Celebrity Apprentice Takes Center Stage on PokerNewsDaily.com

San Jose, Costa Rica (SANEPR.com) March 20, 2009 -- Recent poker news headlines by www.PokerNewsDaily.com have been dominated by Ultimate Bet pro Annie Duke’s appearance on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. The show, which airs at 9:00pm ET on Sundays, began with two teams of eight celebrities divided into men and women. Duke’s team includes TLC singer Tionne Watkins, reality star Khloe Kardashian, talk show host Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa, Deal or No Deal model Claudia Jordan, former Playboy Playmate of the Year Brande Roderick, and professional golfer Natalie Gulbis.

In the first episode, the teams were tasked with baking and selling as many cupcakes as possible. Duke was tasked by Joan Rivers, the Project Manager, to be in charge of the kitchen. She was efficient and vocal at the same time, prompting Rivers to comment, “Mussolini made the trains run on time, but no Italian smiled at him when they got on and off.” In the end, the first task of the Celebrity Apprentice was won by the women, sending the men to the board room, where comedian Andrew Dice Clay was fired.

On her strategy headed into the popular reality show, Duke told PokerNewsDaily.com in an exclusive interview, “I wanted to get on the show and make sure that Trump knew me. The bigger the celebrity, the more you are in his eyes. I’m not a big mainstream celebrity, so I needed to make noise right away.” Duke has received major support from successful poker pros including Erik Seidel and Perry Friedman while on the show.

In World Series of Poker news, it was revealed that players will receive triple stacks to start tournaments this year. The WSOP contains a total of 57 bracelet events and, in a big change from 2008, no rebuy tournaments will be held. In addition, a special $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament as well as a $1,000 “special stimulus” event will be added, creating an electric atmosphere. The Rio in Las Vegas will once again serve as the home of the WSOP and Poker News Daily will have tournament updates throughout the event.

Also making poker news headlines this week has been the upcoming April 15th tax deadline in the United States. Poker News Daily sat down with Ann-Margaret Johnston, a renowned expert in the field, to talk about the nuances of poker tax law. Johnston cautioned, “Always report how much you win separate from how much you lose. You especially need to be careful if you’re funneling money into a checking account. Make sure you don’t report less than the amount of your deposits.”

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