Meet Annie Duke: Ivy League graduate (Columbia University), single mom, marathon runner, practicing vegan, Yoga fanatic—and, no bluff, one of the world’s premier poker players. Annie, who grew up in a card-playing family and has been playing poker professionally since 1994, competes with and beats the best in top tournaments—and has made millions to show for it. All the while, she’s a hands-on mom to her four children, three of whom she gave birth to in her own home. Plus, she’s writing her second and third books and is involved in several charitable organizations including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ante Up for Africa and the Decision Education Foundation.

Annie spoke to Working Mother about her kids, her passions and how most poker players are just geeks.

You’re currently at a poker tournament. What’s the atmosphere like and how’s it going so far? I’m at the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event, a $10,000 buy-in. The atmosphere in any tournament is intense, but there is also a lot of camaraderie. The intensity comes from playing for millions of dollars. The camaraderie comes from the fact that we have all chosen this same path and we respect each other for our choices.

What are your strategies for balancing family and work while you’re on the road? I only travel when my ex-husband has the kids, so that makes the balance part easy. It’s a great treat that the tournament I’m in right now is located in Los Angeles, where I live.

How many hours a week do you play poker? I don’t play that many hours a week because I have been really focusing on tournaments lately. When I am in a tournament (they last between one and six days), I am playing eight to 12 hours each day. But when there is no tournament I can completely focus on my family. I play only about one tournament a month so that’s not so much time.

Tell us about your children. How old are they? Any funny moments you’d like to share? Maud is 15, Leo is 12, Lucy is 9 and Nelly is 8. There are way too many funny moments to share, but what I can tell you is that having four kids makes you realize that children are all born with their own personalities. Maud is an intellectual; she taught herself Japanese when she was only 11 because she was so interested in anime and manga. She is now basically fluent and is traveling to Japan this summer for two weeks. Leo is a football fanatic and plans to be a defensive coordinator when he grows up. Lucy is a singer; she has a beautiful voice, and that is definitely her passion. Nelly is my sporty kid who’s also a great mathematician and an artist. Personality-wise, I don’t think you’d be able to identify them as being from the same family. I find that hilarious. I told someone the other day that when you have so many kids, you realize your only job—really—is to get them to be polite. Other than that you have very little influence. I think accepting that is important so you can allow your kids to grow to be who they want to become and who they are meant to be. Just make sure they say please and thank you along the way!

What are your hobbies and interests? How do you spend your free time? My interests are mainly in the nonprofit world. I spend most of my non-poker time working with Decision Education Foundation (decisioneducation.org) and Ante Up for Africa (anteupforafrica.org). I founded the latter with Don Cheadle and Norman Epstein, and we put on poker events to raise money for Sudan. We founded the organization a little over three years ago and have raised more than $4 million for the cause. I’m also on the board of Decision Education Foundation. Our mission there is to spread good decision-making and critical-thinking skills to students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. We develop decision-making curricula to integrate into schools. Aside from that, we do lots of movies around here. I am also a cook and an avid reader, lately mostly about food. I am gaga for Michael Pollan’s work right now.

How do you respond to critics who judge your career choice? I didn’t know there were any—aside from Joan Rivers! [Rivers edged her out to win Celebrity Apprentice last year.] I think poker is mainstream enough that I would hope people understand that it’s not gambling. It is a skill-based game. I know there are people who group it in general with the vices and think poker players must be a bunch of criminals, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Most great poker players are actually incredible geeks—like me. Back in the 1960s, a woman who chose to work at all was criticized as a bad mother. She could have been a lawyer or doctor and she would still get looked at sideways. So I figure we’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go in terms of acceptance of some nontraditional career choices. The reality of my life, though, is that because my job is not “9 to 5,” I get the luxury of spending a tremendous amount of time with my children that other career choices would not have afforded me. Who could criticize that?  

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