 'Who cares?' " Lipscomb says.