I might pick one up and name her Moan Rivers.

Karen – For all the love you have for Joan Rivers, I must commend you for it. There is one thing that I have wondered though after watching the episode with the jewelry auction. Donald ask her about getting donors for the charity auction and she said that all the people she knew (and Donald knew also) had turned her down. Mellisa even got offended by it, saying there’s some kind of issue with Joan and her “friends.” If she is so respectable, then why are all the people in her circle (and Donald’s) turning there back on her?

I will now go let my inner-child cry for knowing so much about a realty show. On to real poker news…

A poker forum? A POKER FORUM?!? I know poker forums … I’ve been on the internet for 40 years!

Jen, this is a blog. 2+2 is a forum. Did I not send you the welcome pamphlet?

Funny that people have come to this forum – a poker forum – to bash Annie Duke. You ladies aren’t going to find many sympathetic voices here, especially when your arguments are general and your views of poker players are baseless and merely an echo of something that a racist, selfish Joan Rivers said on a TV show.

Oh, and when you CAPITALIZE so many words, some of the emphasis on your point is LOST.

Contrary to what YOU THINK, the ratings are going to PLUMMET (that would be DOWN-ward) with just Annie and Brande to stab each other in the back.
Jesse is also (along w/Joan and Melissa) the best marketing mind on that show. Everybody ELSE was just “window dressing.”

Annie may know how to play poker –but she’s not going ANYWHERE ELSE outside those tables. She is ignorant and two=faced as only a WOMAN can be. As far as the weeks I have watched HER, she has no intelligence, zero redeemable traits and Lord knows, no class what so ever! Joan Rivers is a SEVENTY=some year old ICON in the entertainment industry. As such, she deserves RESPECT (SOMETHING which poker players seem to sadly LACK).

Joan paid her dues for sixty years … raising more money and awareness for the IMPORTANT causes and charities. For THAT alone, her opinions matter –and R-E-S-P-E-C-T is the LEAST she deserves.

I do not know from under WHICH ROCK Annie crawled and she may indeed be a VERY BIG “deal” in Vegas –but in the great scheme of things, Vegas ain’t MUCH!

Annie and Brande are two whores who have NEITHER CLASS nor brain cells. Melissa and Joan were BOTH right in their slams against the two bimbos/

From everything I could see, Joan took herself off the show. If Joan Rivers was playing for charity, she just bailed on her charity. If she was playing purely for the game itself, she just disrespected the game by quitting early. The fact that Joan Rivers walked when Melissa was fired shows pretty clearly that she was there solely to support her daughter.

Didn’t you find it a little “conniving” for two players on opposite teams (Joan & Melissa) to be openly colluding in the boardroom? Nobody else ever spoke up about who should be fired or saved on the opposing team.

If this had been Entertainment Weekly or TV Guide’s website, those comments would have been far more appropriate. But at a website for hard-core poker people? It totally missed the mark.

Annie is playing the game to perfection. Whether you like her or not this cast of celebrities I am guessing is giving Donald some high ratings.

Annie did control herself when Joan was trying to put her on Tilt and EVERYONE agrees the River’s have embarrassed themselves immensley and are going to have a hard time repairing their images.

Also, Jesse james a reformed thug showed his true side the past few weeks and has coasted into the final four. He has not raised hardly any money and told us he is saving it for the end and himself, which is a smart move for this style of game.

He also showed his ego when he bad mouthed Clint on his ad of right guard by saying He owns a magazine and he would never put an ad like that in it.

He then shook Clint’s hand in the board room in front of the Trump after he was told Clint won.

However Annie finishes in this show she most likely has opened some eyes in the business and marketing circas and one thing for sure she is showing the world Poker Players are intelligent and not just stupid pathetic losers as the Rivers tried to steretype us to the TV audience.

I do wonder, though, how the audience would react to her today. I’d expect it to be a race between loud whoops and some boos … with her being the slight favorite going in.

Our spam filter gets a little aggressive at times. There were a few other great comments today that went live a few hours after they were left, so they didn’t show up in our nifty “recent comments” in the sidebar.

Anonymous, yes, that was me. And I respectfully disagree with you – and your insinuation that we are just a bunch of forum know-nothings ranting unintelligently. She may be “nothing” at the tables (you know, other than one of the most successful women in the game) … but that has nothing to do with being an “ambassador”.

An ambassador is someone who represents poker, and without a doubt, Annie is currently the game’s most public face. Am I overlooking anyone? I can’t think of anyone who comes close. And she’s not just doing commercials, she’s defending the game and a virtual race of players against vicious attacks against their honor.

She also testified before US Congress on behalf of online poker a couple years ago … that’s pretty “ambassadorial”.

And she’s raised probably more than $1 million for the plighted in Darfur … plenty ambassadorial … and in doing that has built valuable relationships with Hollywood celebs.

BTW, this is not pure Annie ass-kissing. As an ambassador, she has her flaws — most specifically that anyone who does a little research about her will find two things first and foremost:

1) her divisive presence on the Apprentice.
2) her semi-direct connection to the biggest cheating scandal in history.

Seriously, these are obstacles. Why do you think she’s not out their publicly lobbying these days (like Greg Raymer)? We know she speaks well in front of all audiences, and has a large following … so there has to be some other reason … hmmm.

Still, she’s doing a lot with what she’s got and putting herself out there in a way that I know so many other poker pros could never handle. (Again, read the non-poker-player YouTube comments.)

I guess I’d like to thank “Anonymous” for coming to this humble site and informing all of us rubes about the poker world. You do realize what website this is, right? (Don’t let this specific topic fool you.)

I think you also left out Annie Duke’s two biggest accomplishments in terms of her marketability — nobody gives a crap that she finished 10th in the WSOP Main Event way back when. What matters is that she won a WSOP bracelet in 2004 in a televised event, and then parlayed that into an invite in the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions, where she won $2 million and a great title for her book. Since then, she has marketed herself extremely well, and is one of the most visible poker players in the non-poker world even though she rarely plays tournaments anymore.

And whether or not poker players want Annie Duke to be an ambassador for the game, she is because of her visibility. Regardless of her position within the poker world, to the mainstream world, she has become one of the most famous. (Neither Brunson nor Negreanu ever got an appearance on “The Colbert Report” or nearly as much time on Network TV.) Regardless of her role in the poker industry, a lot of people are forming their opinions of the poker world based on what they see of Annie Duke’s appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice.” Is it fair? No. But that’s the reality.

But reading your comment, I think you found this link from a Google search or something, and thought you’d inform these Celebrity Apprentice fans what the world of poker is really like — not realizing that this is a poker website for people who follow the game pretty closely. Thanks for a good laugh though! (It’s funny to have somebody explain to us who Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu are.)

LOL, BJ, it sounds like you are shocked that I would do such a thing!

A white Oklahoma farm family took in Dennis Rodman when he was 18 or 19, and he was treated like a member of the family. Later, when he had some money (playing for the Detroit Pistons), he gave them the start-up capital they needed to start their own company (for a 52% share), and that company went on to become a great success.

All things considered, this sounds like the *opposite* of a smart businessman. Loyal? Yes. Lucky? Yes. Honorable? Yes. But making a business deal based primarily on childhood/family relationships in an industry that you yourself do not fully understand? Not smart.

Dennis Rodman was on this show for ratings, and ratings only. Say what you’d like, but it’s obvious that Annie Duke wasn’t invited for the same reason. (Though she may ultimately be responsible for the show’s drama and ratings, they couldn’t have foreseen things between Duke and the Rivers bitches playing out the way they did.)

but with that said, he was at least smart enough when he had big big money to give a bunch of it to the white oklahoma farm family that took him in as a youngster … and with that, he guaranteed a certain level of comfort for life … or at least afforded him the opportunity to fuck around and be a beyotch everywhere he and the cameras go.

http://www.rodmancompanies.com/