Annie Duke

Born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire, Annie Duke grew up in a family that had cards and competition in the blood. In 1994, at the suggestion of her brother, famed poker player Howard Lederer, Ms. Duke tried her hand at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. She ended up placing 13th in her first tournament—knocking her brother out of play. After winning 70K in her first month of competition, Ms. Duke and her husband made the move to Las Vegas so she could pursue poker professionally. Over the course of the next decade, Ms. Duke established herself as one of the best poker players in the world. In 2004, Ms. Duke beat out an assembly of 234 players in the WSOP $2000 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo Split and won her first WSOP bracelet. In August of the same year, she knocked out 8 of the world’s greatest poker legends and won $2 million in the No-Limit Texas Hold ’em winner-take-all, invitation-only WSOP Tournament of Champions, established by ESPN and Harrah s Entertainment. She now serves as a consultant for the online poker site UB.com to ensure that their rules of poker and tournament structure match those you would find in the famous poker rooms of the Las Vegas strip. Duke currently resides in Los Angeles with her four children.

John Vorhaus is best known as the author of The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not. This seminal book on writing comedy for television and film is now available in four languages, and continues to be a definitive source of information and inspiration for writers from Santa Monica to Scandinavia. An international consultant in television and film script development, Mr. Vorhaus has worked for television networks, film schools, and production companies in 30 countries on four continents, including half-year stints in Romania and, God help him, Russia in winter. He has traveled regularly to Nicaragua, where he helped build a social-action drama designed to teach the young people of Nicaragua to think for themselves and practice safe sex. Mr. Vorhaus’ own screenwriting credits include “Married . . . with Children,” “Head of the Class,” “The Sentinel,” “The Flash,” and many overseas television shows and films, including the sitcoms “House Arrest” and “Pretty, Sick and Twisted,” and the movie Save Angel Hope. In another corner of his multiverse, he is the author of the six-volume Killer Poker series.