As 2009 comes to a close, numerous poker publications and poker news websites have been rehashing the year by listing the Top 10 poker stories of 2009.

PokerHelper.com thinks they’re all missing the boat, and we don’t mean the full kind.

Not only have these publications and websites failed to identify the key poker story of 2009, none have even identified it among their Top 10.

So then what is the top poker story of 2009?

Poker players are now officially celebrities.

Until this year, celebrities were generally defined as actors, musicians, athletes or other entertainers.

But then, in the spring of ‘09, the popular American reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice” for the first time included a poker player among its competitors.

Yes, there among the singers and comedians and pro athletes defined as “celebrity apprentices” on the show was poker player Annie Duke.

Yup, poker players were now officially “celebrities.”

It said so right there in the title of the show–”Celebrity Apprentice.”

Plus, Donald Trump said so, and he was the host of the show, and that was good enough for America.

After all, Trump himself was a celeb, so if he said it, it must be true.

Anyway, Duke’s impact on popular culture was in all acuality the most significant poker story of the year.

Yes, poker players have been getting invited to celebrity poker tournaments for years.

And they’ve been appearing on TV for years too, usually playing poker.

But Duke’s appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice” was the first time in history a top poker pro played a significant role on a popular U.S. television program (she finished in second place to comic Joan Rivers) and had a whole nation following her progress on the show.

She–and by decree poker players in general–had now been defined, or maybe annointed is a better word, as celebrities.

Jeff “The Iceman” Lisandro won three championship gold bracelets at the 2009 World Series of Poker, but no one outside the poker community knows who he is.

Little old ladies in Iowa and Alabama who don’t know a full house from an outhouse know who Annie Duke is, though, all because of primetime network TV.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)