For Richer, For Poorer : A million-dollar love affair with poker

When Victoria Coren was a kid her brother dealt her in to a game of poker. When she grew up she won the European Poker Tour.

This is the story of that million-dollar win and of Coren's twenty- year obsession, from the seedy charm of illegal cash games to the wonderland of Las Vegas. There is friendship and there is money; loneliness, heart-break and defeat. And there is that magical, dreamlike tournament when the cards are all falling Coren's way.

Praise for For Richer, For Poorer:

'For Richer, For Poorer seizes the reader with its first sentence and never lets go. Victoria Coren upholds the family tradition: she writes, on several levels, with wit, honesty, and perfect freshness.'

Martin Amis

‘A terrific poker book and a terrific memoir… engaging, lucid, full of verve and a pleasure to read. This book is also really funny. These pages are crowded with fascinating people. There is also an unexpected resonance and depth. What more can you ask from a read?’

Observer

‘Coren’s book is not just a witty meditation on a card game with a cast of charismatic rogues who have nicknames to rival mobsters. It’s also a painfully revealing account of her personal life…Coren is a strangely winning combination of lone cowgirl, femme fatale and soft-centred feminist.’

Australian

‘Coren entertaining anecdotes are interspersed with a commentary on the hands she played on the way to winning her one million dollar prize. Even though we know the outcome it makes for a nail biting read.’

Daily Mail

‘This funny, moving and fascinating account of how a posh lass like her fell in love with the disreputable game is a great read from start to finish.’

Big Issue

‘Coren tells the story of her unorthodox rise to poker fame with wit, panache and considerable candour…It makes for a nail-biting read.’

Mail on Sunday

‘The book is nearly impossible to put down, commanding the type of absorption that can only be irritating to one’s partner, vainly attempting to capture one’s attention for a moment. As well as describing a personal odyssey, the book is a wonderful history of poker from 1988 to the present…..she is a superb writer….The book is funny, sad, poignant, outrageous and curiously nostalgic…To finish the book is to sit back with a mixture of satisfaction at its quality and disappointment that it has ended. It is a sort of social history around a single phenomenon but written from the inside experiences from an irrepressible woman. Victoria Coren would be a very interesting person to meet. But if you do, don’t play cards with her.’

Weekend Press