The big tournament circuit goes quiet: it's the gap between the end of the World Series and the start of the EPT.

The card room at the casino is quieter, which makes me wonder whether the regulars are off on holiday with wives and children they NEVER MENTION the rest of the time.
Online, we're in that waity-waity phase before the WCOOP in September, like the run-up to Christmas Eve.

Well, I'm not planning to scale down just because it's summer time. I don't want to be outside "enjoying the good weather"; I'm in the UK, where it always rains in August. I know it does, August is my birthday month. I've racked up enough damp birthday picnics and sodden games of baseball in the park to know that August is as wet as November, plus added disappointment because you always forget to expect it.

So, hurray for "VIP Club Mega Month" on Stars, where the VPP earning requirements are being slashed so you can leap up the status ladder to silver, gold or platinum for loads fewer points than usual.

Fellow gamblers can feel free to show me their holiday snaps when they get back from disappointing, over-priced trips to the seaside. Meanwhile, ha! I'll have shored up enough VPPs to buy a Ferrari.

Follow Vicky Coren on Twitter: @VictoriaCoren

Vicky, are you beside yourself over the Royal Wedding? What will you do on the 29th?
I am SO watching it. I'm even--okay, I'm going to brace myself for people saying I'm crazy--missing the EPT San Remo specifically BECAUSE I need to be at home watching the royal wedding on television. Start to finish. It's too hilarious not to. I want to hear commentators forced to talk about cake and fascinators for hours at a time. But I'm probably going to have to write something about it on the day, so I can't get drunk. It'll be tea and cucumber sandwiches all the way. (SUE: Just in case you are clueless about fascinators as I was, let me enlighten you. They are bridal hats usually made of silk with flowers, feathers and so forth.)

Out of the three, who do you think plays poker and why . . . William, Kate, or Harry?
I expect they all do. Who doesn't, these days? Harry, I suspect, would be the most hot-headed and impatient. Younger sons of the monarchy usually are. As we say in London poker rooms, "I'd like to be locked up with him." But I wouldn't fancy playing heads up with Kate. She looks like a canny one to me.

You've had quite a year since last May--can you talk about your year and career earnings even if I'm now dulling up the interview?
I'm assuming you mean poker earnings, not my whole complicated writing-broadcasting income as reported to the tax office? The poker's gone pretty well. I think I was most pleased to make two finals of the $109 rebuy tournament on PokerStars, for around $10k both times. I don't have a brilliant record in online tournaments, so that felt encouraging!

I also played a ladies-only tournament for the first time in many years, at the PCA, and it was nice to make the final table of that for another $10k, less for the money than because it was really good fun playing with the other women and I was glad not to be knocked out earlier and miss it!

The cash games have also been kind to me. I don't have the time to travel as much as many pros do, so I don't play all that many tournaments, and cash games are my bread and butter.

Are you still involved in pornography after directing that one movie? And what is the latest?
Oh goodness no. The thing about porn films is: you make none, or you make one, or you do NOTHING ELSE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Nobody ever made two and stopped. I made one in order to write a book about the experience and, tempting though it might have been to launch a whole new career, I felt I ought to draw the line under it there.

Tell us the difference between good porn and bad, and how to spot the difference
Depends what you mean. My co-writer Charlie and I were trying to make "good" porn in the sense that nobody was exploited, nobody was unhappy, everyone was respected and well paid and having a nice time. We were also trying to make a piece of great art. We certainly failed there. But when it comes to what's erotic and what isn't (which some might say is the true test), only the individual can answer that for themselves. People are quirky. Someone in the world will tell you that the sexiest thing to watch is a woman unblocking a sink while wearing heated rollers and a bikini, but I suspect that wouldn't sell very widely.

What have you been writing about for your newspaper columns?
Oh, anything that comes into my head or catches my eye from the news. In the last three weeks I've written about cub scouts, gay marriage and politicians using iPads in the House of Commons.

Do you prefer the city of countryside? I think the country bugs you
Well, guess again. I love the countryside! I prefer the city in the sense that I'm a Londoner and I don't love anywhere in the world as much as I love London. But I'm also very happy to wander across a rainy country field and fall into a cowpat. Who isn't? Genuinely, I love the countryside.

What is the Hendon Mob--is it like our mafia with the Gotti's?
Yeah. They're all friends of mine and they're mass killers. Of course not, they're a bunch of likable poker players who gave themselves a memorable name.

You did the intros at the EPT end-of-year celebration in Monte Carlo while some people were rude and talking loudly. What were your thoughts?
Surprising, wasn't it? Poker players are usually so pleased to watch other people win things!

No, in all seriousness I thought it was fine, it was a great party and everyone was drinking and enjoying themselves at PokerStars' expense, celebrating the end of a brilliant season. If a few of them were chatting, that's cool with me. I wasn't delivering a lecture on environmental conscience; I was handing out some awards!

Since you graduated from Oxford with a thesis on Yeats have you ever used what you learned about Yeats in practical life?
An understanding of Yeats' revolutionary use of syntax in the sonnet form is absolutely invaluable at the poker table. But I'm not saying any more than that--it's my little secret to success.

Your poker memoir/autobiography For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker was published in September 2009. Is it still selling?
Sure. It actually just came out in paperback, with a new subtitle. Now it's For Richer, For Poorer: Confessions of a Player. I think my publishers were worried that people who didn't play poker would be put off because they imagined it being a technical guide, which it isn't at all. It's my life story in the game, full of anecdotes and funny memories of players I've met, dark nights of losing money, hot nights of winning money. You know, of course, poker players will relate to it best because they love the game and know who all the people are. But it's also meant to be an entertaining read for people who have never played at all and know nothing about it.

Are you able to go unnoticed in England or do the paparazzi follow you?
The paparazzi don't follow me around, though they might take my picture if I show up at a party. But I'm not Kate Middleton yet. I don't go completely unnoticed, exactly, because people do stop me in the street sometimes and want to ask questions or they've seen me on some TV show or other, but I can still get to the supermarket without being impeded by a swarm of photographers.

Is this still true--Coren says she regularly stays up until 6 am, 'Smoking, and drinking and gambling. But I like cooking and gardening too, which makes me sound like a very strange mix of an old lady and teenage boy.'
It is still true. I'll grow up one day, but not quite yet.

"I retreat to the roulette table. Roulette is different. The croupiers are chatty and friendly. There are women around the table. . ." She describes being afraid to face down the men who "stare suspiciously" at her when she peers in. She repeats this scenario numerous times before finally becoming friends with some of the players, which gives her entrée to tag along when they are going.

She eventually became a regular at the casino, the Vic in London, where she played every week for years. Her story in this respect is not unusual for women who play poker. Many women have similar stories about braving the poker room for the first time. What makes Vicky's so dramatic is the fact that not only did she get up the courage to finally go in and become a fixture there herself, but in 2006 she garnered a special victory at that casino that seemed to bring her full circle. That year she finished first in the EPT London Main Event at the Vic and won $941,513. At the same casino where she was once afraid to walk into the poker room she became the champion of one of the most prestigious poker events in the world and brought home just shy of a million dollars for her efforts.

I visited with Vicky about this and a few other topics in January between tournaments at the PCA. She had just finished fourth in the Ladies Event there and we discussed her feelings about women only tournaments while she took a quick cigarette break. She said that that the ladies event she had just finished playing was the first one she had played "since her twenties."

She noted that although she hadn't played a women's event in a long time (2001 at the World Series as it turns out) she might do it again soon because she had enjoyed the friendly camaraderie and chatting with some of the women.

I had just read her book, now out in paperback, and asked her about the scene mentioned above and how it related to women in poker. She said that she thinks women have the same abilities in poker, but points out that it takes a certain type of personality. "It's hard for some women if they're really shy, but if you have a competitive personality, you can do it." "Women have to be brave to play poker," she said. "It's not for the faint of heart." She mentioned that she thinks the tournaments PokerStars sponsors for women will go a long way toward making it easier for women to get into the game.

So should we expect to see Vicky at another ladies event this year? As she put it in a column she wrote later for The Guardian in London, ". . . I gave it a spin [playing the women's event at the PCA] and made the final, winning $9000. Almost more importantly, it was an enjoyable and different couple of days. I might play a few more ladies' events this year. Fun and money: what more can you ask from the game?"

Last night at Kensington Close Hotel in London, Coren was honored with The British Poker Awards' "Best Contribution to Poker." It was quite a proud moment for Coren.

"I literally clambered over my fellow nominee, the deserving Jesse May, to get to
the stage," she said today.

But, she cautioned us, she doesn't think her award is one recognizing her lifetime achievement (which, we must point out, is substantial). Instead she thinks it's all about what folks' have given to poker over the past year or so.

Coren, again, has given a lot. There is nothing that stands out more over the past year, however, than her book "For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair With Poker," a memoir that's received rave reviews since its release. It seems people quite like it.

"I am hoping people voted because of that. I really wanted that book to be seen as a loving (and hopefully entertaining) contribution to poker culture," Coren wrote to us in an email. "Besides, I'm too young for a 'lifetime achievement' award. Still only 19. Ahem."

Coren, while proud, is not letting it all go to her head. She has WCOOP to think about, not to mention the upcoming EPT London where she will try for a repeat title. That is, she's keeping it all perspective.

"It's possible, of course, that they voted because I make a 'contribution to poker' every time I sit down in a sit-and-go on PokerStars.... certainly the table fills up fast enough. But I hope it's for the book, and I'm really proud and pleased," she said.

Congrats, Ms. Coren, on yet another outstanding achievement.

You can pick up your copy of Coren's book on Amazon or, even easier, for a few Frequent Player Points in the PokerStars VIP Club store

*Photo courtesy of The British Poker Awards website

Historically, recreational players always played tighter than pros in chunky live events. They have paid proper money - or won a great opportunity to make proper money - and don't want to go out too early. People used to say this made them soft targets, but not necessarily. It's absolutely fine to play tournaments tight at the beginning, while the blinds are too small to be worth stealing, then gradually loosen up as the field reduces and the pre-deal pots get bigger.

Recently, players of all kinds have got in the habit of playing super-aggressive right from the off, even in the biggest events. They make oversized raises, they re-raise with suited connectors, they bluff hard when they miss the flop. It's an excellent way to play in the later stages of a tournament, but dangerous and often pointless at the beginning. You'd be amazed how fast some players knock themselves out of the $10,000 PCA tournament in the Bahamas.

If your table features super-aggressive players like this, you need to be even more disciplined and determined to get their chips. It's too easy to start calling raises with anything, just because you're bored of passing while everyone else has fun. I favour keeping it solid. But what you can do is upgrade hands like 99 or AJ: if others are playing rubbish, medium hands become stronger.

When you find a strong starting hand, re-raise heavily to isolate one maniac, rather than risk seeing a flop with five of them. Conversely, with little pairs and suited connectors, you WANT several runners to give you good odds on hitting, so (if you want to play these hands early), limp in to keep the pot small. When you hit the flop, trap-check to use the maniacs' own strength against them. Be prepared to make big, difficult calls on the river. Let them hang themselves.

In other words, I don't mind tight play in the early stages of a tournament at all (assuming you're doing it for strategic reasons, rather than because you're scared of getting knocked out) but it must be focussed and committed as well as tight. Be disciplined, but don't miss valuable opportunities to increase aggression and mop up the loose chips. It's absolutely fine to wait for a hand, as long as you make sure to get paid when it comes.

The new UKIPT (UK and Irish poker tour) was announced the same week I made a very grown-up decision. I wanted to go and play the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam, but I decided not to because the buy-in was too big.

I'm moving house soon, I've had builders in the new place for ages - OBVIOUSLY they took months longer and cost far more than the original plan - and it just seemed crazy to spend €6000 plus expenses on a poker tournament. Besides, I should be here packing boxes, not running off to Europe without a care in the world.

I was pleased with myself for making the sensible decision; most unlike me. And the universe offered an immediate reward with news of this UKIPT tournament series: British and Irish events that I can get to with minimum hassle, at very reasonable prices starting from £500.

In modern poker, it's easy to forget the value of money. All these juicy giant tournaments, people winning millions wherever you look. When I started playing, the main events in live festivals were £500. Recently, these have come to be considered as the "small" opening events. It's crazy. £500 is a lot of money in the real world. The UKIPT is giving back some perspective to British poker: creating serious title events, treating a £500 or £1000 buy-in with the respect it deserves.

As a sponsored player, of course there is less pressure on me with the tournament expenses. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that the first rule of poker is bankroll management. That applies to me as much as anyone I give advice to. You should never invest more than 5% of your bankroll in any single game. You should never play for amounts that would seriously hurt. Once the game is underway, you must be able to stop thinking of the chips as money - thinking of them purely as ammunition, to be guarded where necessary and fired out where necessary, based purely on the cards and the situation. It is impossible to do this properly if it's money you are scared to lose.

The best way to play a €5,000 EPT event is to win your seat on Stars for small money. If you miss out on the seat but can comfortably afford the buy-in anyway, great: these are wonderful tournaments in amazing locations. If not, don't start thinking you HAVE to play them. Play smaller local tournaments. Play online for whatever is comfortable.

I've been giving this advice for years, but last week I proved to myself that I can also follow it. And hey, winning at poker is an end in itself, regardless of the money. Whether I'm playing a $50 tournament on Stars, a £500 British event or a €5000 European event, I want to win it: I'm delighted if I do and furious if I don't, just the same.

Today, the Team PokerStars Pro sits across this vast room with a look on her face that makes it appear we can approach. Then, just as well do, she's in the middle of a hand that--though we don't know it at the time--is not going to turn out well. She's called twice, raised once, and fired a big 5,000 bullet on the river. When it's all said and done, the board read [8s][9d][Ts][9h][2d].

"Aww," Coren sighed. "You were right. King-high."

Her opponent had aces.

I rushed back to my computer screen wand waited to see what Coren would say. Would she eviscerate the man with the aces? That was the hope, because schadenfreude is what gets me through the day.

"Half an hour into EPT London main event," she wrote. "I've already bluffed off 8000 chips. Of 30k. I think I *might* still be on tilt from yesterday..."

If you're just tuning in, it may be best for us to review the events of one day past.

See, Coren was deep in the EPT High Roller event yesterday and had run smack dab into a man she...affectionately...called " Horrible Eric."

There is history here. It goes back to the World Series of Poker when Coren first met the Canadian Erik Cajelais. The tale alone is worth five minutes of your time, because the lady from London is not only a fantastic writer, she also captures a moment unlike almost any poker player can. Consider this exchange she recounted from the WSOP.

"She check a full 'ouse!" he shouted at the man next to him.

"Well", I said, "I didn't think he would call if..."

"NO!" Eric held up a big meaty hand. "You have 'umiliated yourself in front of everyone. The more you say, the worse it get."

Bad blood being what it is, the animosity still had a bit of an edge on it when Coren was deep into the High Roller event. And that's when the Twitter lashing started. Here are some gems:

In the end, Coren went out on the bubble of High Roller event and spent much of the evening, in her words, "shell shocked."

We can't say for sure whether her immediate return to the baize made it better or worse. After a morning of signing copies of her new book "For Richer For Poorer, she went immediately back to the table where she is Twittering of bluffs gone wrong.

But, she assures us, it is not, in fact, tilt.

"Just missed my 18 outs and tried too hard to win it on the river anyway," she wrote.

It's just a few minutes to the first break of the day and Coren remains alive and well. For the past hour, her Twitter feed had gone silent.

We'll take it that means things are going okay.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole "Horrible Eric" story over on Vicky's blog.

Our readers in the UK now have another chance to catch her on the small screen as tonight (Mon) sees the start of her quiz show Only Connect on BBC4. Vicky presents the series, which is described by The Times newspaper as "fiendish, addictive, gripping". There you go, three adjectives for the price of one.

The program begins at 8.30pm (GMT). Enjoy!

by Vicky Coren

The art of multi-table tournament poker lies in the pace. There are two big general mistakes that beginners can make: either they play too slowly, waiting so long for good hands that they are blinded away by the relentless clock - or they play too quickly, pushing unnecessary hands and knocking themselves out as if they had a train to catch.

The balance is difficult to find. It's all about a mathematical equation: you are playing according to the size of your stack, the size of your opponents' stacks, the size of the blinds and the speed of the clock. But all these factors are changing all the time. It can be discombobulating. Playing a tournament is like climbing a long staircase, in which the size and shape of the steps is altered every few minutes, and (every so often) a tub of oil is tipped down them. If you stop concentrating, you'll tumble backwards and break a leg.

Generally speaking, the best principle is to let your pace gather speed with the blinds. That is the safest strategy: to play tight at the beginning (not overplaying marginal hands when the blinds and pots are too small to be worth stealing), and gradually broaden the range of hands you raise with, in direct proportion to the blinds going up and the field getting smaller. If people want to push you around at the beginning, let them. But when the blinds get serious, flex your muscles and take a stand.

By "playing tight", I don't mean waiting for aces. In a deep-stack tournament, where you can afford to see a lot of flops in the early levels, you can play pre-flop almost like a cash game: creeping in, or making unexpected raises, with those interesting hands like 8-10 suited or J9 suited, trying to catch a monster. It's more a case of (when you fail to hit) not throwing good money after bad. If you can afford to give up, don't get stubborn.

In a big opening field, such as the PokerStars Sunday Million, there can be a strangely hurried feel. Players want to jostle ahead of the crowd so they play aggressively, pushing marginal hands and even moving all in, from the earliest levels. Some of them want to build a big stack fast, or get out early. If this is the mood at your table, don't get sucked into the panicky betting frenzy: sit patiently and bet only when you want action. Pre-flop raises won't clear opponents away. Bluffs will fail more often than they succeed. But value bets should pay off nicely. Don't bother trapping with sets, straights or flushes: bet them openly. It's worth seeing a few cheap flops in late position with a wide range of hands, but play on only if you hit because you will get paid.

Remember, in a multi-table tournament you have two sets of opponents: those on your table (whose chips you are trying to take directly) and those on other tables who you may meet later. So you should always have an idea of what the average chip stack is for the whole field. On PokerStars, it's easy - the lobby will always tell you. In a live tournament like an EPT, there should be a wall clock with that information.

You are there to play poker and win the tournament, not count your way nervously towards the payout spots. But the chip average should be in your mind as a constant backdrop, to gauge the general health of your stack.

In the middle stages, you cannot afford to waste chips. At this point, it's all about selective aggression: picking your spots to play, and then playing like you mean it. In the early stages you can make speculative calls, in the middle stages you can't. Beware the mediocre hands like A-9 or small pairs; you're better off playing a 6-7 suited. Why? Because you'll know where you stand. You should be raising or re-raising your way into pots with hands where you know you want action, or know that you don't. The same applies after the flop. With every bet you make, be certain what response you want.

Around the bubble is a great time to increase your aggression. Many players will be loitering, trying to make the money. You must find the bravery not to be one of these people. But pick your targets with care. The small stacks are forced to gamble and the big stacks can afford to. Put pressure on the middle stacks, who may be trying to safeguard their chips for the payout spots.

What about the size of your own stack? You must make sure it never goes below ten big blinds. If you find you have 15-20 big blinds, it's time to start re-raising all-in while you can still make the original raiser pass. If you get to 10 big blinds or fewer, it's all-in or fold. You must not raise and then pass; it's like burning money. And you mustn't flat call, because timidity is tournament death. With ten big blinds or below, if nobody else has raised before the action is on you, you must be ready to move in with any hand at all. Anything. Even if you have 7-2 and somebody wakes up with A-A, you still have a 12% chance to win the pot - whereas, if you let yourself get blinded away, you have 0% chance of winning the tournament. And if you can find the nerve to start moving in with any hand in the late stages (or when you're on ten big blinds) you have a much higher than 12% chance that nobody finds anything to call you with, and you can boost your stack with those valuable blinds and antes.

Two important notes: what applies to you applies to everyone else as well. If you have good chips and someone else moves in with less than ten big blinds, you must widen your calling range to reflect their need to move with anything.

Second note: in any form of poker - cash game or tournament, Holdem or Omaha, multi-table or heads-up - you must always be counter-intuitive. Whatever your basic strategy (and the above, to increase aggression as the tournament goes on, remains the best) you must mix it up at least once per level. Never let your opponents get complacent. Do what's right but, every so often, just do what's unexpected.

The WCOOP $25,000 Heads-Up Championship turned out to be the most nerve-wracking tournament I've ever played. It wasn't the size of the buy-in (I've played for this crazy price twice before, once making a profit of $17,000 and once for nada) but the structure. There was something incredibly intense about being just three heads-up matches away from $100,000 - and six matches away from $560,000.

My first match turned out to be a relatively easy victory, although I was told that my opponent (named BBJ) is considered to be a very good player. When we sat down, I knew nothing about this BBJ except what I could glean from the information in front of me. Our opening conversation went like this:

Vicky Coren: Hi. GL.
BBJ: U'll need it.

From this I knew that my opponent was definitely male. It also told me that he was probably American, very likely under 30 years old, and - most usefully - that he was bound to play very aggressively. Nobody would make that opening remark if they were planning to play a wily, trappy game. Good; this was in my comfort zone. As a female player, I have plenty of experience (live and online) of opponents who think a battering ram will simply scare me off the table.

BBJ did indeed set off by raising every time he had the button, and continuation betting every street if I called. Experience told me my best strategy was to try and turn his aggression against him - ie. to let him pick up a series of pots without much contest, believing that he was running me over, and to play passively even when I had a big hand. This seemed like a player who would keep betting to make me pass, so all I had to do (if I hit anything) was not pass. Sure enough, our match burned itself out pretty quickly, with most of the field still in action, which left me time to make a nice cheese sandwich, mmm.

My second opponent, with the field of 64 down to 32, was named gunning4you. When I greeted him at the start, he replied in a much more relaxed and friendly manner - which was immediately more worrying. The cleverer the player, in general, the nicer they behave. Have you ever heard the old saying that you have nothing to fear from a roaring lion? It's the ones who slink about quietly that represent the most danger.

There isn't much to report from my second match, because I don't think I was in front at any stage. Gunning4you played a much slyer, more cunning and dangerous form of poker. He didn't inflate the pots too
much to begin with, recognizing this as unnecessary for a good player in a deep-stack tournament. His timing was strong, and his instincts sharp. He made excellent value bets on the river, which I was usually obliged to call when I was just a pip behind.

In my defence, I was on horrible form for that second match. I had only two decent starting hands (KK, which lost to A9, and AA which won a tiny pot since we both checked it down after four diamonds came) and missed the flop with everything else. If I tried a bluff, Gunning had something to call with. It was the kind of match where, every time you see a flop, you feel like you're being punished for something.

But this is not to detract from Gunning's play: I was really impressed. He seemed like a nice guy and a very strong heads-up player, I hope he goes a long way in the tournament. But I won't find out until it's all over, since it's time for me to go to bed and dream about what I would have done with $560,000.

Note: Once Vicky went to bed, her opponent busted out in the next round and stevesbets went on to win the bracelet. Read about that in the WCOOP Event #19 wrap up. Vicky is a member of Team PokerStars Pro.

Today, she returns for Day 2 of the $1,500 HORSE event, and, if we're to believe a late-night dispatch from her, she is in this massive field of $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Players.

"A friend of mine has talked me (completely against my better judgment) into playing the $1500 NLH at noon," she said,"and then if I'm not knocked out in the first three hours I will be in two events - totally sick!"

Whether she's referring to the situation or herself is not entirely clear. Having known Vicky for several years now, I don't get the impression that she can't handle two tournaments at once, nor that she would feel too badly about playing both.

"What the hell," she reasoned. "Most serious poker players manage to spend seven weeks out here and play dozens of events. I had so much work in London, I only got here a couple of days ago and there were only about three tournaments left before the main event. So there's a certain twisted logic to trying to play as many as possible in the small window"

We probably should've seen this coming. When Coren arrived in town, she was eager. How eager. Check out the video blog below.

Watch WSOP 08: Victoria Coren Interview on PokerStars.tv

We're still looking for her around the room. Not finding her here immediately doesn't mean she didn't show up. It is only an indication of today's tournaments size. Whatever the result, Coren had pretty much rationalized it before going to sleep.

"My tired sun-struck brain can almost see the sense in it.. I wouldn't do it if I had a lot of chips in the HORSE, but a horrible final hand of Seven Stud left me with only 8900, so I'm gambling," she said. "This from someone who hasn't even learned to multi-table successfully on PokerStars yet, never mind live action. But I've eaten so much junk since I got here, I could probably do with the exercise."

The HORSE event is about to re-start for the day, so we should soon learn whether Coren woke up in the same mood. For the sake of the story, we hope so.

If you want to be spotted in a crowd you can’t go far wrong starting on the basis that bright colours will work - like yellows and oranges that assist the rescue teams if you're lost on a mountain, or out at sea. Bright pink works too. In this mass of people crowded inside the Amazon Room step forward Team PokerStars Pro Victoria Coren and her pink fedora.

Sitting forward in her chair, feet behind her and in the kind of elegant shoes rarely given a chance back in the bleak UK summer, she has adopted the best position for fighting the elements – in this case a ferocious air conditioning unit piping a cold breeze into the room funnelling it past her table - knees up on the chair, zip up on, arms crossed. It's the Pike position, aerodynamic and best for warmth.

Not that Vicky needs to try and stand out - her tournament record speaks for itself and amid her tournament palmares is a cash in this event last year.

But there are other things going against Vicky, notably jetlag. Having arrived on the same flight from London I can confirm that, for the English, this is technically the middle of the night. But it’s also Vegas and the motivation to stay awake comes from elsewhere. If only the cards were helping, which Vicky's wry smile went some way to explain. She’s down to around 3k in level 3.

Hats are a theme on this table. The seat one player has some kind of oriental pattern to his baseball cap while in seat six sits one of the newest members of Team PokerStars Pro, Poland’s Marcin Horecki. His style of headgear is the 'reverse beret', which sits next to his chips. His day has started a little better but when I arrived a deep thought hand had Marcin mucking after several minutes in the tank, a short sharp shake of the head accompanying the act of mucking, sending him back down to around 7k.

Into level four...

Postscript: Well, Vicky Coren is out. “That was a weird coup” (quoted from a text message she was sending) just about summed it up. A case of her all-in being called with one of those “mediocre” hands. But pragmatic to the end it’s nothing a cigarette break and a bit of sunshine won’t fix. Almost.

“4pm is an odd time to go out. 2pm and you can enjoy the afternoon, but 4pm...”

Regardless, there will be other events for Vicky before the main event starts next week. For now an evening off (probably spent in a card room close to here). No inclination to play the Stud Eight-or-Better later tonight though.

How so? Well, it's sort of hard to put into words.

Just check out this video blog to find out. When you're done with that, check out for all our video blogs from the World Series.

by Victoria Coren

When I'm playing on PokerStars, people often stop by to chat. I'm happy to do it - it's nice to 'meet' my fellow players - though sometimes it can be hard to answer lots of questions at once. This is especially true when I'm multi-taking in traditionally female style: simultaneously playing a sit & go, making a salad dressing and talking
to my mother on the phone. (Thank God for the sit & go, or I'd think I had accidentally turned into a sitcom housewife from 1973). In that situation, when the questions 'FANCY A $20 HU?','WILL U MARRY ME?', and 'Y R U SUCH A DONKEY?' come scrolling onto the screen in quick succession, I usually miss a couple of answers.

Generally, though, I enjoy the chat function. But it's been very depressing for the last couple of weeks, and I'd like to plead with my PokerStars compadres to stop coming into the chat box and asking 'R U AT THE WSOP?' Because the answer is no! And that's an answer that fills me with gloom every time I type it! I will be making it out to Vegas for the main event, and a couple of other tournaments just before, but it's a flying visit for me this year. I've got too much work in London to allow myself the luxury of six weeks in the sunshine. Six weeks of live poker. Six weeks of glittery bracelet-chasing. Six weeks of eating lobster buffets at midnight, laughing at Celine Dion impersonators, and shopping for gold Buddha money-boxes.

Hurray for the internet, I think to myself as I click onto PokerStars. At least, in 2008, I can find 24-hour poker without leaving home. It is my little respite from working, paying bills and putting the bins out. In the rain. But every time someone asks 'ARE YOU AT THE WSOP?' it reminds me that I'm not. It reminds me that as soon as this particular sit & go finishes (usually, for me, when there are four of us left), I will be returning to the work and the rain and the bins.

So ask me anything else, please. Ask me the capital of Paraguay. Ask me how to make a good salad dressing. Ask how my mother is. But please don't ask if I'm in Vegas, or I might start sobbing into the keyboard and fuse the machine while there are still five of us left.

"I could listen to that voice read the phone book," I said.

"She's quite a player, too," someone responded.

Before the day was complete, I learned the voice belonged to one Victoria Coren, TV broadcaster, writer, and top poker player. People who had the pleasure of watching Late Night Poker in its heyday will remember Coren from the tables there. Since that time, the already-famous Coren has become one of, if not the most famous women in British poker. That has been helped in no small part by her crowning achievement: Coren was and remains the only woman to ever win a PokerStars.com European Poker Tour title. Coren won EPT London in Season 3 for £500,000.

Today, PokerStars announced Coren is joining the ranks of Team PokerStars Pro, an elite stable of some of the world's top poker professionals. You'll be able to find Coren on PokerStars playing under the likely name "Vicky Coren."

So, next time you're sitting at the tables and you hear a voice that makes you turn your head, check to see if it's coming from underneath a PokerStars hat. If it's Coren, be careful. Her voice may be just hypnotizing enough to distract you from the fact she's taking all your chips.