Made for Poker
Card games were played only for entertainment in Annie's family. Her dad had a chip set. They used to play to make a family gathering. In fact, playing cards provided the opportunity to family members to get together. This resulted in her brother deciding to make a full-fledged career in poker and moved to New York to play poker on a professional level.
In the meantime, Annie went for her undergraduate work to Columbia University. There she double-majored in English and Psychology. In those days, she was confused as to what she actually wanted to do in life. She wanted to step into her father’s shoes and become a professor like him. Even though her brother persuaded her to actively play poker, all his efforts went down the drain. She was still thinking to follow the footsteps of her father while graduating school in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. To her credit, she even won the coveted National Science Foundation Fellowship.
Defining Moments in her Career
She learnt how to play Texas Hold'em from her brother Howard. After that she started frequenting Vegas as she had started loving the game more and more. Her love for the game made her leave teaching and research work, which she initially wanted to do and was actively involved in at the graduate school.
Eventually, in 1992, Annie arrived in Billings, Montana with her husband Ben and began her new life and poker career. To start with, she played only local games. In Billings, she was the only woman who used to play poker. She started making money right away.
Annie’s Big Wins
As had happened before, it was none other Annie’s brother who kindled her interest in professional poker where the bets were high and the competition was stiff. For the first time, Annie took part at the WSOP. Annie secured 13th place in her very first WSOP and ended up earning $48.000. Next year, she performed even better and climbed up to the third position.
Annie had now become passionate about poker. In the WSOP main event in 2000, she ended up being at the 10th place. All this she did when she was in her ninth month of pregnancy.
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