This month, poker pro and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke breaks down the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) $25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout at the Venetian, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and her appearance on the television game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. We saw that Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka bested your table in the NAPT High Roller Bounty Shootout. Tell us about your table, which also featured Joe Hachem, Jennifer Tilly, Vanessa Rousso, and J.C. Tran.
Annie Duke: I got heads-up with Faraz at my table. He’s an excellent player plus he’s clearly been playing his best lately because he’s been final tabling everything. He’s the last person I wanted to end up heads-up against. Even though Vanessa has been playing everything and doing well, I’ve played with her and know her. Faraz is a guy who has been playing everything and I don’t know anything about his game.
PND: Evaluate Faraz Jaka’s game for us. What makes him so successful?
Annie Duke: He’s very good at gearing differently and is good at gearing against different stack sizes. He does not play fast or play super small ball. That’s a harder person to deal with because they’re going to play against your stack effectively. Faraz played brilliantly heads-up. I managed to get a chip lead on Faraz and then lost two big pots.
There were a couple of draws I chose to play slow and didn’t hit and a couple I played fast as a semi-bluff and didn’t hit. I said to Phil Hellmuth afterward that it’s a no-win situation. When you play it slow and don’t hit, you regret that you didn’t try to bluff. If you play it big, then you regret that you didn’t play it slow. I don’t know if I could have won them playing differently, but I feel like I didn’t reverse well.
PND: Are you looking forward to the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will be filmed in March and then air on NBC?
Annie Duke: Erik Seidel and I were joking that we have bad records in that event. He’s a brilliant player, but has never won a match, and I’ve won one. I don’t care who I draw; I just want to win my match. I played against Brad Garrett last year and he had all of the better hands. When I find out who I play against, I try to think about their game, but I don’t like to come into matches with a set strategy. People play differently on different days and against different opponents. I’m just trying to improve my record in that event.
PND: Has it been refreshing to return to playing poker?
Annie Duke: I realized when I played the $25,000 NAPT event that I hadn’t played since October. I have been prioritizing differently. It’s nice to have all of this poker coming up and then I am going to Mexico with the kids. The World Series of Poker starts after that. It’s the part of the year where I play a lot of poker and I like to get back to my roots. I don’t regret that I choose to do other things because I like what else I’m doing. Poker players can get really myopic and just think about poker. I don’t remember ever feeling that way coming up.
PND; Tell us about your appearance on the syndicated game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
Annie Duke: I played for Decision Education Foundation. It’s the daytime version of the show where you have to clear 10 questions. I got every question right and used the help one time because I wanted to make sure. The question was asking who the Volunteers were and I was pretty sure it was Tennessee, but thought it could also be Kentucky since I am not a big college basketball person. I peeked at the girl’s answer and she put Tennessee.
I got all 10 questions right and had $25,000. Then, there’s a bonus round question that you’re getting laid 10:1 on. If I thought I could answer it right 10% of the time, there was an overlay. I went for it and didn’t know the answer. If you get the question wrong, you go down to $2,500, so you’re risking $22,500 to win $250,000. That’s an easy decision even though it didn’t work out.