Annie Duke won the Ultimate Poker Challenge
Rocks are great things. The Edison of the Cro-Magnon people banged a couple of them together and had suddenly discovered fire. Minutes later, this nameless humanoid relative looked around at the burning forest and realized he had also discovered arson. More recently, somebody who has yet to discover the wonders of a Sony Playstation amused themselves by chucking rocks into a small inland lake.
We all know what happens when somebody throws a stone into a body of water. There will be a sizeable splash (this is actually relative to the size of the rock that somebody has tossed in), and circles of ripples will move off in all directions from ground zero of where the surface of the water was broken. A lot of thoughtful people see this as a metaphor for life. These are generally the type of people who are not invited to really good parties, but that doesn't mean they are wrong. The effects of an event that happens on a particular day can be felt in the distant future. This is not unlike the rock and the ripples it has created.
At the 2004 World Series of Poker an unusually large stone was dropped into calm waters that had become very comfortable with the status quo. In the $2,000 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo tournament Annie Duke held off a contingent of 234 players, some of them very high profile champions (Hellmuth, Lederer, and the rest of the usual suspects), to capture her first World Series of Poker bracelet.
This win was not the first by a woman in a WSOP event, but it was, in the opinion of many, the most momentous. Annie Duke was a high profile player, but had the tag of somebody who could always come close, but never finish. The day when she sealed the deal, and slipped on the bracelet, it did more than just annoyed Phil Hellmuth, it jumpstarted the industry of women's poker.
One of the ripples of that 2004 victory was felt all the way into November of 2006. The Ultimate Poker Challenge has seized on the popularity of woman's poker and forged an alliance with Woman Poker Player magazine. In February of 2007 the UPC will be adding a woman's event to their tournament calendar. It will begin on February 9th, and the final table will be televised on February 10th.
The irony is that Annie Duke will probably not play at this event. Despite the rise of female poker that she facilitated by proving a woman can play with the big boys, she generally shuns events that are limited to estrogen fueled players. Of course after beating the best the world of men has to offer, she might see an event that excludes guys as a step back.
Source: launchpoker.com
