Annie Duke - professional poker player, teacher and celebrity - joins the show to talk about her rise to poker stardom, life growing up with her brother, why she’s on The Celebrity Apprentice and the state of poker today.  And it’s all pretty fascinating.

Honestly, we understand that sometimes people put a podcast to listen and get distracted, catching bits and pieces of an interview. This isn’t that show. You may need to listen to this show 4-5 times to grab all the information Duke gives us (our stats thank you), especially about the future of online gaming. More on that in a minute. But first...

We rip on Norman Chad to start the show. Who just gives out people’s phone numbers? I guess I’m more trustworthy than I thought. And if Duke had to pick being stuck on an island with Chad or AJ Benza, who would she pick?

We then talk about her path to poker. Duke was a PhD candidate at Penn in Cognitive Psychology after graduating from Columbia while majoring in English and Psychology. She was on the path to becoming a teacher, like her parents, and gave it up to move to Colorado with her husband. We ask when that decision proved to be the right move and she likened the path she was down - teaching - to eating a plate of cockroaches. In other words, she wasn’t really giving anything up in her mind.

We also get an in-depth look into the relationship Duke has with her brother and how conversations around the dinner table at age eight were more advanced that most people have as adults (at least the adults on this show).

We ask if there is still a stigma for being a poker pro? Do people respect the game as an actual profession yet? Duke says that because of TV, people have become much more accepting of poker as an actual job. Years ago, not so much.

We talk about the branding of poker icons. What is more financially viable, being a poker player or being a poker celebrity?

Speaking of economics, we talk about the shift in the nation’s economics over the last  few years (namely lots of extra money to no free money) and how that has affected the casinos, and poker in general. Duke explains that while it has tremendously hurt the casinos, the poker industry may be stronger than ever. She details how the online gaming industry is actually a good place to go when the economy is down, as players can spend .25-.50 per hand at an online table that they could never do in a casino. The average player spends less money playing poker online per week than it costs to go to the movies. And you get to sit at home while you do it.

We follow with an innocuous question about the future of online poker in America and if the new administration will be more accepting of the online gaming industry, realizing they are missing out on all sorts of revenue streams with sheer stubbornness and not much else.

Turns out, LOBBIED ON CAPITOL HILL ON THURSDAY about this very topic. Honestly, get out a pen and paper for this segment, as she explains in unbelievable detail what the hiccups are with the government, what laws have been proposed and in her mind, what laws may pass to allow people in the United States to play poker online and not do it hiding in their garage waiting for the Feds to show up.

Bottom line: Duke asserts, and discussed in Washington last week, that by opening up the floodgates of online gaming in America and by taking the winnings, the US government will make enough money in taxes to pay for the auto industry bailout within five years. BILLIONS of dollars, just in taxes.

We make a hard left turn to talk about The Apprentice. We are convinced (especially after the lesson we got on poker economics) that Duke wins, so we ask her. She doesn’t bite. And yes, we know the finale is live, but there are only 2-3 people at that “final table” and we’re going to assume Duke wins. She’s clearly the only person on the show who went in with a gameplan, and she details that for us, including the calculated reason for being purposely-controversial in episode one, if only to get the attention of Trump in a room of people far more famous.

She also tells us why she did the show. We know why people like Andrew Dice Clay and Dennis Rodman go on shows like this, but why someone like Duke, who clearly doesn’t need the money (or one last tug at the limelight like some others on the show). In a word: charity.

To end, we talk about Tiger Woods. Poker players go up against all comers, and anyone with enough money can sit with the best players in the world. My contention is that if Tiger Woods had to face the challenges of thousands of regular people in every tournament, he’d never win again. There are too many people and too little ability to focus. Duke tells us a story about someone tapping her for an autograph WHILE in a hand of a really big tournament. How can anyone maintain focus?

And last, she’s always got the iPod in whenever she’s on TV. So we ask, what’s she listening to? My assumption was some sort of DC Insider Lobbying podcast.