Recently, the poker column that Victoria (Vicky) Coren wrote for The Guardian (a prestigious UK newspaper) came to an end.

The column never really worked for me. Here is her penultimate effort. This particular column ran for six years.

Bridge, Checkers and Chess seem to work as column subjects. Clear annotation and clever commentary do their subjects much service.

I do not know if it is because poker is still in its infancy in relation to being a subject for a weekly column in the games pages or if poker is inherently unsuited to such treatment.

Any thoughts?

I thought it was fine. Vicky Coren is a good writer,

Agree. She is a good writer who gives good advice to the casual player and still manages to engage the serious player. Good on the Guardian for giving poker a go - but yep bridge and chess are more suited for the reasons suggested by the OP.
I'd like to see that other great variance game backgammon back in the rags in place of poker - poker is so situational that a newspaper spot can't do it justice.

"I had a good 2011, winning $143,000 in live tournaments and $25,600 in major online tournaments. That's not the full story – it doesn't include single-table tournaments, live cash games or (significantly) outlay"

The online outlay on Pokerstars was "significant". It amounted to more than twice her "winnings" ! Still I guess Pokerstars covered it.

I don't think poker will ever become "respectable" like chess or bridge as it is a gambling game.

SO basically she's a massively losing player except for the fact that she's freerolled into loads of tournaments?

Chris Bray provides a very good backgammon column in the Saturday Independent. It is in the back pages of the Independent Magazine that comes with it.

A bunch of the columns were collated and put out as a book.

Yes. A lot of the famous live players are shown up online eg Negreanu, Hellmuth. I just treat TV poker with them in as showbiz. The purpose of the shows is entertainment. It is easier to maintain status live because no-one keeps count of all the money that is lost. They only have to bink a good finish every few years. Vicky won an EPT in 2006 (she was probably competitive then). This year she finished 2nd in an invitational "world chanpionship" event with about a hundred runners (IFP). That should keep her going for another couple of years.

Negreanu managed to win 1/2 HU matches against Isildur and actually had pretty good WCOOP results this year.

Good luck doing that yourself.

Only Connect >>>>>>>> Guardian Poker Column

Cash on Pokerstars (from PTR) minus $224,675
Pokerstars tournaments (from Sharkscope) minus $146,235

I can't afford it PLOMonkey !

Thanks!

I used to really enjoy her little column. might have to bookmark her blog as I actually enjoy her writing style and enjoy her book quite a lot