JOURNALIST WINS LONDON LEG OF THE EUROPEAN POKER TOUR (Update)

(525) (26-September-2006)

GBP 500 000 grand prize goes to columnist who writes about playing poker

Victoria Coren (33) a journalist working for the Guardian newspaper in London was GBP 500 000 richer this week following a weekend of poker in which she truimphed over a starting field of 400 in the London section of the European Poker Tour championships.

After three days of play at the Grosvenor Hotel's Victoria Casino, in west London, Coren became the first woman ever to win the London section of the competition, one of the three biggest poker tournaments in the world. During the tournament she impressed spectators and opponents alike with a sophisticated level of play and a chatty, outgoing demeanour.

Coren writes a weekly column, How to Play Poker for the newspaper and has presented TV poker shows, said she was stunned to win the top prize after producing a straight to beat an Australian rival in the final hand. The daughter of the famous humourist Alan Coren, she has played poker for 15 years, and before last night, had won around GBP 52 000.

When asked what her plans were after the lucrative win, she said: "To go and play in other international events and probably never achieve such an impressive result again!"

Having languished in last position with the lowest amount of chips at one point, a series of bold calls and strong hands saw her through to the last three, where she disposed of Norwegian Jan Slavic in a dramatic hand.

In the final hand of the night, Coren was dealt 6, 7, her opponent Emad Tahtouh 8, 8. The next three cards turned up were 5, 3, 4, giving Coren a formidable straight. But Tahtouh bet all his chips on his lesser hand, and so when Coren called, she won the event.