Robert Varkonyi = Rodney Dangerfield

[riffraff]

[ QUOTE ]

It wasn't the first time Furlong was on a final table in the main event at WSOP so he is not THAT bad. I think that Varkonoyi and Moneymaker are the two worst players to have won the main event the last 10 years or so.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, and it's not even close. (To use an overused 2+2 cliche)

[Daliman]

[ QUOTE ]
Varkonyi and Furlong were decent players who were outclassed at the WSOP, but go lucky. Fowler was a fish who got lucky.

Varkonyi won his seat in a satellite at Binions rather than on Poker Stars, so he is not used in the promotions.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you are transposing "Fowler" and "Furlong".

Fowler won in 78 or so, Furlong in 2000, and while Fulong is not considered a top player, it wasn't his first main event final table and he is considered a very good player.

As far as Varkonyi goes, he seems like a very nice, likeable down to earth nerd, which ain;t at all bad. He's just not much of a poker player.

[drewjustdrew]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Varkonyi and Furlong were decent players who were outclassed at the WSOP, but go lucky. Fowler was a fish who got lucky.

Varkonyi won his seat in a satellite at Binions rather than on Poker Stars, so he is not used in the promotions.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you are transposing "Fowler" and "Furlong".

Fowler won in 78 or so, Furlong in 2000, and while Fulong is not considered a top player, it wasn't his first main event final table and he is considered a very good player.

As far as Varkonyi goes, he seems like a very nice, likeable down to earth nerd, which ain;t at all bad. He's just not much of a poker player.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. Varkonyi won another event with pro's in the caribbean later that year. (fact)

2. I heard some people who play with Furlong at his club in England say that he isn't even close to the best player at the club. He is very aggressive and can get lucky. (1st hand hearsay/speculation).

[ttleistdci]

[ QUOTE ]
He was very humble about his big win, and he signed chips, photos, and even his business card for me. I've never met a guy so down-to-earth with his kind of status in the poker world, and he was vastly more catering to the "little guys" (i.e. fans)than most pros.

[/ QUOTE ]

You say that as though he's some kind of celebrity or something. Was anyone actually asking for his autograph?

[Tuds75]

I was at Binions on the 3rd day of the WSOP championship and the tournament director annouced over the loud speaker all the former champions still alive. He mentions the obvious, Brunson, Hellmuth, Ferguson, Harrington, Baldwin and a couple more. He doesn't mention Varkonyi even though Robert is 6 feet away from him during the announcment. Varkoyni's table point out the error to Matt Savage and everyone has a small laugh, while probably Varkoyni cries a little inside.

Talk about getting "No Respect"

[Hauser_III]

Varkonyi is not the Rodney Dangerfield of poker. Dangerfield was a talented comedian who claimed to get no respect as part of his act, while Varkonyi is a lucky amateur who truly gets no respect.

[TheJackal]

I disagree with a lot of you on Varkonyi. He went through 600+ people to win, although he isn't all that great of a player he did go through a larger field than all prior to 2002. It's funny how people say Moneymaker, Raymer, Varkonyi were all lucky based on about 15-20 hands you saw for the ENTIRE tournament. How about the hands we didn't see. Or how about the hands they played properly, like Moneymakers call against Dutch Boyd with 33, or Raymers' push against Mike the mouth or the hand against Dan Harrington with AJ vs Q9, or Varkonyi who got a caller with JJ vs AJ for most of the chips at the final table. Everyone gets lucky, its a part of poker, I'm sure all three of these players made good decisions to win that were not shown on TV.

[Hauser_III]

[ QUOTE ]
I disagree with a lot of you on Varkonyi.

[/ QUOTE ]

What exactly is it that I said that you are disagreeing with? I said

1. He's an amateur (hard to argue with that; he wasn't playing poker for a living at the time he won, so he was by definition an amatuer)

2. who got lucky (and he did get lucky, as does everyone who wins one of these things at some point, and you even admit that)

3. and truly gets no respect (I'll use your words to back this up: [ QUOTE ]
he isn't all that great of a player

[/ QUOTE ] ).

I said nothing about whether he deserves any respect, nothing denigrating his play and nothing singling him out as having been the only person that ever got lucky to win.

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
He's an amateur (hard to argue with that; he wasn't playing poker for a living at the time he won, so he was by definition an amatuer)


[/ QUOTE ]

On the TV broadcasts of the 2002 WSOP, they kept referring to Varkonyi as an amateur, but when they interviewed him he said he had taken off the last 1 1/2 years from work to play poker.

[Hauser_III]

[ QUOTE ]
when they interviewed him he said he had taken off the last 1 1/2 years from work to play poker

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? I honestly didn't remember that.