Annie Duke Wins $2 Million Freeroll Tournament

Poker is on television almost every night, and the networks are starting to make plenty of money from sponsor advertising. On Sept. 21, ESPN aired its Tournament of Champions. ESPN and Harrah's put up the $2 million prize pool and it was a winner-take-all format. Those who were invited to play were Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier, Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth, and Annie Duke. Duke, the mother of four children, ended up winning the largest freeroll tournament to date. Congratulations, Annie!

This monumental win shows that poker is not a game in which just men excel. Sex, race, and age do not come into play when you flip over the winning hand. One of the greatest things about poker is that you can sit down and play with anyone and have a shot of winning – if you have enough money to buy in.

I have heard a lot of talk from poker players that more people should have had the opportunity to play in this freeroll. After all, $2 million is a lot of cheese. The time will come when there will be million dollar freerolls with many more players included. They had to start somewhere, and what better way to do so than with some of the more marketable players in poker. So, keep winning, and someday you may have a shot at winning one of these monstrous prize pools without taking money out of your pocket.

This leads me to something that has been bothering me for a while. Some players who have made the television shows have been acting like fools because of the television cameras. Remember, you are poker players, not actors. Shouting, trash-talking, and pumping fists after winning small pots doesn't make you look too classy. Playing well, being tricky, and displaying good sportsmanship make good television, too.

On another note, in this and future issues of Card Player, we will run excerpts from Poker Aces. This book was written by Ron Rose, winner of the World Poker Tour's Battle of Champions. Poker Aces is a coffee-table book that contains profiles and photos of a lot of the tournament players, and it is produced very well. I saw lots of spectators using the book for autographs at the last last tournament. Read the section on Johnny Chan in this issue.