Woman Takes Unlikely Road to Poker Fame

Annie Duke is one of the unlikeliest of poker professionals -- an Ivy League-educated single mother of four who came close to earning her Ph.D in psychology.

But ever since Duke took her unusual career path, life has been even more surprising. These days, people regularly stop her and ask for her autograph.

One of the reasons for Duke's popularity is her recent victory at ESPN's Tournament of Champions, an invitation-only competition among some of the top poker players in the world.

Poker today is big-time reality TV, thanks to programming like ESPN's World Series and the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour. (ESPN and ABC News share the same parent, the Walt Disney Co.) Tiny cameras revolutionized the sport, giving audiences at home a peek at the players' cards as they place their bets and play their hands.

There are a host of poker TV shows. Celebrities have gotten the bug. There is even a new ESPN poker drama called "Tilt."

Duke is all the more special because she is a woman in a game typically dominated by men. She was the only woman at the table in the Tournament of Champions.

Advantages and Disadvantages

When Duke took her first steps into the world of competitive poker, she wasn't exactly treated like a lady. Men called her names like "the C-word," she told ABC News' Chris Cuomo.

She recalled one night when she was losing and a male opponent told her, "'Oh, don't be sad, honey. You can just go across the street up to the hotel and just stick your legs up in the air and make your money back.'"

The sexist take is that women are not as good as men when it comes to handling the numbers or head games that poker requires. But Duke says being a woman is a plus -- especially when dealing with a man who thinks women are stupid.

"You can bluff those guys so much more, because there's all these kinds of emotions wrapped up for men in the female race," she said.

And her education gives her a definite advantage. "In the long run in poker, it's all skill, because I'm going to win all the money if I make better decisions than my peers," she said. "It's all about manipulating the way that your players are going to act in the game."