Poker player Victoria Coren (aka Vicky Coren) is a British writer and television host. Her weekly columns can be found in The Observer and The Guardian newspapers, and she also writes for a variety of other publications.
A Family Tradition
Born in 1973, Vicky Coren is the daughter of the late journalist and humorist Alan Coren. She is also the sister of journalist Giles Coren.
Victoria Coren proved that writing was in her blood from an early age, submitting a short story to Just 17 magazine when she was only 14 years old. Written under an assumed name, the story was accepted and published, and Victoria earned her first payment as a professional writer.
That same year, the Daily Telegraph newspaper held a competition in order to find someone to write a weekly column about teenage life. Victoria Coren won the contest and continued to write the column until she attended college at the University of Oxford.
Following graduation, Victoria Coren embarked on a full-time career as a journalist. She has written a monthly dating column for Esquire magazine, weekly columns for The Independent and Independent on Sunday and a poker column in Observer Sport Monthly. She has also done freelance work for the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, The Sun, The Times, Cosmopolitan, Grazia, Elle and numerous others.
In addition to various columns, Victoria Coren has also written a number of books. These include Love 16, King Lear: Fathers and Daughters and Once More with Feeling. The latter book documents the efforts of Coren and co-author Charlie Skelton to make a unique and successful porn film (known as The Naughty Twins). She also adapted a book by friend John Diamond into a play entitled A Lump in My Throat.
Crossover Success
With her sense of humor and good looks, Coren eventually got work on television as the host of the BBC’s Balderdash and Piffle, as well as Late Night Poker, Poker Nations Cup, The Monte Carlo EPT, Bar Beat, The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, Ultimate Poker Challenge, William Hill Poker Grand Prix 2, Celebrity Poker Challenge, Celebrity Poker Club and Casino Casino.
Coren also does work for BBC Radio 4, hosting their Off the Page program. In 2008, she took over for David Baddiel as the host of Heresy. In the fall of 2008, she’s scheduled to host a quiz show for BBC 4 called Only Connect.
Along with these projects, Coren is working on a memoir about her poker experiences. She and her brother Giles are also collaborating on editing an anthology of their late father’s work.
Renaissance Woman
Besides her many accomplishments as a writer and television host, Coren is also a respected poker player. She specializes in Texas Hold’em cash games at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London, but she’s been involved in tournaments since 2001. In all, she has over 15 years of poker experience under her belt.
A member of PokerStars Team Pro, she won the London EPT/European Championship in 2006. By doing so, she became the first woman to win the European Poker Tour event. She is also good friends with The Hendon Mob (Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman and Ram Vaswani).
Coren has appeared on five episodes of Late Night Poker as a player, and she was the champion of the second season of Celebrity Poker Club. While she’s also a skilled online poker player, her live tournament winnings are in excess of $1,000,000.
Favorite Music and Movies
Away from the poker table, Victoria is a fan of both music and movies. She lists “Better Not Look Down” by BB King as her personal anthem, and she rates “Happiness is a Warm Gun” by the Beatles as the best song ever produced. She’s also fond of Cole Porter and Ella Fitzgerald songs.
When it comes to movies, she considers The Graduate to be her favorite film, followed by Some Like It Hot. A big Mary Poppins fan, Vicky Coren is also partial to comedies such as Blazing Saddles and Top Secret.
