Annie Duke Responds to Being Called a ‘F***ing C***’

Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu, in happier times.

As you may have heard by now, poker pro Daniel Negreanu teed off on fellow player Annie Duke in an interview the other day, referring to her as a “F***ing c***.” Now Duke has responded in an open letter to one of his biggest sponsors, Poker Stars, that takes exception with Daniel’s choice of words.

After Negreanu called her that less than charitable name, a female poker player, who goes by the alias PokerLawyer, wrote her own open letter to Poker Stars. In it, she said she hoped they would chastise Daniel in some way, for his use of the ‘C’ word. They didn’t make any mention of the offensive word in their response to her, and basically just said that Daniel was entitled to his opinion, and they support his right to say what he wants, as an individual. And that’s what made Duke mad.

In Duke’s letter, she says, in part: “I am not offended by Daniel’s opinion. He has a right to disagree with me and dislike me…This is not about his views. This is about a particular word he chose to express those views. The word “c***” is not an opinion, it is an abusive epithet, and PokerStars is completely ignoring the use of that term…” She goes on to say how disappointed she is that they support Negreanu and his role in the controversy.

To complicate matters further, the two have a bit of a history. A few years back, Negreanu posted a laundry list of reasons he didn’t like Duke. He’s since gone on the record to say he was out of line with some of those comments, but clearly the animosity remains.

Which means this all probably isn’t over. Will Daniel Negreanu take it back? Will there be another flurry of angry open letters? Only time will tell…