Duke, who made her WORLD POKER TOUR™ debut on the first WPT Ladies’ Night, at first glance seems an unlikely poker pro. Reared in Concord, New Hampshire, she is the daughter of writer and language expert Richard Lederer, who headed the English department at an elite prep school called St. Paul’s.

As a child, Duke was something of an outsider, a townie among privileged New England kids who would jet off to tropical islands during spring break. But she excelled in school, and after St. Paul’s went on to double-major in English and psychology at Columbia.

After graduation from Columbia, Duke stayed on an academic career path, going on to graduate school in psycholinguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.