Anthony Holden UK

Anthony Holden, President

Anthony Holden is an award-winning author and journalist, whose 30-plus books include bestselling biographies of Shakespeare and Tchaikovsky, Laurence Olivier and the Prince of Wales as well as autobiographical books about poker. Big Deal: A Year as a Professional Poker Player (1990) is frequently described as a 'cult classic'; its long-awaited sequel, Bigger Deal: A Year on the New Poker Circuit, finally appeared in 2007, followed in 2008 by an expert strategy manual, Holden on Hold'em.

A Vegas regular since the late 1970s, Holden won TV's first Celebrity Late Night Poker on Channel 4 in 2000. In 2006 he won his $10,000 entry to the 'main event' of the World Series of Poker by beating three world champions (Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem) in a London tournament. He also represented England in TV's 2006 World Cup of Poker. Holden was a PokerStars-sponsored player before being elected the first President of the International Federation of Poker (IFP) in 2009