Victoria Coren

Poker player biography of Victoria Coren

One of the few female poker pros is writer and TV presenter Victoria Coren. Born in London, Victoria’s knowledge of poker started early when her older brother taught her how to play the card game at the age 15. Playing poker as a recreation soon caught up with Victoria who played poker professionally in tournaments, making her one of the highest earning female poker players of all time.

Victoria Coren is one of the most popular female names in the British poker scene, if not worldwide. She mastered the game in the toughest casinos in the UK and became the first woman poker pro to win a European Poker Tour title. She is a member of Team Poker Stars Pro and plays online using the screen name "Vicky Coren."

Victoria caught attention when she appeared on the Late Night Poker TV show in the United Kingdom. As the first program to reveal player’s hole cards, the game gained cult status, making Victoria and a select group household names.

Victoria Coren played in several European Poker Championships since 2001 as well in the British Poker Open in 2005 and 2006, one of which is the EPT Season 5 EPT London earning her £11,419.00.
Luck, skill, and talent made Victoria Coren beat 396 competitors and emerged 1st place at the 2006 London leg of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Season 3. Three days of tough playing led her to claim the prize cash of a whooping $941,513.00.

Victoria Coren also finished 2nd in the European Poker Championships earning her $49,273.00. Her total winnings add up to $517,578.00. In 2007, she made it to World Series of Poker Event 45 No-Limit Hold'em/Six Handed garnering $6,159.00.

Victoria is a regular at the famous Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London, a favorite poker spot. She has been frequently cashing in in scheduled tournaments and cash games.

Dividing her time between poker and writing, Victoria Coren works as a journalist and has published books of different subjects. She writes as a poker column for The Guardian newspaper and a weekly topical column in The Observer. She has previously written a poker column in Observer Sport Monthly, weekly columns for The Independent and freelance articles for the Daily Mail, Evening Standard, and other magazines.

Victoria also hosts a British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 series. Her TV work includes presenting BBC documentaries including that on language and the other on surrealist art on BBC 4, and two series of Balderdash & Piffle for BBC 2.

As a poker specialist, Victoria presented the Monte Carlo EPT for Channel 4, a series of World Poker Tour for ITV2, and Late Night Poker. Victoria hosted two series of the chat show Bar Beat for the poker channel. She has also provided commentary for The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour in Channel 4, Celebrity Poker Challenge in ITV1, Ultimate Poker Challenge in Channel 5, and Celebrity Poker Club and Casino in Challenge TV. Victoria Coren currently presents quiz series Only Connect on BBC and the Poker Nations Cup on Channel 4.

Victoria Coren’s professional career in writing kicked off early when she won a competition to write a weekly newspaper column at age 15, earning her £90. She then started writing for the Daily Telegraph as a teenage columnist until she went to university. Victoria, with her brother Giles, edited an anthology of their father’s writing, Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks, published October 2008.

What does Victoria do when she is not playing poker or not busy writing? Victoria enjoys reading, playing cribbage, bridge and Scrabble, and cooking.