Annie Duke Fires On Celebrity Apprentice
Written by Renee K | Thursday, March 5th, 2009
The poker fraternity will be watching this season of Celebrity Apprentice with interest because their representative, Annie Duke, is on the show. Annie is a gutsy and resourceful lady and will brook no nonsense from anyone. And if the first episode is anything to go by the show will be one big July the Fourth celebrations. The reason was that Annie was criticized by her team mates after she was instrumental in leading them to victory. For Annie this was not just on.
In an interview with Poker News Daily Annie takes readers through a blow by blow account of the fight. The two teams were given the task of designing, baking, and selling cupcakes so as to generate maximum revenue. The leader of the women’s team was Joan Rivers. She wanted to set up shop around Penn Station. Annie reminded her that a group last year had bombed by choosing this spot. This was round number one. Annie had done her homework. Trump had fired a team for choosing Penn Station because though the traffic was high it was not the kind that would shell out for cupcakes. Ultimately the women chose Playboy’s offices as their venue as suggested by Brande Roderick the Playboy model.
During the baking process Annie was seen throwing her weight around. And this was not liked by many of her teammates. But again Annie’s fundamentals were clear. She said that she was not aiming at being Miss Congeniality. It was Trump who fired whom he thought was the weakest link. Hence her objective was to make sure that not only is she noticed by Trump but also appreciated by him.
There was more friction during the selling process. Brande wanted to sell a large number of cupcakes to high rollers from Playboy. She even managed a $5,000 donation from Hugh Hefner. Annie on the other hand was for selling as few cupcakes as possible to large donors so that they could sell to more donors. Annie said, “Poker players are one of the most generous groups of individuals that you will ever meet.” She got many of her poker pro friends to buy a single cupcake for thousands of dollars. In the end it was this wisdom that led to the women’s team recording a resounding win.
When Trump asked the women who was the weakest on their team, the verdict was Annie Duke. But Trump disagreed. He said in defense of Annie, “Here’s a woman who has taken money away from men at poker tables her whole life.” Using the sharpness that she displays at the poker tables, Annie got what she wanted – recognition from Trump. In fact the rumor is that she has reached the top two in this season of Celebrity Apprentice.
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
