Jan 13 2025
Annie Duke is a World Series of Poker Tournament Champion and national best-selling author who delivers keynotes on efficient decision-making in high-stakes scenarios.
Annie is a best-selling author, and corporate speaker, holds a World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet, and consultant in the decision-making/behavioral science space. In 2018, Annie’s first book for general audiences, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, quickly became a national bestseller. As a former professional poker player, she has won more than $4 million in tournament poker. Moreover, she is the only woman to have won the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions and the NBC National Poker Heads-Up Championship.
Annie Duke’s latest book, Quit: The Power of Walking Away, was published in 2022. The Entrepreneur featured Quit as one of its best business books of 2022, writing “Duke argues convincingly for the virtues of quitting, and then helps us ease into one of the hardest decisions we might ever make.”
“We fear that when we quit we are admitting failure—that we have wasted our energy. But we need to start thinking about waste as a forward-looking problem, not a backward-looking one,” Duke said in her 2022 article published in The Atlantic.
As a speaker to business and professional groups since 2002, Annie Duke combines her experience as a professional poker player with the most advanced thinking on decision-making, integrating psychology, economics, game theory, and neuroscience.
Annie Duke tailors her message to fit the decision-making challenges of each group she faces. So, every speech is a unique experience — for her and the audience. Her speeches are continually updated and refined by incorporating new and fresh illustrations from popular culture, sports, politics and current events, social science research, business, financial markets, and entrepreneurship.
In addition, these are just a few of the organizations where Annie Duke has shared her story:
Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group at 215-510-6607 to book Annie Duke for corporate or private events, keynote speeches, workshops, fireside chats, motivational speaking, or virtual appearances. Our agency will work directly with your organization and our keynote speakers to create an unforgettable event.
The Mollie Plotkin Group is the leading keynote speakers agency and entertainment bureau bringing excitement to audiences, clients, and employees. We represent subject-matter experts in every possible field, so whether we’re your partner in creating a memorable meeting, or your meeting planner’s secret weapon in securing the perfect keynote speaker, we’re in this with you.
Annie Duke has leveraged her expertise and education in the science of smart decision-making to excel at pursuits as varied as championship poker to teaching others how to be more secure in their decision-making.
Annie now spends her time writing, coaching, and speaking on a range of topics such as decision fitness, emotional control, productive decision groups, and embracing uncertainty. She is a highly sought-after public speaker, addressing thousands in keynote remarks at conferences for organizations. Annie has spoken to the Investment Management Consultants Association and the Big Ten Conference. She is also a sought-after speaker in the financial sector. Her financial sector clients include Susquehanna International Group and CitiBank.
Annie is a master storyteller, having performed three times for The Moth, an organization that preserves the art of spoken word storytelling. Her passion for making a difference has helped raise millions for charitable causes. In 2006, she founded Ante Up for Africa along with actor Don Cheadle and Norman Epstein, which has raised more than $4 million for Africans in need. She has also served on the board of The Decision Education Foundation. She appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice and raised $730,000 for Refugees International, a charity that advocates for refugees around the world. In October 2013, Annie became a national board member for After School All-Stars. Then, in 2014, Annie co-founded The Alliance for Decision Education to build a national movement that empowers teachers, school administrators and policymakers to bring Decision Education to every Middle and High School student. In 2016, she began serving on the board of directors of The Franklin Institute, one of America’s oldest and greatest science museums. In 2020, she joined the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative.
Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group for information on Annie Duke’s availability. We are a full-service keynote speakers agency. So, we will ensure that your next live or virtual conference will go off without a hitch.
Wall Street Journal bestseller!
Poker champion, turned business consultant, Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result.
Through a blend of compelling exercises, illustrations, and stories, the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets will train you to combat your own biases, address your weaknesses, and help you become a better and more confident decision-maker.
Find out how to hire Annie Duke to appear at your next event. Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group to inquire about Annie Duke’s availability and cost. When booking Annie Duke for an event, we need to know the type of venue and location the event will take place. Annie Duke is a popular choice for corporate events, private events, and virtual events. So, you can click the Check Availability button or contact us and an MPG Annie Duke booking agent will get back to you within 48 hours.
How much to book Annie Duke depends on the type of event. So, the cost to hire Annie Duke for corporate or private events is available by contacting a Mollie Plotkin Group Agent. Notably, Annie Duke is available for conferences, festivals, private parties and events. Just contact the Mollie Plotkin Group and tell the booking agent the proposed date, time, and location.
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From the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets comes a toolkit for mastering the skill of quitting to achieve greater success
Business leaders, with millions of dollars down the drain, struggle to abandon a new app or product that just isn’t working. Governments, caught in a hopeless conflict, believe that the next tactic will finally be the one that wins the war. And in our own lives, we persist in relationships or careers that no longer serve us. Why? According to Annie Duke, in the face of tough decisions, we’re terrible quitters. And that is significantly holding us back.
In Quit, Duke teaches you how to get good at quitting. Drawing on stories from elite athletes like Mount Everest climbers, founders of leading companies like Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, and top entertainers like Dave Chappelle, Duke explains why quitting is integral to success, as well as strategies for determining when to hold em, and when to fold em, that will save you time, energy, and money. You’ll learn:
Whether you’re facing a make-or-break business decision or life-altering personal choice, mastering the skill of quitting will help you make the best next move.
Through a blend of compelling exercises, illustrations, and stories, the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets will train you to combat your own biases, address your weaknesses, and help you become a better and more confident decision-maker.
What do you do when you're faced with a big decision? If you're like most people, you probably make a pro and con list, spend a lot of time obsessing about decisions that didn't work out, get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly seek other people's opinions to find just that little bit of extra information that might make you sure, and finally go with your gut.
What if there was a better way to make quality decisions so you can think clearly, feel more confident, second-guess yourself less, and ultimately be more decisive and be more productive?
Making good decisions doesn't have to be a series of endless guesswork. Rather, it's a teachable skill that anyone can sharpen. In How to Decide, bestselling author Annie Duke and former professional poker player lays out a series of tools anyone can use to make better decisions. You'll learn:
Through interactive exercises and engaging thought experiments, this book helps you analyze key decisions you've made in the past and troubleshoot those you're making in the future. Whether you're picking investments, evaluating a job offer, or trying to figure out your romantic life, How to Decide is the key to happier outcomes and fewer regrets.
Wall Street Journal bestseller!
Poker champion turned business consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result.
In Super Bowl XLIX, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made one of the most controversial calls in football history: With 26 seconds remaining, and trailing by four at the Patriots' one-yard line, he called for a pass instead of a hand off to his star running back. The pass was intercepted and the Seahawks lost. Critics called it the dumbest play in history. But was the call really that bad? Or did Carroll actually make a great move that was ruined by bad luck
Even the best decision doesn't yield the best outcome every time. There's always an element of luck that you can't control, and there is always information that is hidden from view. So the key to long-term success (and avoiding worrying yourself to death) is to think in bets: How sure am I? What are the possible ways things could turn out? What decision has the highest odds of success? Did I land in the unlucky 10% on the strategy that works 90% of the time? Or is my success attributable to dumb luck rather than great decision making?
Annie Duke, a former World Series of Poker champion turned business consultant, draws on examples from business, sports, politics, and (of course) poker to share tools anyone can use to embrace uncertainty and make better decisions. For most people, it's difficult to say "I'm not sure" in a world that values and, even, rewards the appearance of certainty. But professional poker players are comfortable with the fact that great decisions don't always lead to great outcomes and bad decisions don't always lead to bad outcomes.
By shifting your thinking from a need for certainty to a goal of accurately assessing what you know and what you don't, you'll be less vulnerable to reactive emotions, knee-jerk biases, and destructive habits in your decision making. You'll become more confident, calm, compassionate and successful in the long run.
