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For Richer, For Poorer: A Love affair with Poker by Victoria Coren


‘For Richer, For Poorer’ is a memoir at it's most basic level of how Coren won a million dollars in the EPT. However that is but one small part of an engrossing book that starts with her trying to break into her brother’s games wanting to meet boys. Each chapter finishes with an account of the London EPT she won. First and foremost this is a book about poker but it revealingly much more than that, and all the better for it. One reviewer described it as a "memoir about friendship and belonging". For example Coren comments on her personal life; the bullying she experienced at school, her love for her father, her passions for her lovers, her depression.

There’s a huge cast of characters both those familiar to Poker aficianados but also some familiar to those readers who won't be au fait with the poker world such as celebrities (Martin Amis, John Diamond, Ben Affleck, Tom Parker-Bowles) which I would expect is one of the reasons explaining the book's "cross-over" popularity with non-poker readers, that and Coren's media profile on quiz shows and the like.

The book is wonderfully observed, with a dry style. Here’s a scene from a ‘novelty’ (as it was at the time) Ladies’ Tournament:

“One dazzling redhead scoops her Vietnamese neighbour’s entire stack of chips with a fiendishly hidden set of eights, slow-playing her clean out of the tournament, while asking the question, ‘Are you still seeing that construction worker? He seemed cute.’
The small blind asks the button if she’s dating anybody right now. The button, calling a small raise on the flop, chats about an ongoing fling with an office colleague and some fears about commitment. The small blind, betting three-quarters of the pot on the turn, expresses the view that this is normal and that the romance sounds promising. The button, mucking her hand in disgust, compliments the big blind on her blouse. The big blind smiles, and provides details as to where such a blouse can be acquired locally at reasonable cost.”


In adition to the Poker, and the personal life, this is a very funny book too:

“Men and women are not sufficiently different, psychologically, for either gender to be ‘naturally’ better at poker than the other. I am not saying that gender differences do not exist. It is only women who have headaches without telling anybody, remember arguments verbatim, re-use cotton wool, worry about the problems of characters on television, or have close and long-standing friendships with people they don’t like. And it is only men who get excited about military hardware, blow their noses on their hands, say ‘Can’t we talk about this tomorrow?’, have any interest in watching Michael Caine films, think seriously and carefully about what they would do if they encountered a bear (or a shark, or a dinosaur, or Hitler) while carrying only a candlestick, or take out a pint of milk, sniff it, make a face, then put it back in the fridge.”

Towards the end of the book Coren becomes reflective, revealing her ambitions but also some dissatisfaction with herself.

“What if I had some wishing dust and could start all over again? How could I change it so I wouldn’t get my heart broken, so I would build a more significant life, fit more in, achieve higher things? At what point would I need to start the change?”

She also at points seems almost embarrassed about being an unmarried, child-free, thirty-something female.

With a book like this, where you know how it ends before you even pick it up, it’s testament to the writer’s skill to keep you hanging on every word, living and breathing the experience with them. Coren explains her motivations and her unerring attachment to the game and you understand exactly.

“I always suspected that poker was not about money for me. But now that it has been tested, I know. I won a £25,000 tournament when that was a life-changing fortune, but it did not make me happy because my heart was broken and money is no cure. I won a £500,000 tournament, but it did not make me happy because my father had come back and I was so happy already that there was not room for any more.”

These days of course Coren is sponsored by Stars. In response to her airing her concerns about signing with them her father said:

“Have you lost your mind? If A.A. Baines, turf accountants, had offered Uncle Sid a year’s worth of free bets in exchange for wearing a T-shirt, he’d have bitten their arm off.”

In my opinion, this is a must read.

if you do want to buy it, do so here and help blonde at the same time

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richer-Poorer-Love-Affair-Poker/dp/1847672914?&camp=2486&linkCode=wsw&tag=blondepoker-21&creative=8942

Great review - but do women really re-use cotton wool? That is the strangest analogy of a woman I have ever heard!

Sounds quite an interesting read, may well purchase it at some point.

It is a very good book, I flew through it in two nights.

Not only is the autobiographical part of it illuminating, but it helped fill in a few holes in my knowledge of the growth of poker in this country over the past ten years.

She does have a nice turn of phrase, such as this bit from the Observer column yesterday.

I thought I'd make a rather good juror. I am a professional poker player, after all: I spend half my life staring into men's faces, trying to work out whether or not they are telling the truth. And I am heterosexual, so I also spend the other half doing that.

Maybe when you're really stuck and it's that time of the month?

does it have drama, scandel and juicy gossip about other poker players?

Worth a read.  Two books in one really; a sort of abbreviated version of Gus Hansen's Every Hand Revealed where she details hands from the EPT win and an autobiography.  A good enough read if you're flying somewhere and need to kill time.  

Sort of.  The Late Night Poker stories were interesting.   The Hamish Shah part very sad.

Audio book please,i like her voice.

Ditto, for the same reason.

It's on the cards but not finalised apparantly.

Done my bit for blonde.. ordered along with dracula for the girfriend as shes bang into the twighlight books at the moment..... if anyone wants me on the 20th i'll be in the local multiplex watching hammy loved up teenage vampires.... FML

Sicillians account hacked - someone pretending he's got a girlfriend. 

Might buy this as a present for Fran when baby Phillips is born

i remember something weird, when that smiley scandi bloke can't remember his name got grassed up for setting up a video camera in his parents hotel to try to cheat a high stakes game and everyone ostracized him, inc THM IIRC, except for VC who went out of her way on the WHGP commentary to say what a good friend of hers he was and what a superb player he was. Did she say why she did that in the book? Johnny Lodden said what a crap player he was in his exit interview which was amusing

I'm halfway through, it's a pretty decent read so far...

Read the exert article in the Observer last month.

That concentrated it seemed on her relationship with her father,

Can someone who has read the book confirm its a little wider than that

Jealousy is a terrible thing...  ;)

?

Did you read Tighty's review at the top of this thread?

Yeah, everything's broadly covered - it's very well structured to not focus too heavily on any one aspect.


EDIT: plus what Andrew just said

Yeah, but what's it about?

:dontask:

Oh damm - you got me   :'(

Someone whos read it tell me if any bits in their talking about boyfriends past present? any poker players.

Yes, but JonMW is not actually named in the book.

He said, past/present - not future ;D

Keep fighting it.....

I actually think Vicky is quite Cheeky.. but i have reached a certain age....u know how it is...