Knowing your Table on Celebrity Apprentice
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - Annie Duke
Okay…
so I have made it past week 5 on Celebrity Apprentice! Woohoo! The hotel challenge was possibly the most fun I had during the whole taping of the show. I seriously loved that challenge and took my job strangely seriously while doing it. So fun. Anyway, I have been starting to get asked why I have not been Project Manager yet and I thought this would be a great place to bring in some poker strategy in explaining why not. The explanation has to do with knowing your table.
In poker, when you first get moved to a table, it is important to sit back and really get to know your players if you can before getting involved in any big decisions against them. That is because the quality of any big decision you have to make, like whether to fold or call a big shove, will go up the more you know about your opponent. Think about this…what if you call, don’t get knocked out, then find out later that the guy who shoved never, ever moves in without the nuts. Wouldn’t you feel sick about your call in retrospect. Or what if it is the opposite? You have a close decision and decide to fold but then alter find out your opponent is a complete maniac who shoves on bluffs all the time. Wouldn’t you feel sick in retrospect about your fold? The fact is that our decisions at the table can only be as good as the information we have on our opponents at that moment.
My decision to delay being Project Manager was based on this. It seemed to me that before making that big and risky decision (since PM is always the most at risk for being fired if a team loses) I wanted to know my table pretty well for two reasons: 1) you have a much higher likelihood of winning a challenge if you really know your team’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can assign jobs in the most intelligent manner. If you give people jobs in that lie well within their skill sets then you are more liely to win and never have to face the board room. But 2) on the flip side, you want to know who the weak players on your team are and, particularly, who Trump THINKS the weak players are in case you lose because then you know for sure who to bring into the board room with you. Knowing who Trump is itching to fire takes some time, it takes a feel for the game, the other players and, more importantly, it takes a lot of listening carefully in the board rooms. The more of those you have under your belt before becoming PM, the more you know your table, and the better off you are in case you lose.
So, just like in poker, I really didn’t want to get involved in a big hand on Celebrity Apprentice, until I knew my table really well. Now, obviously, I don’t want to take that too far..the extreme would be never to be PM…because you need to be seen as a leader and someone who is willing to step up. So it is an interesting balance of not laying too low but waiting long enough till you have a great bead on your opponents and on Donald Trump’s opinions.
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Tags: Annie Duke, Celebrity Apprentice, Donald Trump, Poker Poker Poker
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 am
Hey everyone… I was away for awhile trying to build up some money on another site, but I’m back playing at UB again and checking the blogs and stuff.
I’m a bit of a reality tv nut, and always love watching The Apprentice. I think you’re doing great Annie, although that first week seemed kind of rough while you’re team was still settling in with each other. The episode with Rodman getting fired was really sad. Usually my wife and I find the board rooms really funny to watch, but that one was kind of depressing. It just felt like Rodman was really struggling with some serious personal issues and that everyone really was rooting for him, but he just was burying himself and would likely continue to do so in his future travels through life.
Just curious, though… do you and any of the other cast play any poker up in the suite at all??? Ever get in a game with Trump himself???
Good luck Annie! Hope you win the whole thing!
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:18 am
Hey paulodiablo!
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN! LOL.
Great to have one of our first supporters back in the fold. Hope things have been well with you.
GL and keep in touch!
Aces
April 4th, 2009 at 11:30 am
On the Celebrity version we don’t actually live together but, even so, no we never did get a poker game going. I offer to teach jesse James but he said he didn’t want to play. I can tell you, though, if that guy ever decided to learn poker he would be a natural!
xo
annie
April 6th, 2009 at 2:02 am
I’m such a FAN of Annie Duke it’s ridiculous.
What a “unique” personality.
She definitely is THERE … wherever she is.
By The Way
It would appear that NEXT WEEK
WEEK #7 is going to “feature” Annie in a “spat” with
Joan Rivers … again.
Could this week be the week that Annie gets fired?
And .. I wonder what she thinks of Donald’s Firings
IN Week #6 ..
I bet there are a lot of people who “are not pleased.”
Is Annie one of them?
Does she agree with one or more of the firings.
Fired because she “volunteered.”
Fired because someone had a previous DUI?
(Neither Was Annie)
May 11th, 2009 at 5:21 am
The winner of the final episode won $250000.00, yet between both parties they collected over $600,000 dollars, where did the balance of the money collected by Anne and Joan go?
May 11th, 2009 at 5:27 am
ANNE SHOULD HAVE WON HANDS DOWN, TRUMP WAS PLAYING POLITICS AS JOAN DID CAUSE PROBLEMS WITH THE DECORATOR AND MR TRUMP DIDN’ ADDRESS IT AS THE CAUSE FOR ANNE LOSS