“Poker’s Not Just About the Profitable”: Two-Time EPT Champion Victoria Coren Mitchell

For a whilst, Victoria Coren Mitchell states she was “the respectable face of poker.”

“Though now you may possibly just as well say I am the degenerate deal with of quizzing,” she informed PokerNews.

The writer turned poker participant is very best regarded in the poker earth for currently being the very first participant to gain two European Poker Tour titles.

Now, 8 years later and 40 kilometres down the coastline from wherever she secured that historic title, she spoke with PokerNews about returning to the tour.

Return of the EPT

Coren Mitchell is a common at EPT Monte Carlo, having performed in each and every solitary 1 given that 2016. With the return of the EPT in Prague attracting record fields, and above three decades considering that she last traveled abroad, she reported it was excellent to be back.

“Sam Grafton texted me and informed me there was going to be an EPT Monte Carlo this calendar year, and I believed that would be a awesome holiday!

“I’m not stunned that there are a good deal of individuals up for a little bit of gambling soon after the final handful of a long time”

“I am not shocked that there are a whole lot of persons up for a bit of gambling after the very last couple many years. I feel the lesson has extremely considerably been – you never know. So you may possibly as perfectly have a spin.

“[The EPT festivals] normally felt like they experienced a large amount of people today. You often assumed, ‘God that is a huge volume of funds! Exactly where do all these folks discover this revenue to enjoy?’ It generally felt like a whole lot.”

A properly-publicised panic of traveling — a therapist she saw to beat this worry died in a airplane crash — implies that Coren Mitchell invariably drives or normally takes the train to the south of France. This time she drove, using a 7 days and viewing a little bit of France in the approach, such as what she describes as a “creepy medieval pageant.”

“There ended up these folks processing by way of the streets putting on helmets, driving sheep and goats ahead of them, and enjoying the drums. It was truly the most terrifying matter I have at any time observed. Totally terrifying thinking there was about to be a human sacrifice. Following that, I would say fantastic luck seeking to scare me with your all-in a few-guess!”

Placing the Appropriate Balance

Coren Mitchell welcomed a infant daughter with husband David in 2015, and states that the two ahead of and after the start of her child she tried to method poker with a well balanced standpoint.

“I was drawn to poker for the shadiness and hazard and risk, as nicely as the fun of the activity. Equally factors. It really is wonderful to feel that individuals try to remember me actively playing poker, but I get worried about that responsibility.

“I engage in a good deal much less mainly because I have a child now. But you occur to someplace distinctive, have a bit of sunshine, and have a spin in a massive competitors. And not go skint attempting! And that definitely has not changed.”

Even so, Coren Mitchell admits that at occasions throughout her poker job — for the duration of which she has amassed over $2.5 million in career earnings — she has contemplated going pro.

“There have been instances the place I have considered about participating in all the time. I considered ‘I look to do alright at poker. I make funds doing it. And it is actually enjoyment.’ And I have resisted that temptation.

“Due to the fact I usually considered, that probably then it might stop being enjoyable. Or it might feel like a position. Or then I may possibly have a awful losing streak, and then exactly where will I go?”

The Relevance of Taking pleasure in Enjoying Poker

A single of the persons that Coren Mitchell points to who struck the perfect harmony when it came to poker, is Brighton & Hove Albion soccer club owner Tony Bloom.

“I constantly applied to assume as extended if you do plenty of different factors and juggle a bunch of stuff, then usually prospects are just one bit of it is likely alright.

“I generally admired persons like Tony Bloom. He is one of the fantastic poker gamers. He may well not be talked about now except if men and women know who he is and that he has a soccer team, but to me he was a dude who played poker for fun, and turned a good gain year on calendar year. He hardly ever shed that a lot, and it was section of a assortment of matters in his everyday living. To me that was definitely admirable.

“I hardly ever set myself in the place wherever if I didn’t money or gain a poker event I might be in terrible condition. There are a good deal of persons who have received plenty of money actively playing poker, some fantastic gamers, some gamers that I knew, some I didn’t.

“For me, it really is less about profitable than not actively playing also lots of tournaments. If you can beat the recreation – or not go broke accomplishing it – it can be a really awesome way to enjoy a game, do a bit of touring, and have some exciting taking part in in competitions.

“I have received rather a good deal of revenue,” she claimed, ahead of including, “And I have not missing quite a large amount of revenue!”

Govt Editor E.U.

Will Shillibier is dependent in the United Kingdom. He graduated from the College of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German, and then analyzed for a NCTJ Diploma in Sports activities Journalism at Sportsbeat in Manchester. He formerly worked as a freelance reside reporter, and video clip presenter for the Entire world Poker Tour.