Annie Duke

When Annie Duke was 26, it seemed as if her career path was set. After majoring in psychology and English literature at Columbia, she was nearing a PhD in psycholinguistics at the University of Pennsylvania when she jumped ship and ran away to Montana to marry a man she scarcely knew. But after four children, her onetime dream of a life in academia seemed like a hallucination.

As the cards sail across the green felt at the World Series of Poker Main Event currently being held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, thousands of players have been practicing poker's dark arts of deception and intimidation as they vie for millions of dollars in a game that's unabashedly the ultimate exercise in self-interest.

As the cards sail across the green felt at the World Series of Poker Main Event currently being held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, thousands of players have been practicing poker's dark arts of deception and intimidation as they vie for millions of dollars in a game that's unabashedly the ultimate exercise in self-interest.

When Annie Duke was 26, it seemed as if her career path was set. After majoring in psychology and English literature at Columbia, she was nearing a PhD in psycholinguistics at the University of Pennsylvania when she jumped ship and ran away to Montana to marry a man she scarcely knew. But after four children, her onetime dream of a life in academia seemed like a hallucination.

Seven of the world's best poker players have pulled their chips together to fight the World Poker Tour. And they're not bluffing.

Professional video gaming is set to debut on cable television this year, potentially paving the way for the reigning game players to become as familiar to American households as the faces of Johnny Chan or Annie Duke in televised poker. Major League Gaming, the world's largest organized video game league, on Monday announced a programming deal in which USA Network will air seven one-hour episodes in the fall featuring the pro circuit.

Congress cracked down on most forms of online gambling four years ago, concerned that the explosion in unregulated (and questionably legal) poker and sports betting sites was promoting organized crime, money laundering, underage betting and a host of other ills. The effect, though, was simply to drive U.S. residents to sites in other countries where online gambling is legal — no less convenient and, potentially, just as unregulated. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.

Fate brings an FBI agent and an Amish woman together in Sunday's uninspired CBS movie, "Harvest of Fire," but this "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation serves up female bonding, not another "Witness." When Sally (Lolita Davidovich)--a hotshot career-obsessed FBI agent investigating barn burnings in Iowa Amish country--becomes friends with Amish mama Annie (Patty Duke), surprise, she reevaluates her priorities in life.

Annie Duke, a suburban mother of four, is the product of a New Hampshire boarding school and two Ivy League universities and was once poised for a life in academia. Her brother, Howard Lederer, followed a similar track: St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, then on to Columbia University. Now they are professional poker players. Together, they have earned poker celebrity--for being siblings, for being smart and for making a lot of money in a game that sometimes still has the aura of the Wild West.

When trying to convince lawmakers that her career is more than just a card game, professional poker player Annie Duke refuses to fold. "What I do is not gambling," she said. The world-champion player joined other poker hotshots lobbying Wednesday on Capitol Hill, hoping to persuade members of Congress that poker, like chess and mah-jongg, is a game of skill -- and not, like roulette, a casino game that leaves players' fortunes to chance.

IT'S only fitting that the cruelest time of year starts when Valentine's Day candy still overflows from the clearance bin. Be on your toes, fellas. The dumping season has arrived. At no other time of the year are women afforded such a perfect window of opportunity to kick us to the curb. The protective bubble of the major holiday season, during which a woman would rather lose a limb than be single, is over -- and doesn't start again until Thanksgiving. Running from Feb.

Actress Patty Duke resigned as president of the Screen Actors Guild Wednesday to produce a television movie based on her autobiographical book "Call Me Anna." In resigning, the 41-year-old movie and TV actress cited guild rules that prohibit an officer from holding any production interest. Barry Gordon, a 39-year-old character actor and a guild vice president, was appointed to fill the presidency until the union's board elects a permanent replacement in December.