Annie Duke, Poker, and The Apprentice I’m going to let you in on a little secret: For the past couple of months, I’ve been
glued to my TV on Sunday night watching The Celebrity Apprentice. And the reason was a simple one: to see how poker pro Annie Duke fared against the other celebs, in a fake competition to get a fake job, from a guy with fake hair. And while I started watching to see how Annie did, I ended up watching to see just how badly poker players were going to be maligned on each episode by Joan Rivers. Let me also say that I DON’T know Joan Rivers. But, having been involved in television in the past, I understand that good editors can make you look anyway they want. It’s their job. So to base my entire assessment of Joan Rivers on her appearance on the Celebrity Apprentice would be unfair. Almost as unfair as what Trump and his crew did to Annie Duke. So here’s the premise: A bunch of celebrities are pitted against one another doing various tasks to try to avoid being “fired” by The Donald. This particular field included Dennis Rodman, Clint Black, Brande Roderick, Tom Green, Natalie Gulbis (YAY! &ndash sorry…that was a personal observation…please carry on), Herschel Walker, Jesses James, and the Rivers clan – Joan and daughter Melissa. And poker pro Annie Duke. It would be easy and fair to say that Annie was almost certainly the contestant with the least amount of celebrity. As well known as she is inside the poker world, she’s equally unknown outside of it. Just before the Celebrity Apprentice began airing, I had a chance to speak with Annie. She had some interesting things to say. She felt that her understanding of reading people, and of games theory, gave her a huge edge on the rest of the celebs, who just weren’t in her league when it came to playing games. And, while she was bound by a non-disclosure agreement with NBC, she gave some indication that she did pretty well on the show. So, with that information in mind, I watched the show with some interest. And, Annie appeared to be exactly right: she outplayed EVERYONE from the moment the show started. Including the Rivers. And somehow, because of some perceived slight, where Joan Rivers felt that Annie said something that she didn’t back up, Joan lost her mind.
Joan Rivers launched a personal attack on Annie that was almost beyond belief. She called Annie every name in the book, including saying that she was worse than Hitler. What was even more unbelievable was the slander she fired at poker players in general.