The Online Poker Pro

Annie Duke image via Wikipedia

I know this is more than a day late and a dollar short but this blog didn’t exist at the time poker player Annie Duke appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice. Even though a lot of time has passed, the show had such a strange outcome, the story was too compelling to ignore.

Many online casino and poker fans who watched the drama unfold felt the fix was in from the beginning. Unless she pulled down her pants on camera (and maybe even if she did), Joan Rivers was going to be the winner. Annie Duke, who’s used to experiencing winning poker odds on a regular basis, was out of luck when playing Donald Trump’s particular brand of high stakes poker.

One commenter on Annie Duke’s online poker blog made the point that Donald Trump had previously been slapped with an age discrimination lawsuit. If that’s true (and I don’t know if it is or not), then naturally a win by Joan would be a good public antidote to those accusations. Joan is also a more experienced spokesperson, which would help with Trump’s ultimate agenda for The Celebrity Apprentice: to make money from sponsors. Fair? No. Good business? Time will tell.

I read many of the comments on Annie Duke’s blog and the majority — some poker players, but most not — agreed that she won in the ways that really matter in business: class and the ability to generate financial results. Annie did produce spectacular results for her charity but she probably wouldn’t have produced the same results as Joan Rivers in the show’s aftermath, which is where the rubber hits the road for Donald Trump.  Because of that it was probably inevitable that Annie would be thrown under the custom-painted, luxurious Celebrity Apprentice bus.

Many commentors on Annie’s poker blog said they would never watch any form of The Apprentice again. Some went so far as to say that they also would never buy anything from Joan Rivers, her jewelry company or QVC, which sells it; or support Donald Trump in any way. There will always be die-hard supporters on both sides whenever there’s any kind of competition that matters. So you have to throw out a certain percentage of supporters due to that factor. But the support for Annie goes far beyond that. Whether or not you liked her business tactics, which obviously were an extension of the poker strategy she implements in every poker game, or her management style, that became secondary to the fact that she was called “Hitler” on national television and reduced to being grouped with “poker players,” whom Joan said were “beyond white trash.” The fact that Trump thwarted Annie when she tried to defend herself or even say something nice to Joan made it even more egregious. So the question is, did Trump shoot himself in the foot by going for the after-show gold?

I personally believe in voting with my dollars, so I will quietly not watch The Apprentice or support anything having to do with  Joan and Melissa Rivers. What I won’t do is call them names or insult their character in public. As much as I didn’t like the outcome, it makes me sad when people attack anyone connected to the controversy. Many of Joan’s supporters attacked Annie and the same could be said for Annie’s supporters sending barbs to the Rivers camp. But if we all don’t think personal attacks are appropriate — which is one of the main reasons so many people supported Annie — then we should hold ourselves to the same standard. For my part, I’ll just stick to directing my dollars accordingly, so they deliver a message by their absence. That can be even more satisfying  — and effective — than harsh words.

Will my personal boycott of their ventures mean much? Maybe not. But it will make me feel like I made just a little stand for justice in my corner of the world. It does have the potential to make a dent in the collective Trump/Rivers Inc. coffers if enough people do it, though. So we’ll see if there’s an impact when the Nielsen Ratings come out for the next season of The Apprentice. Too bad we all can’t be flies on the wall, because we could really see if all the shenanigans made a difference when Joan Rivers cashes her next QVC check. It would be interesting to see how well Annie Duke poker accessories would sell on QVC, if she were to have such a product line. 

No matter what happens, poker pro Annie Duke will always be a winner.

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