For Richer, For Poorer
JacquesClaw is delighted by Victoria Cohen's memoir
0.3
This review has been written by one of our members, JacquesClaw. A big thanks to him.
Victoria Coren is a very talented woman. Not content with a highly successful journalistic career and hosting panel shows at the upper end of the intellectual spectrum on both TV and radio, she's also a handy poker player.
And when I say handy I mean a bit better than dominating the 5p kitchen table game. In fact there are half a million very specific reasons why Coren can be called a great player, for she won that amount winning the European Poker Tour event in London in 2006.
At first glance Coren appears an unlikely guide to the UK poker scene and the transformations that have overtaken it this past decade. An all girls public school education followed by a degree at St John's College, Oxford and a brief stint in the world of stand up comedy don't usually feature on the CVs of those destined for poker stardom. This sense of outsider in fact makes Coren the perfect guide.
A memoir is only as good as the subject material and thankfully Coren's is packed full of good stuff. After enviously watching her brother and his friends playing for small stakes round the dining table she's soon bitten by the poker bug.
Progressing from friendly (and not so friendly homes games) to casinos and tournaments she soon finds herself in a world where she really feels at home. The card table is no respecter of background, race or religion. The chips are worth the same for everyone, even for insecure young ladies trying to find their way in life.
The legendary Vic Casino is beautifully brought to life, boasting a host of characters that reads like a membership list from Minder's Winchester Club. Many of the top British names make an appearance too. There's Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott, The Hendon Mob, Neil 'Bad Beat' Channing and many more larger than life personalities.
Holding a pair of aces when your opponent has a pair of kings is a sure fire way to get rich. It must have felt like this for those riding the wave at the start of the poker boom a decade ago. The serendipitous symmetry of television, the Internet and an unlikely World Champion called Moneymaker produced a perfect poker eclipse.
As someone who saw poker both pre and post boom, Coren is ideally placed to show just how staggering the transformation has been. There's some great stuff about the pioneers of televised poker and how the game has gone from one associated with smoky backrooms and Texans named after places to one dominated by Scandinavian kids wearing hoodies and iPods.
No book about poker is complete without a mention of Las Vegas but few can have offered so delightful a description of Sin City as
If you're picturing an old lady right now, picture Sylvester Stallone's collagen stuffed mother
Coren is equally poetic about the old world charms of Deauville. Picking up a shell on the beach of the posh French coastal town
you don't hear the sea, you hear the purr of a Rolls Royce engine and the snap of a gold cigarette case
Lovely.
Topping the poker bill though are Coren's thoughts on winning the European Poker Tour event. The pieces are short but give a real insight into what it must be like to reach the final table of a major tournament with life changing amounts of money at stake. The strategy, the doubts, the fears, the elation at seeing another player knocked out, what it's like walking on a tightrope when a silly mistake could cost thousands of dollars.
All of this is great fun for anyone who finds himself transfixed by a game on a late night TV channel. What's in it for the non-poker aficionado? The answer is plenty.
Coren is remarkably frank writing about the disappointments in her life. The book is about poker but in many ways it's not about poker at all, it's about life. Whether it's discussing her lack of marriage and children, her struggling with depression, her flirtation with the roulette wheel and her relationship with her father, Coren is always honest and engaging and often very funny too. The Coren genes have obviously passed down a generation as Victoria writes as wittily and amusingly as her late father.
In the list of great poker books this is up there with Anthony Holden's Big Deal and Al Alvarez's Biggest Game In Town. It's frank, informative, funny and beautifully written. Even if you don't know your trips from your open ended straight draw there's still much to admire and enjoy.
The last word should go to the author herself
The skill of this game is to maximise your return when you have lucky cards, minimise your losses when you run bad and bluff with enough judgement and timing to make the hands seem irrelevant anyway
Seems like a pretty good metaphor for life itself.
About This Entry
‘For Richer, For Poorer’ was posted by Liam Doyle on Tue, 3rd November 2009 at 10:52:41 GMT and filed under book reviews.
