PokerWorks

That time of year is coming around again. The World Series of Poker is on the horizon, and it is time for poker players to get their skills to a comfortable point before the biggest tournament series brings the greatest opportunities for poker fame and fortune. And there is no better way to get prepared than to put your game in the hands of Annie Duke and the WSOP Academy.

For the third year running, the World Series of Poker Academy will be offering its Ladies Only event, hosted by Annie Duke, in Las Vegas. It will be held at Caesars Palace on June 5 and 6 for ladies only, in order to give them a comfortable, camaraderie-filled environment in which to submerge themselves in poker knowledge as only the honest and intelligent Annie Duke can provide.

Duke has spent many years in the world of professional poker, and she has the list of accomplishments to prove it. In addition to her WSOP bracelet, she has more than $3.6 million in career tournament earnings to her credit, which ranks her 72nd on the all-time poker tournament money list and 2nd on the women’s all-time money list. She recently parlayed her poker popularity into celebrity stardom by appearing on “The Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC, where she continues to make a solid run at winning the show while collecting money for her charity of choice, Refugees International.

Her vast poker insights will be on display in seminar format at the 2009 WSOP Academy Ladies Only event in June, which will take place just days before the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship at the WSOP. Since Duke has never been a proponent of ladies-only events, she teaches players to compete on any level against any opponent so that they can go on to play in anything from ladies-only events to the WSOP main event.

The ladies-only Academy has had several success stories in its short history thus far, as the 2007 class produced Sally Anne Boyer as a graduate, who went on to win the WSOP Ladies event days later for $262,077. The 2008 Academy saw another graduate, Patty Till, go on to finish third at that year’s WSOP Ladies event for $73,637. Even another, Mary Jo Belcore-Zogman, went on to become the Heartland Poker Tour 2008 Player of the Year. The proof that the class works is in the results.

Brandon Rosen of Post Oak Productions, the WSOP Academy production company, noted, “They say success breeds more success, and there is no better example of this than our World Series of Poker Academy Ladies Only Event. In just two years, our ladies only event has helped turn novices into winning tournament players and, in some cases, champions. The success of our grads is a testament to the level of instruction Annie Duke and all of our instructors offer our participants.”

Duke will be joined by long-time WSOP instructor Alex Outhred and poker tells expert and author Joe Navarro, and the two-day seminar will include in-depth poker instruction, live hand demonstrations, interactive workshops, customized notebooks with lesson plans and outlines of the weekend’s instruction, and a private poker tournament with the prizes including a seat at the WSOP Academy Tournament of Champions. All of the activities planned for the two days will focus on NLHE strategy but cover a variety of aspects of the game, from pot odds to position, and from tells to aggression.

Space is limited at the WSOP Academy Ladies Only event, and since players wait all year for this opportunity, it is wise to reserve a seat in advance. Tuition is listed at $1,699.00, but a partial payment of $425 will hold a seat and allow a three-month payment plan. Registration and more details can be found at WSOPAcademy.com.