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3rd out of 36 books
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10 voters
For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker
In September 2006, Victoria Coren won a million dollars on the European Poker Tour. In her long-awaited memoir,she tells the story of that victory, but also of a 20-year obsession with the game. It is a journey which has taken Coren from a secret culture of illegal cash games to the high-stakes glamour of Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, and brought with it friendship, laughter,...more
Hardcover, 346 pages
Published
September 1st 2009
by Canongate UK
(first published July 5th 2009)
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I really don’t know anything about poker, but I was keen to read this after realising just how fabulous Ms Coren is. Although it is all about the game, it’s not hard to read. Even when going into details about particular hands, you only have to have a basic grasp of deal, raise, and fold, which is the extent of my knowledge. It’s a tale of how one person can do what they love and do it well, and a chronicle of how poker has grown and changed but still retains it’s essence. The most important lin...more
I'd always quite liked the idea of this book. I know little about poker, but I find it intriguing, and I've enjoyed Victoria Coren's writing in the past. Honestly, though, I never expected to enjoy this as much as I did. Her absolute love of the game and its history comes through on every page.
It covers an interesting time for poker, since as the book starts it's still a game kept broadly within the confines of casinos, the odd seedy club and a few home games, but by the end of the book, it's o...more
It covers an interesting time for poker, since as the book starts it's still a game kept broadly within the confines of casinos, the odd seedy club and a few home games, but by the end of the book, it's o...more
From early games where she was fleeced by her elder brother, to the swankiest of French casinos via the dazzling lights of Vegas and games in dodgy boozers before coming home to the comforting security of Tuesday games at The Vic, Victoria Coren has mapped out her life in poker. It is a looking glass world, inhabited by characters going by names like Devilfish, J.Q. and The Elegance, who bandy words like big blinds, buttons and flops and are always looking for the turn of the final river card th...more
Victoria Coren's book goes straight on to my must read list! The story of her love affair with poker just happens to coincide with the rise in popularity of the game from smoke filled back rooms to Internet overload and celebrity television shows with championship games on the sports channels. I remember coming home from the pub and switching on the television when Late Night Poker was first broadcast; it really should not have worked but it was just so addictive viewing. I do not really want to...more
As soon as I saw Victoria Coren talking about her book on Twitter, I knew that I was going to have to read it. Witty, intelligent, dead cute and sister of the equally entertaining although more sweary Giles, she really is my OH's celebrity crush, which is why we had to watch Only Connect religiously when it was on.
So, not only does Coren have all that going for her, she is also ‘a bit naughty’ because she has immersed herself in the ‘seedy’ world of poker – except she doesn’t just dabble, she wa...more
So, not only does Coren have all that going for her, she is also ‘a bit naughty’ because she has immersed herself in the ‘seedy’ world of poker – except she doesn’t just dabble, she wa...more
Who is Victoria Coren ? A young lady who wrote an amazing book about Poker ? Not only. Indeed she is a really good writer. But in the same time she is a member of Team Pokerstars Pro! Hence she knows what she’s talking about...
This book can be read without any knowledge of the game (you can find the rules in the last pages) but would be much more appreciated by poker players, or at least people who know how to play. It tells the story of a kid who grew up with the game, it tells a love story bet...more
This book can be read without any knowledge of the game (you can find the rules in the last pages) but would be much more appreciated by poker players, or at least people who know how to play. It tells the story of a kid who grew up with the game, it tells a love story bet...more
I've always been a bit of a gambler (not a hugely successful one, but enthusiastic - up to my preset financial limit, of course) and have always wanted to learn to play poker.
I've also been a fan of Victoria Coren for a long time, and when I discovered her poker credentials, and that she'd written this book, I knew I had to buy it.
And I'm glad I did. I love this book. Coren writes entertainingly about her life in poker (though there's rather too much use of the historical present for my taste) a...more
I've also been a fan of Victoria Coren for a long time, and when I discovered her poker credentials, and that she'd written this book, I knew I had to buy it.
And I'm glad I did. I love this book. Coren writes entertainingly about her life in poker (though there's rather too much use of the historical present for my taste) a...more
A terrific book about becoming a poker player (and she's a good one, a winner of a European Poker Tour event in London for a million pounds--or dollars?). Coren is a wonderful writer (her poker column in one of the London newspapers is excellent), and she captures the slightly seedy/illicit appeal of the game. I feel I should use a poker-related ranking system instead of stars; if Al Alvarez's book "The Biggest Game in Town" is a royal flush, "For Richer, For Poorer" is at least a full house (AA...more
There are several reasons why you might want to read an autobiography - because you are interested in the author, because you are interested in something that is talked about, or because you have a liking for autobiographies in general. (Or because you've been given it as a gift...).
I am slowly getting into reading autobiographies, and biographies in general, and that might have helped my interest in the first place. Second, while not being very knowledgeable, I have developed a thing for poker,...more
I am slowly getting into reading autobiographies, and biographies in general, and that might have helped my interest in the first place. Second, while not being very knowledgeable, I have developed a thing for poker,...more
I bought this on Amazon for £1 when they were having a Kindle ebook sale. All I had to do was wait until I eventually bought a Kindle. And when I did this was my first book. And what a book!
Victoria Coren, from the crazily talented Coren family, has many strings to her bow. She's hosted Heresy on Radio 4, Only Connect on BBC4, writes for the Guardian and as she's best known in the context of this book, a Poker Champion.
In For Richer, For Poorer, Coren charts her love affair with poker from an ea...more
Victoria Coren, from the crazily talented Coren family, has many strings to her bow. She's hosted Heresy on Radio 4, Only Connect on BBC4, writes for the Guardian and as she's best known in the context of this book, a Poker Champion.
In For Richer, For Poorer, Coren charts her love affair with poker from an ea...more
I have read a lot of poker books and until now I have been most unsatisfied with the "personal memoir" style of poker book. Poker players are a slippery bunch and getting one to truly open up in a book seems to be asking the impossible. As a result there are dozens of biographies of poker personalities that are utterly forgettable. Victoria Coren's recent book, "For Richer, For Poorer" blows the doors off any other poker biography on the market. Coren is intelligent, eloquent and humorous, and m...more
I liked this book, despite the occasional detailed descriptions of poker games that went right over my head. I liked the fact that Coren is mostly drawn to the game because it represents (or represented) an underworld full of strange, damaged, fragile people.
Although Coren is down to earth and funny, and passionate about and excited by poker, the book also explores the sadness and nostalgia that it triggers. These were probably my favourite bits. She describes a glorious fortnight in Vegas as f...more
Although Coren is down to earth and funny, and passionate about and excited by poker, the book also explores the sadness and nostalgia that it triggers. These were probably my favourite bits. She describes a glorious fortnight in Vegas as f...more
I really love this book. Not just because it's the story of the first female EPT champion, but the way Vicky portrays the world surrounding the game makes me wish I was around before poker became so popular. The story is full of emotion and that gives it the essence other poker books lack. The ups and downs of living the life of a "degenerate" gambler, love, grief, happiness and despair. All is there and all is true. I definitely recommend this book to everyone. Non-players and players alike.
I didn't know a thing about poker before I started this, but I like Victoria Coren's writing in the Guardian and I hoped she would write with intelligence and humour. Add to that a wicked eye for observation and a truthful eye too. A good read. There is something upside down about her world by the end of the book, night replacing day, which adds to the sense that she has narrated us on a journey from which we might come back, but she surely will continue to follow.
For poker-lovers, this is the story of Britain's first female European Tour Poker champ. And for those of you who don't care about poker (like myself), it's just a really well-written, funny book about the world of poker and the people who live there. It makes me want to play poker, but mainly to peer at the characters from up close, not to win any money, as that seems to be the hard bit.
A compelling look at the world of poker, through the eyes of journalist and broadcaster Victoria Coren. She details how she became hooked on the game from her early days playing for small stakes in smoke filled back rooms of pubs and clubs, right up to becoming the European champion. She has an uncanny knack of bringing to life the charachters that she has met through the years and the anecdotes are interesting, funny, and sometimes sorrowful.
So good, but I could have done without.... the poker parts......... I know it's what her life/the book is about, and it was probably for like-minded poker fiends, but I skipped so much of the technical poker aspect paragraphs. Her life is so fascinating, though. I feel bad about being more interested about her relationship with Giles than anything else in her life
Dec 19, 2011
Harry Rutherford
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
autobiography
I don't have any interest in poker, but Victoria Coren is entertaining on TV and radio, so I picked this up a few months ago when the Kindle edition was on special offer at some ludicrously cheap price. And it's definitely a good read. It's funny, it's moving, it's interesting.
A really enjoyable, easy read about Victoria Coren's relationship with poker - first as a means to meeting her brother's friends but then as an addictive hobby, an obsession and ultimately a way of life culminating in her winning the London EPT tournament, £500,000 and professional sponsorship.
At first I wasn't sure if I was really going to get much out of this book, because I know absolutely nothing about poker, and in the beginning, Victoria Coren doesn't really make allowances for beginners in that field. However, this turned out to be the right approach: I learned far more about poker from this immersion technique than I suspect I would've done from gentle hand-holding. More to the point, this is so much more than just a poker book: while Coren does a brilliant job of capturing th...more
I enjoyed this although I do think it helps if you have a little interest in poker. I know the rules, which does help and Coren writes well enough for it to be engaging regardless but yeah, it'd be more compelling if you're a poker fan.
Very well written but I am afraid the content did not stimulate me enough.
The writer did a great job but clearly my interests are not in poker.
The writer did a great job but clearly my interests are not in poker.
Nov 13, 2011
Richard
is currently reading it
A fun book so far - kind of autobiography by the side door and I have certainly learnt alot about the psychology of poker.
Found the in depth poker plays hard to follow, not playing myself, but the general narrative was very engaging imho
I've liked Victoria Coren ever since she wrote a column in the Telegraph when she was a teenager (and so was I). All the same I wasn't really expecting to enjoy a book about poker as much as I did. But it's a very entertaining read.
As a fan of Vicky Coren and Poker this book couldn't do any wrong for me - great read.
Loved this book. It was a proper page-turner and had me hooked right until the end.
Excellent; wonderfully written. Recommended to players and non-players alike.
Great book. Kind of like if Doyle Brunson's Super System was written by a real-life female Adrian Mole with a penchant for Alice and Wonderland references.
Definitely worth the read
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Victoria Elizabeth Coren is an English writer, presenter and professional poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect.
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“And as we walk back down the street, me gingerly clutching what at this point constitutes my entire collection, my father says, ‘One day, when you’re all grown up and I’m not here any more, you’ll remember the sunny day we went to the market together and bought a boat.’ My throat feels tight because, as soon as he says it, I am already there. Standing on another street, without my father, trying to get back. And yet I’m here, with him. So I try to soak up every aspect of the moment, to help me get back when I need to. I feel the weight of the chunky parcel under my arm, and the warmth of the sun, and my father’s hand in mine. I smell the flowers with their sharp undertang of cheap hot dog, and taste the slick of toffee on my teeth, and hear the chattering hagglers. I feel the joy of an adventurous Saturday with my father and no school, and I feel the sadness of looking back when it is all gone. When he is gone.”
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2 people liked it
“A boat beneath a sunny sky, Lingering onward dreamily In an evening of July – Children three that nestle near, Eager eye and willing ear, Pleased a simple tale to hear – Long has paled that sunny sky: Echoes fade and memories die: Autumn frosts have slain July. As a child, I don’t understand exactly what it is about. I can’t read the significance of Alice reaching the final square and becoming a queen. But I feel the sadness in the poem, and, in this later now, I know why. It’s because everything is in the present tense, even though it cannot all be; either some of it has passed, or some of it hasn’t happened yet. The sky is sunny, but it has paled. The boat is lingering, but it is gone. It’s July, but it’s autumn. This is a riddle, a paradox. Lewis Carroll must be either looking back into the past, feeling the sunshine and the drifting boat as if he were still there . . . or looking forward from the present, imagining a time when the sky and the boat and the summer will have vanished. Which is it? Doesn’t matter. Wherever he stands, he feels both at once. The current, the retrospective, the projected, all are written in the present tense because they are all, always, mixed up together. Because, even as something is happening, it is gone. Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt? Where is the boat? Where is the summer? Where are the children?”
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1 person liked it
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Sep 17, 2012 02:17pm