Annie Duke

Hi Annie!
My name is Samantha. I am a remarried mother of three. (ages 2,11,13)I have been playing hold ‘em for about 10 months now. I live 30 minutes from Chicago, in a small town. I play in a tournament every week with about 50 guys. I have done pretty good making it to the [...]

Dear Annie,
Thank you so much for the phone lesson on Feb. 5th. I really appreciate the time you spent talking to me. I learned a lot, but more than anything, I felt so confident and motivated after the lesson. I tried your recommendation of going to $5 sit-n-goes and playing like a total maniac. At [...]

SSCallery is the button.
Precards: Rounder63 posts the small blind $25, onesilygrl posts the big blind $50.
Preflop: onesilygrl is dealt Kd Jc (9 active)6 folds, SSCallery raises to $150, Rounder63 calls $125, onesilygrl calls $100.
Flop: Qc 3c Td ($450, 3 active)Rounder63 checks, onesilygrl bets $250, SSCallery folds, Rounder63 calls $250.
Turn: Qc 3c Td 9d ($950, 2 [...]

I am in my 30’s and haved loved and learned poker since I was very young, before it became so popular. I live in Ohio away from all the big tournaments. How do you realistically start pro when you have a family and career? I’ve wanted this for so long and have gotten very good. [...]

In the general scheme of things in no limit hold ‘em, how much of an indication of skill is the ability to get off a very big starting hand? For example folding QQ or AK suited before the flop in the face of an all in re-raise.  Both times I encountered this situation, once with QQ vs AA and [...]

I just played my first Limit Tournament at the Pendleton Roundup and finished just 4 off the money. What strategy hints can you give for Limit tournaments? I think I’ve found my niche, and I think the drawing hands are more important than the high pair starters. Would you agree with that?
Limit tournaments are my [...]

Dear Annie:
I’ve always been curious about this.  Lets say I flop a flush draw. I of course have 9 outs to catch it.  The advice from your brother was to multiply 9 by 4 to get a pct. of roughly 36 to get it.  But is that assuming that all 9 cards that you [...]

Dear Annie:
I am an avid poker player that has to curtail my desires to play brick and mortar games by playing online, The casinos are too far away and having 4 kids makes it difficult to take the ’short’ vacations I would like to Las Vegas.
With the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act [...]

Hi Annie,
Two quick OHL questions for you—
1) Is there any decent software for this game? I know you can play it online at a couple of sites, but what about poker programs you can simply load onto your machine without having to go on the Internet, etc.?
2) Would you say OHL is the most complex [...]

Hi Annie,
Im sure your life is swamped, but I would appreciate any advice you may be able to offer. 
I have one question. What would you recommend a poker player do if they find themselves losing a lot of tournaments with hands that are favored around 80/20. I have had people tell me, don’t call [...]