from: www.Pokerroad.com
l
Well known poker pro Annie Duke was considered by many to be the favorite going into last night’s final Celebrity Apprentice for the season, not only had she won more challenges than Joan Rivers, but she easily raised more money than any other player (even more than most combined). Also, Annie did a better job keeping her cool in the boardroom in comparison to Joan, who not only implied she was quitting during an earlier episode, but continually flew off the handle calling Annie “two-faced,” “Hitler,” “a poker player” (apparently that’s now a bad thing) and generally beneath her in nearly every way.
During the final challenge, creating a party and festive environment for a charity auction (and selling Cirque Du Soleil tickets), Annie continued showcasing perhaps her strongest skill, fund-raising, acquiring $465,725 for her charity Refugees International.
Joan Rivers only raised $150,830 for her charity, God’s Love We Deliver, but succeeded with what had been seen as some of her strongest skills, throwing a red carpet worthy event and generally having a lot of vitality for a women her age (not really part of the challenge, but oddly mentioned by almost everyone who gave their opinion on who they thought should win).
Unfortunately for Annie, raising money only counted as 1/5th of the final challenge, the rest came down to who threw the best party, who had the best Kodak branding, who best integrated the charity and whose invited celebrities were the most impressive. In the infamous Trump Boardroom, it was discovered that Joan had won three of these five elements, a bad sign for Annie that definitely showed some of the writing on the wall.
In the end (as perhaps you’ve already gathered from my admittedly slightly biased recap), it was indeed Rivers who claimed the title as the next Celebrity Apprentice, earning another $250,000 for her charity. Annie was the runner-up, but given in the final challenge she raised about $315,000 more for her charity than Joan did (and hundreds of thousands more throughout the season) one could easily wonder, if you asked the charities, who would they say won?
and 
Entries (RSS)