Over the weekend, UB.com pro and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke became the first female winner ever of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will air next month on NBC. Duke sat down to discuss her monumental win.
Poker News Daily: Your breakthrough match came against 2007 National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Paul Wasicka, which featured you drawing out with A-10 against pocket aces and 8-5 against pocket jacks. Talk about the roller coaster of a match.
Annie Duke: I had Paul Wasicka ground down and then he doubled through me. We were about even in chips and then I was slightly behind before I won with A-10 against aces. I sucked out and made a Broadway straight and he was crippled. I was horrified when I won that hand. It was an epically long battle. He said that whichever way this goes, we could both sleep well. He was so gracious and it was an amazing match.
PND: In a Guest Column on Poker News Daily, you lamented that neither Erik Seidel nor you had much success in the invite-only tournament. How surreal was it to be playing against each other for the title?
Annie Duke: That was storybook. After I won my match against Wasicka and Erik won his match, we talked on the phone. I realized how close we were to playing each other in the finals. What an incredible feeling to know that you’re in the finals and whatever the result was, you’d be very happy. He said that this was the happiest he’s ever been coming in second and I’d have felt the same way. It was a very relaxing feeling and not the same as in the other matches. Erik Seidel might have the best poker mind out there.
PND: You drew 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon in the second round. How is Moon’s game?
Annie Duke: Darvin Moon was really nice. He’s just a good guy and he was talking about how happy he was to be there and how he’s living the dream. It was really pleasant to play with him. He knows that he doesn’t have the game of a player like Huck Seed. I was happy to draw him, of course, but he wasn’t a pushover.
PND: You’re a former WSOP Tournament of Champions winner and have also captured a bracelet. Where does this rank among your various poker accomplishments?
Annie Duke: This is second to the Tournament of Champions. I’ve always ranked the Tournament of Champions above the bracelet and I would put this above the bracelet as well. It’s the timing. Given that I had just taken five months off, the timing was big. I feel like I’m standing with some pretty cool winners of this event, so I am pretty happy. I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with Huck Seed, Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, Chris Ferguson, and Paul Wasicka. To have gotten to play Erik in the final was a really memorable experience.
In the Tournament of Champions, I was three-handed with my brother and Phil Hellmuth. Now, being able to play with one of my best friends and be among those winners is incredible. I think I needed the win and have been really focused since I got back into poker. I had a nice run at the L.A. Poker Classic leading up to this.
PND: In the L.A. Poker Classic High-Roller event, you were seated alongside Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. Tell us about his poker skill set.
Annie Duke: Playing heads-up against him helped me in the event I won. He’s very good at leveraging the chip stacks of his opponents. He’s good at changing up his play and I watched what he was doing. I learned a lot from my match with him.
