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When Annie Duke signed on for Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice, she likely (and rightly) believed she could use her poker skills to play the game well. She might not have anticipated that her strongest opponent would be a 75-year-old woman who called Duke and her poker friends "white trash."
But Duke, like the champion she is, showed her mettle, battling Joan Rivers to the end. Though Rivers ultimately won the competition, Annie Duke might have won something more worthwhile—lots of new fans. Annie Duke isn't a shrinking violet. The psychology PhD student turned poker player has shown she can stand with the most successful poker players of all time and often win a hand, or even a tournament. The ability to read people, to play to their strengths and expose their weaknesses, is essential in poker, but also in a game like Celebrity Apprentice. Though Annie Duke didn't win the whole kit and caboodle, she did raise more money than any other apprentice and was only once on the chipping block to possibly be fired by Trump, but easily escaped that fate. The basic premise of the Celebrity Apprentice show is similar to the traditional Apprentice. Essentially, contestants compete by completing challenges as teams. The celebrity seasons include fundraising challenges that take advantage of the celebrity's connections. The challenges that Annie Duke and others faced on Celebrity Apprentice were varied and intriguing. Before the teams even begin their first challenge, they are charged with finding a team name. It was Duke's idea to call the women's team "Athena", which means goddess of war. This suggestion hinted at Duke's strategy – come out of the gate fighting and view the competition as more than a TV show. Duke announced early in the first episode that she had watched last year's season of Celebrity Apprentice and even hinted that she had studied the show well enough to know how to play the game with a solid strategy. Annie Duke told the camera in that first episode that she planned to do two things – raise more money than anyone else for charity (each celebrity plays for a charity of their choosing) and to show a strong work ethic. That way, Duke said, nobody can say she doesn't work hard. Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice: Flying Under the Radar - First Five ChallengesAnnie Duke flies mostly under the radar in the first few challenges. The first challenge sees the team trying to sell cupcakes (that they have made) in New York City. Annie sells cupcakes to people on the street, but also shows how deep her friend's pockets will prove to be. Annie Duke brings out several poker players who pay good money for basic cupcakes. One makes a donation of $10,000 for a tray of cupcakes. Annie Duke lays low in a challenge that forces Celebrity Apprentice contenders to create a comic book character for online retailer Zappos, and in a challenge that requires the teams to sell wedding dresses. But, again, Duke makes use of her many connections and within minutes of getting the wedding dress challenge assignment, has lined up a donor who pledges $10,000 for a wedding dress. Although Annie Duke and Joan Rivers end this season of Celebrity Apprentice at each other's throats, they get along relatively well in this early part of the season. Duke praises Rivers' abilities when they get through a challenge to promote a video conferencing phone. This fourth challenge was the first that the women's team lost, though Rivers and Duke were never on the chopping block. When she can't call upon her generous friends to help in the fifth challenge, Annie Duke decides to fulfill her second goal – show people how hard she can work. In the Celebrity Apprentice challenge requiring the teams to manage a luxury hotel, she works hard, and even scrubs carpets on her hands and knees. Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice: Confidence Pays - Next Six ChallengesAnnie Duke's ability to strategize and play a smart game are what pull her through the next five challenges that lead up to the Celebrity Apprentice finale. In these challenges, she begins to annoy people with her confidence, brazen and nonchalant attitude toward promoting herself and ability to play a game and play it well. Duke continues to fly under the radar a bit on the sixth challenge – creating a viral video for All Small & Mighty detergent. But she also begins bossing people around even though she's not the project manager. But she explains to the camera that if things don't get done and nobody shows they are in charge, then she will take charge. During the LifeLock challenge, during which the teams must create an in-store display, Duke begins to take charge when she thinks that project manager Brian McKnight isn't taking charge. She tells the camera that he didn't show proper respect for deadlines and that he was too laid back. She panics when she thinks the team won't meet deadline. The team does meet deadline, but loses the challenge. It's during the boardroom that the drama begins. Joan Rivers claims that Annie Duke told her that she would likely throw Playmate Brande Roderick under the bus for not being an effective team member, but in the boardroom, Duke calls out McKnight, which makes Rivers stew that Duke is deliberately trying to get Melissa fired. It's McKnight that gets fired, but Rivers is livid. When the women return to the team's waiting room, Rivers calls Duke "disgusting" and a "snake." Trump calls Annie Duke out for so far playing the game well, but not stepping up as a project manager, which might also be part of Duke's strength. However, in the next challenge, Duke steps up to lead her team in a fundraising effort. The teams will choose jewelry to auction off in a live show and the team that raises the most money will win the challenge. Annie Duke's ability to raise money will come in handy on this challenge. Duke and Roderick become fast friends on this challenge, which also challenges Melissa Rivers' patience, as she feels stabbed in the back. Annie calls in her deep pocket friends, who arrive at the auction ready to spend money. In the meantime, golfer Natalie Gulbis decides that she can get good money by finding out who Annie Duke's poker nemesis is. She calls him asking for a donation to help her team beat Duke. That nemesis, Phil Hellmuth, gives Annie Duke a call to tell her that Gulbis has contacted him. This incites Duke, who finds Gulbis and gives her talking to. While it might not have worked well enough for Gulbis to get the money, it does work in another way – Duke loses her customary control and reserve. Gulbis thinks she has gotten the best of Duke. It's in this challenge on Celebrity Apprentice that Annie Duke really begins to separate herself from the pack. While Melissa whines that Duke is shutting her out and acts emotionally to this feeling that she's not part of the group, Duke tells the camera that Melissa doesn't get that the competition is about money and getting emotional serves no purpose. Annie Duke also proves herself an intimidating auctioneer, begging, cajoling and guilting people into spending more money during the auction. During the boardroom, Joan Rivers finally loses her cool with Duke when Duke said that Melissa was a weak member of her team because she didn't raise much money. Rivers says that Duke is in the wrong because she's looking out for herself, which prompts Duke to silently nod, as if acknowledging that looking out for No. 1 is essentially the point of the competition. The Rivers women try to make a solid argument that Duke is unlikable, arguing that during the challenges, she's nothing like she is in the boardroom, which is cogent and calm. Annie's team wins the challenge by raising more than $150,000 for charity. Her charity (Refugees International) receives $245,000 (her team's donations plus the other team's donations). This is the most any charity has received on Celebrity Apprentice. When it's time to create a new menu item for Schwan's Live Smart food line, Annie Duke announces she's a fabulous cook since she cooks for her four children. She also uses her intelligence well, researching the best-selling items on the Schwan's menu and then considering the food and methods of cookies that are popular right now. She suggests the team make turkey meatballs with gluten-free pasta. The team settles on that menu item and then becomes speechless when Annie Duke announces that she is the total woman because she can cook, raise her children, work hard and "give a good blowjob." I guess that is just one more thing Annie Duke is proud of and had to let her competition on Celebrity Apprentice, and the world, know. (I wonder what jokes are now being told on the poker tables.) The team wins with Duke's recipe, which leads Joan Rivers to react strongly and negatively. Annie Duke's acquaintance with NBA player David Lee comes in handy when the teams are charged with coming up with a new advertising campaign for Right Guard featuring the player. It's during this challenge that Melissa Rivers becomes incensed again at the relationship between Roderick and Duke, charging that they are shutting her out and it's like high school all over again. To prove Rivers wrong, Annie Duke complains in private to Rivers that Roderick isn't doing anything and is leaving everything to Duke. Jim Cramer guest stars on this episode and he notes that Duke is "very clever" because she knows how to play people. He says she sets herself up so that she gets credit for a win, but doesn't have to take blame for a loss. Annie Duke's team loses this challenge and in the boardroom, Roderick and Rivers begin fighting, which amazes Ivanka Trump, who notes that even though Duke came up with the concept for the ad and did the presentation, she simply gets to sit back while the other ladies fight. Melissa Rivers gets fired, and throws a tantrum before leaving. She tells her mother that Roderick and Duke are "whore pit vipers" before storming off. Joan Rivers, in turn, says that poker players are worse than white trash. Duke responds calmly that poker players are "awesome". Rivers storms off and says she's not coming back. In the final episode before the finale, the teams must create a jingle for Chicken of the Sea and create a short radio commercial for the tuna as well. When the teams gather for the instructions, Joan Rivers is absent and everyone thinks she won't come back, but Duke is confident Joan will return and she does. Annie Duke shows a few cracks in her facade as she freaks out about having to write a jingle when Clint Black is writing one for the other team. But she creates a jingle she's proud of and reiterates over and over again how proud she is of herself. "I don't even know how I wrote that jingle," she says. In this episode, Celebrity Apprentice winner Piers Morgan returns to interview the final contestants. This excites Duke since she watched Morgan's season and admired his tactics to get to the win. He tells Trump that she's a clever contender who knows how to play the game. He notes that Rivers' repeated attempts to faze Duke will prove unsuccessful because she's unflappable. By the end of the episode, we know that Annie Duke and Joan Rivers will duke it out in the finale. Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice: The FinaleIn the finale, Duke heads up a team that includes ousted contestants Roderick, Dennis Rodman and Tom Green. They are charged with several challenges – create an event that brands Polaroid well, have a silent auction that event to raise money for Duke's charity and sell tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show Wintuk. Annie Duke believes she will win the show and become the next Celebrity Apprentice because much of the challenge depends on raising money. But the challenge will be judged on five criteria and only two of them depend on fundraising. Rivers and Duke spar throughout the challenge, even though they are not working with or near one another. When Rivers upsets the party planner and he quits midway through the planning, Annie Duke's team also loses their planner (who works for the same company). When Duke calls around town to get help with designing the event space, she repeats over and over again how she wants to "crush" Rivers. Annie Duke calls in all of her poker contacts and tells them that Rivers has been less than complimentary toward poker and the people who play poker. They promise to give her as much money as she needs to win. During the boardroom, Duke learns that she beat Rivers' team handily in the fundraising challenge. While Rivers' team raised $150,000, Duke's team raised more than $460,000. This shows that Duke's poker playing friends are not at all short on cash and are willing to give a large amount to help Annie Duke win Celebrity Apprentice. While Duke wins on the fundraising element, her team did lose on the branding of the charity and the branding of Polaroid. They also, according to Trump, have lesser-name celebrities than Rivers' team, another criterion for winning. Trump throws Duke a curve ball, first by pumping her up (noting she's been a shrewd "ruthless" competitor, and says she's amazing), then telling her she's fired. Annie Duke is shocked but leaves with good spirits, although her insides must have been boiling as her rival, Joan Rivers, is hired as Donald Trump's next Celebrity Apprentice. Annie Duke definitely had an amazing performance on this seasons Celebrity Apprentice and even though she didn't win, was able to raise more money than anyone in the history of the show. Even though some people may think of Annie Duke as bossy (or even a Nazi) she showed her great skills, most of which she says she learned from poker, and made for a very entertaining season of Celebrity Apprentice. To learn more about Annie Duke, including her poker career and more on her performance on Celebrity Apprentice, please see Annie Duke's Profile page. Have you ever come across a confusing poker term? Our poker dictionary has 1218 definitions! Play for FREE and practice your game at...Would you like to submit your own poker article to be featured on FTR? You can by clicking here - Submit a Poker Article! Related Articles
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