Poker News Daily: The CEREUS Network was recently acquired by Blanca Games, which is managed by Stuart Gordon. What were your thoughts when you heard about the transaction?
Annie Duke: It’s a very positive thing for the brand. The cheating was purportedly under the auspices of Excapsa in terms of software development and the person developing it was able to get into the group through his involvement with them. I’m happy that the brand is making a clean break from that and that’s part of being able to move on. I’ve always felt like the full brunt of what happened was really put on the current UB.com management.
PND: What personnel changes do you anticipate with the new ownership regime?
Annie Duke: I have tremendous faith in Paul Leggett. My understanding is that there won’t be any change in terms of his role. I think perhaps this will be an opportunity to do some house cleaning, but I don’t really know. Paul staying is a good thing because in every aspect of what’s happened, when you look around and see who has behaved, he’s been the most forthright and the most forthcoming. He’s had the most integrity and he’s taken a lot of blame. He’s gone above and beyond and I’ve been very impressed with how he’s handled everything that’s happened.
PND: What can you tell us about Stuart Gordon?
Annie Duke: I don’t know much about him. He owns BingoMania.com and has a lot of experience in the space. He won’t be involved in day-to-day operations as far as I know. He’s more of an investor.
PND: Are you happy that the war of words with Daniel Negreanu is behind you?
Annie Duke: I was satisfied with PokerStars’ accountability and still continue to believe that Daniel can express whatever views he wants to with whatever language he wants to use.
PND: The list of 10 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 was released in recent weeks. What are your thoughts on the group?
Annie Duke: My vote is for Erik Seidel. He has eight bracelets and been under-appreciated. I Tweeted for people to go and vote for him. Doyle Brunson was also throwing his hat into the ring for Erik.
PND: Should Phil Ivey and Negreanu, both in their 30s, be seriously considered by the voting panel?
Annie Duke: No one under 40 should get in. I could see an argument for Ivey just because he’s accomplished so much at the age he is, but at the same time, it’s so easy to say that it doesn’t matter because they’ll be just as deserving when they’re over 40. This should be about career accomplishments.
Poker is interesting because in other sports, if you’re active, you’re not eligible. That’s because most sports require a physical aspect where you’d be retiring before you can be considered for a Hall of Fame.
While Ivey certainly has the credentials to get in, he’s going to be a shoo-in in five years. At the moment, Chip Reese is the youngest person inducted at 40. I would work very hard to keep it that way. Chip really represented something in poker that was so amazing and did such amazing things. Preserving that sort of honor of being the youngest member in the Hall of Fame is something we should be striving for.
PND: Convince the voting panel of living Hall of Fame members and members of the media to vote for Seidel.
Annie Duke: Erik Seidel should be in there. He has eight bracelets. He has so many titles. This is someone who has done amazing things year in and year out. The guy behaves with such grace in a sport where grace is really needed. He’s always so graceful and so sportsmanlike. He’s deeply thoughtful, deeply intelligent, and has massive integrity. This guy should be held up as the standard for what we should be doing. I feel strongly that he should be honored.
PND: Is there anyone else you’d consider?
Annie Duke: Linda Johnson would be my second choice in terms of what she’s contributed in terms of her vision, what she did with the WPT at the beginning, and what she’s done for women in poker. In terms of looking at someone as an innovator and bringing poker into the spotlight, she really deserves it.
PND: Are you bummed out that we’re not talking about the Aruba Poker Classic this year?
Annie Duke: Aruba was the thing that in a lot of ways defined UB in terms of setting it off from other brands and the thing that allowed UB to weather a very significant storm. We had a strong sense of community. The players who were really loyal to UB felt like they were a family and a large part of that was Aruba. Every year, you’d go to this event and see the same faces and new faces and all of that community building was import to the brand and the survival of the brand.
From that standpoint, it’s important for them to have it. It’s something that’s key to the identity of UB. I was very sad that it was canceled this year and I hope they’ll bring it back or bring something that will create a strong sense of community. I don’t want to see a situation where people on UB are anonymous.
PND: Talk about watching the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship unfold on GSN every Saturday night. What did you think about Annette Obrestad critiquing Huck Seed’s play a few weeks back?
Annie Duke: It has actually been extremely interesting to watch. When I was paired with Huck, I wanted him to think I played well. Given Huck’s record and the brilliance of his poker game, if I disagreed with something Huck did, I would assume he did something that I didn’t understand. I would actually ask Huck to explain the play.
When I first came around poker and had just started to play big limits in 1998, I was playing with Ted Forrest. We can agree that Ted has a very unconventional style, but he is obviously a successful player. When I first started playing with him, I thought he was terrible. Pretty quickly, I figured out that he was pretty successful, so maybe there was something I was missing. What I realized was that he wasn’t playing badly, but most of the time, he was doing things I truly didn’t understand.
My game drastically improved because I took a step back from what my initial reaction was. That’s a lesson that every young poker player has to learn. When you realize that what you don’t understand isn’t necessarily bad, it’s a huge step in your development as a player. Maybe Annette will take a look back and learn from that. Annette is an excellent player and extremely talented and when she becomes a more mature player, she’ll be great. This is just an issue of opening up your mind instead of immediately shutting someone off and dismissing them.