More On Victoria’s Victory (for Poker)

In a hurry today and so just wanted to take today’s post to point you over to something else to read, an article in The Guardian penned by my friend and colleague Chris Hall, a.k.a. “Homer” with whom I’ve worked reporting on various events over the last few years.

Following Victoria Coren Mitchell’s big win last weekend at Sanremo to claim her second European Poker Tour Main Event title -- the only player ever to do so -- Chris picks up one of many threads resulting from her win in “Poker has been dealt the right cards for a female-based boom.”

Chris spends the first part of the article noting how most often mainstream news about poker -- especially over recent years -- has been of the negative variety, thus making the story of Coren Mitchell’s triumph contrast sharply.

He then spends a few paragraphs sharing other reasons why “this card game of skill and temperament” has much more to offer than might be suggested by such negative press before concluding with some speculation about how Coren Mitchell’s win might well encourage more women to play.

It sounds like from Chris’s tweets today that there was more to his piece, including further discussion of women in poker, but the editor -- as editors will do -- had to trim it back. In any event, the article still does a nice job presenting the game to a wider audience while promoting poker in a reasoned, convincing way.

So click through and give it a read. And if you do let me know if you see any puns in there... I’m not, and knowing Chris, I’m having to guess those must’ve gotten cut, too.

(Pic above from EPT Sanremo via PokerNews.)