July 3, 2009
We Don’t Know Much About Poker, But We Know What We Like: Annie Duke
No, darlings, not Anna Duke, as in Patty Duke (who, by the way, is appearing live, along with Bruce Vilanch, at the Castro screening of Valley of the Dolls July 20th), but Annie Duke, a seriously-hot redhead who is, apparently, A Very Big Name Indeed in the world of live, sit-down poker (as opposed to the sit-down but not-so-live video poker yours truly enjoys, very, very much, even while plonked down just yards from the usually awful local country-western cover bands on the downstairs stage at the dearly-departed Fitz at 3:00 a.m., trying to decide whether or not to keep the high pair or go for the outside royal, while a very nice, but unbearably longwinded unemployed trucker on disability tells yours truly, a saintly-polite, empathetic smile and nod ever in place, his long, long life story).
Where was I? Certainly not in The Fitz at 3:00 a.m., as The Fitz is dead — long live The Fitz! And Harold’s — where I won my first significant jackpot, $800.00, on a quarter poker machine one long-ago December 30th — and the Nevada Club — where the casino scenes in Desert Hearts were filmed, ya dang young lesbians! — and the Mapes — where Marilyn gambled in The Misfits — and all the other Reno clubs I cut my teeth on both before and after my wonderful parents made the mistake of asking: “What do you want for your 21st birthday?” and I replied: “Grubstake me for a weekend in Reno”.
Oh, yes, I remember now: Annie Duke, the red-hot redhead I stumbled across (not literally, mind you), who, in her interview with Marsala Rypka of Luxury Las Vegas, had some unexpected, and most welcome, thoughts about… us:
With Annie Duke . . .
MR: What pet peeves do you have?
AD: This is going to make me sound like an asshole, but grammatical usage is a pet peeve. Like when people don’t know the difference between “less and fewer,” or “amount and number.” I can’t stand when people say, “between you and I.” My father was a grammarian so I come by it honestly. Another pet peeve is that I don’t think people maintain table manners like they used to. I can’t stand when people chew with their mouth open or when you’re with a group of people who start eating before everyone has their food. It drives me nuts. My kids think I’m the ‘Table Manner Nazi.’ It also bothers me that people don’t inform themselves about issues. A great example is that Proposition 8 passed in California. People believed it when they were told that if gays are allowed to get married, their church would be forced to marry them. They didn’t do any research to find out if it was true, which it’s not. It’s just a logical leap. A pastor can refuse to marry a heterosexual couple, so clearly he wouldn’t be forced to marry a homosexual couple. But that was a big part of how it got passed. People believed the propaganda and that’s a huge pet peeve of mine.
People don’t understand the separation of church and state, so they think morals are supposed to be legislated instead of letting people choose their own path. This also pertains to some recent gambling legislation and certainly gay-right issues. Gay people getting married has no effect on me. I’m not being forced to watch them have sex, I don’t have to be friends with them, I don’t have to live in their shoes and I certainly don’t have to marry a woman, so it’s none of my business. They are not doing any direct harm to me.
Plenty more at the link — and maybe even enough to get us interested in those Keep Yourself Out of a Coma While Watching Other People Play Poker shows on the Odd, Nothing-Better, Late-Night Cable Channel (and not just because we hope Nicole Sullivan will be on again someday).
Oh, and Ms. Duke? Thank you. Thank you very much, ma’am. 
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Filed Under: Church-State Separation, Civil Rights, Marriage, Nevada, Sports & Recreation
