I Love Annie Duke

There, I've said it and I'm glad I said it.
In fact, I'll say it again.
I am totally in love with Annie Duke.

I'll be expecting the restraining order to be delivered to my door any minute now.

Seriously, though, not only is she a beautiful, strong and independent minded woman, she is also a genius.

At the poker tables, she's earned World Series of Poker championship bracelets in Omaha/8, a game that I'm afraid to even attempt to play because I can't quite figure out what a good starting hand is, and Texas Hold'em, at the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions where she outlasted a field that included Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and her brother, Howard Lederer.

Speaking of Howard, apparently Annie comes from a pretty smart family. In addition to "The Professor," theres's her sister, author and poet Katy Lederer, and her father, Richard Lederer, who has written dozens of books on language. Annie has even co-written her own book with David Diamond: Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker.

She is also smart enough to have nearly gotten her PhD in psycholiguistics, or the study of how the human brain aquires language (huh???), a field so esoteric that most people have never even heard of it. She did, however, abandoned her quest for an advanced degree at the last moment to become a full time poker pro. (Get the book; the story's all there.)

The latest evidence of her mental prowess is that, as a member of The Mob, she has survived through three episodes of the game show 1 vs 100, answering thirty-three questions correctly and outlasting at least four contestants and a couple of hundred fellow Mob-sters. While 1 vs. 100 is pre-empted by the inferior Identity tonight, Annie's streak will, hopefully, continue when the game returns for a special episode on Christmas night.