She’s a mother, a mother of four to be exact. She also graduated from Columbia University with not one degree, but two, in English and Psychology. Somewhere along the way Annie Duke has also found time to win over one million dollars on the poker tournament circuit.

Her older brother, the famous poker player, Howard Lederer, introduced Duke to poker while she was still attending school, but she didn’t catch the bug until after she graduated. In the early 90’s Lederer invited little sis to a big no limit Texas Hold’em tournament, and it’s there where Annie Duke fell in love with the game. Lederer then began to first teach his sister the basic rules of the game, and later the more intricate parts of the game, the same parts that would allow Duke to beat the best players in the world, including her brother on occasion.

Annie Duke, born in Concord, New Hampshire, moved to Montana after her initial poker lessons from her big bro. After tearing up the local scene, her brother suggested she enter some events at the World Series of Poker. In her very first event she placed 13th, and in her second tournament of that WSOP she placed third. At that point Lederer and her husband Ben Duke agreed that Annie may have a future in the game, so they moved to Las Vegas.

After having mixed results in tournaments for about five years, her first huge break came at the 2000 main event of the WSOP when she finished in 10th place, the best finish for a woman up until that point. What made that achievement especially unique is that she was eight months pregnant at the time.

The tenth place finish seemed to be the turning point in her tournament poker career. Since then she has routinely made final tables at many of the most renowned tournaments around the world. In 2004 she finished first place in both the Five-Star World Poker Classic and Omaha Hi/Lo tournament at the WSOP. With those achievements she became the first woman to place first in two major tournaments in the same year. These tournaments were also only one month apart.

In her most recent tournament, at the WSOP main event of this year, she finished 88th out of 8000, which was good enough to earn her over $54,000. To date she has won upwards of over three million dollars in tournament play and an estimated three times that playing the highest stakes cash games in Vegas.

If you’re feeling lucky you can head to Ultimatebet.com and challenge Duke in a high stake heads up game. Duke also gives free seminars to players who are apart of the site. You can also find more information about Duke at her website, AnnieDuke.com.

When Annie Duke retires from poker she hopes to be a college professor, but it seems she still has a lot of schooling to do at the poker tables.