Robert Varkonyi

Robert Varkonyi
Robert Varkonyi (2009)
Personal information
Date of birth	October 7, 1961
place of birth	Great Neck
Nickname	The forgotten champion
place of residence	Great Neck
Live Poker Tournament Achievements
Highest prize money	$ 2,000,000
Total prize money	$ 2,348,918
World Series of Poker
Bracelets	1
Cashes	5
Best main event	Win ( 2002 )
Last updated: February 24, 2020

Robert Varkonyi (born October 7, 1961 in Great Neck , New York ) is a professional American poker player . He won the World Poker Championship in 2002 .

Poker career

Varkonyi started playing poker when he was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . After graduating from the MIT Sloan School of Management with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science in 1983 , he became an investment banker in the Brooklyn borough of New York . He practiced this profession for a number of years before starting to play tournament poker .

Varkonyi won the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas in 2002 for a bracket and prize money of two million US dollars . Quite a newbie and given little chance, commentator and poker player Phil Hellmuth agreed to have his hair shaved for charity if Varkonyi won. In the final hand is Varkonyi continued with Q ♦ 10 ♠ against Julian "The Kid" Gardner , the J ♣ 8 ♣ was on a board of Q ♣ 4 ♣ 4 ♠ 10 ♦ 10 ♣ by, with a full house against Gardner's Flush by. Hellmuth later had his hair shaved, allowing Varkonyi to shave some of his hair.

At the 2003 WSOP , Varkonyi's attempt to win for the second year running ended when his K ♥ K ♦ lost to Scotty Nguyen's A ♦ A ♠ on a board of 10 ♣ 6 ♥ 2 ♦ 4 ♣ 4 ♦ .

After his win, Varkonyi became a columnist for Card Player Magazine . He also made an educational poker video, Wise Guys on Texas Hold'em , which featured some of the actors from The Sopranos .

Varkonyi lives in Great Neck , New York , with his poker-playing wife Olga and a daughter, whom he named Victoria because of his WSOP win . Olga played in the main event of the WSOP 2005 and reached 238th place, which was in the prizes.

Web links

Commons : Robert Varkonyi  - Collection of Images

• Robert Varkonyi in the Hendon Mob Poker Database (English)
• Robert Varkonyi in the database of the World Series of Poker (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 33rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2002 ($ 10,000 Championship Event) in the Hendon Mob Poker Database, accessed on February 24, 2020.