It’s no secret among poker insiders that Annie Duke isn’t exactly one of the most liked players (or rather personalities since she doesn’t do much playing anymore). Duke has always been known as somewhat cold, and her boasting of being the world’s best female poker player (even though she isn’t really) hasn’t sat well with people.
Daniel Negreanu is one of these people as he recently went on a rant about Duke in an interview with Poker Player Magazine. Sure Negreanu himself is no saint despite his squeaky-clean image, but most players respect him more than Duke, which is why his interview was definitely worth reading.
Negreanu’s entire interview was pretty entertaining as he also talked about how the older players have nothing on the younger players in terms of skill. This came up when he was asked about the Tournament of Champions and how weak the competition was.
He said, “First, I was shocked at the number of votes it took to get in, and then to see that none of the young guys got in. Most shocking was to see Sam Farha and T.J. Cloutier in there – I love them both, but it was like I had gone back in time. To put it simply I was playing poker with guys who are simply not as good as the young guys today.”
Getting to the juicy part, Negreanu was eventually asked about the Ladies event in this year’s WSOP where Shaun Deeb and others entered wearing drag and makeup. Negreanu spared Deeb, but he lit into Annie Duke saying, “What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world.’ So on one side of the coin she’s fighting for, ‘Oh, we’re all equal, there shouldn’t be any gender thing,’ but when appropriate she decides to call herself the best female poker player in the world. So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.’”
This has to be the best interview Negreanu has ever given since he is usually worried about stepping on his friends’ toes. However, he obviously isn’t friend with Duke!
