Over the past decade, Annie Duke has become one of the world’s best known poker players through her $4,270,549 in live tournament winnings, representation of UB Poker, and lofty position within the Epic Poker League. The latter two aspects of her career have put Duke in a very unfavorable standing with the poker community because A) UB burned a lot of people when it went defunct along with player deposits, and B) the Epic Poker League has been a financial disaster – leaving lots of debt in its wake.
Taking all of this into account, many people have loathed Duke’s appearance at the 2012 WSOP and even think that she should be banned. So it’s no surprise that her showing up to the world’s biggest poker event has created a flurry of activity.
Jason Dewitt goes off on Annie Duke
One poker pro who didn’t hold back with his opinions of Duke was Jason Dewitt. The 2010 WSOP $5,000 NLHE bracelet winner apparently confronted her just after she busted out of a tournament at his table. Dewitt tweeted about the scene with the following:
12k 75/150 blinds. Annie gets moved to my table. She gets run over and busts with A7 vs AJ. I told her to go fu*k herself when she busted.
And that she’s a disgrace to the poker community. She looked surprised and said ‘thank you’ then walked out.
Other Pros weigh in on Duke
Dewitt’s profane words towards Duke must have sent her off looking for Rio staff members in hopes that they’d do something about the incident. The reason we know this is because a couple of other poker pros were tweeting about the matter, while making fun of Duke in the process. Mickey Petersen tweeted this message:
lol at @AnnieDuke complaining bc someone cursed at her, you are delusional. You are a disgrace to the poker community, please just stay away
Julio Rodriguez also commented on this incident by tweeting:
Annie Duke in the hall complaining to TD because someone cursed her out at the table. She’s asking about a penalty, but it’s been ~90 mins.
Daniel Negreanu takes the High Road
If there’s anybody who’d be disgusted with Duke’s participation in the 2012 WSOP, Daniel Negreanu would be the prime suspect. After all, Negreanu has a long-running feud with the former UB Poker rep that dates back to accusations her of being extremely condescending and rude.
In any case, the Canadian was rather reserved in his criticism of Duke by saying, “She sucks so that’s good for the game but I don’t have any problem with Annie Duke playing the WSOP.” He added, “The WSOP is a private entity so they have the right to ban anyone for whatever reason they want. But personally, I would never ban anyone from the WSOP unless they were cheating.” Maybe saying that Duke “sucks” at poker is a little harsh, but Negreanu’s comments are lighter than what Dewitt and others had to say.