Highlight of the Easter Weekend

Victoria Coren-Mitchell winning the EPT in Sanremo.

I know bugger all about Poker. I know the rules and I know what beats what, but I never play and I never watch it. I do, however, follow Victoria on Twitter, because I think she's brilliant. She often Tweets from Poker tournaments, telling people how she's getting on. This time she tweeted a link so you could watch it on-line. So I did. There were 20-odd left in the tournament, on three tables, from a starting field of 556, when I tuned in. The weirdest part was watching Victoria play with her phone then seeing her tweet instantaneously appear on my Twitter thing.

All the other players were blokes. All the other players were deadly serious, barely raising their gaze from their cards or their chips. Victoria was drinking wine and smiling and talking and messing with her phone. She was doing well too, winning most hands she got involved in. I don't think she was ever the chip leader, but she was always right up there. Players began to fall by the wayside, losing their chips as they went all-in, and eventually it was down to 16 players, Victoria being one of them, at which point they stopped for the day.

The following day there were just two tables and although Victoria found it tough going, she made it through to the last 8, albeit with the smallest stack. I missed most of the final, I was at me dad's for food and beer. First thing I did when I got home was check the Poker result and Victoria had won! The first ever two-time European Poker Tour main event champion, after previously winning in London 2006. And she was 476,100 Euros richer.

I didn't realise Poker players had fans, but Twitter was awash with people congratulating Victoria and celebrating the victory. I'd become a fan too, so I tweeted my congratulations. I didn't even expect Victoria to read it, thinking it would be lost amongst the many thousands of tweets. However, this morning I got a reply thanking me for the support.

Well done Victoria.

 

Long winded way of saying you'd like to give her one?

 

I used to think she was OK until I she took part in a phone-in about middle lane drivers, that certainly made me see her in a different light.

 

How can she get away with connecting to the internet during a televised/streamed competition? Wouldnt that give her the opportunity to find out what her competitors have?

 

She's cool.

It was great to watch, although she had a large slice of luck when knocking out the American with only a slightly better hand. She actually played really well, only becoming aggressive when down to the last 3 or 4. Before then she just let all the other shades-wearing, testosterone-fueled Europeans knock each other out by going all-in.

 

She's fit too.

 

There's no phone usage during active play.

 

She only picks up her phone when she's not in the hand currently playing.

 

There are far fitter female poker players than her...

 

There are, she would still get it though, sumert sexy about her.