World Series of Poker Championship: A Close Shave By Mike Paulle

Only the infamous Phil Hellmuth Jr. could upstage the first $2 million winner of the most prestigious prize in poker: the 2002 World Series of Poker Championship at Binion's Horseshoe in Downtown Las Vegas.

"This is Robert's (Varkonyi) day, let him have 10-15 minutes to enjoy it," Hellmuth said to the crowd as the last hand was completed.

"Shave Phil's head," was the crowd's immediate, chanted response. The audience was literally out for Hellmuth's scalp. All those years of being the famed "Poker Brat" had culminated in a close shave for Phil. New World Champion Robert Varkonyi wanted to let Phil out of the promise he'd made to have his head shaved if Varkonyi won, but Phil wouldn't welsh on the bet.

"If I don't do it, the crowd will kill me," Hellmuth said. "Besides, if you say something stupid, you should have to pay for it."

So, led by the Horseshoe's owner Becky Binion Behnen, several people, including the new champion, took turns clipping away at Hellmuth. It was quite a sight.

But besides the circuslike sideshow, a poker tournament really had taken place. It was an exciting final table that was played by the least known group in WSOP history.

You'd send your nickel-dime-playing granny against this lineup, right? After all, there were no WSOP bracelets among them – none! Total WSOP earnings for the group? Less than $450,000. They had a whopping seven final tables in all WSOP events between them, with one second as the best result. Three of them had never made a penny in the Series before this championship, including Varkonyi, who now is on the WSOP top 10 all-time money winners list.

For those who like to complain, "Tournaments are always won by the same people," they have to be still for a while.

Thirteen former champions and nearly all of the 29 WSOP millionaires entered the championship event. Yet, none of those famous players even made it to the 45 who were paid. Here are the surviving nine at the start of the final day. Know any of these names?

Seat No. Player Hometown Chip Count

1 Tony D (Tam Duong) Los Angeles, CA $ 231,000

2 Julian Gardner Manchester, UK $ 394,000

3 Scott Gray Dublin, Ireland $ 545,000

4 Ralph Perry Las Vegas, NV $ 766,000

5 Minh Ly Las Vegas, NV $ 614,000

6 Robert Varkonyi Brooklyn, NY $ 640,000

7 John Shipley Solihull, UK $2,033,000

8 Russell Rosenblum Bethesda, MD $ 927,000

9 Harley Hall San Juan Capistrano, CA $ 161,000

The final table started off with a bang as the young English wizard Julian Gardner picked up pocket aces on the first hand and doubled up against Robert Varkonyi. Robert was suddenly down to $250,000 in chips from $640,000. There was no way he was going to win this thing, you'd have thought.

But Varkonyi had a secret stash of chips sitting next to him. These chips temporarily belonged to the prohibitive chip leader John Shipley, but they weren't to be John's for long.

After the first couple of hands, action subsided for about an hour as everyone felt each other out. During that time, the short stacks kept winning their hands and Shipley was losing his. The momentum that had been so strongly blowing toward Shipley the night before left him completely. The crowd buzzed as the player with twice the amount of starting chips as anyone else became defensive. Shipley could have bullied the table with his stack, but curiously didn't.

It was Las Vegas pro Minh Ly who made the first move, and it cost him. Ly got all of his chips into the pot with pocket eights against Ralph Perry (aka Rafael Perovskin) with A-K. You have to win the "coin-toss" hands if you are going to stay in a tournament. The eights came up "tails" as a king hit the flop.

Even stranger than Shipley's actions were the inactions of the veteran high-stakes player "Tony D" (Tam Duong). No one had ever seen Tony so passive. He's a famed "jammer" in live-action games, yet in this event he hardly played a hand. Maybe it was tournament inexperience or just incredibly lousy cards. In any case, Tony D played for eighth place by not gambling, and that's what he got. Basically, Tony sat out the first two levels and was forced to play a Q-J all in when the blinds went to $15,000-$30,000 and the ante to $5,000. Varkonyi had most of Shipley's chips by then, and called with A-K. Bye, Tony D. Maybe you just don't like tournaments.

The new blind level finally brought action. We'd sat for four hours as only one player left. Now, there was a parade to the exit. Next, shockingly, was Shipley. How could someone with more than $2 million in chips finish seventh? By a series of very bad plays, that's how. The bad play that stands out most was the key play of the entire final table. Varkonyi had rebuilt his stack from the first-hand disaster to Julian Gardner. He was on the button and raised all in with pocket jacks. Shipley lost the chip lead to Varkonyi (who would never give it up) and any chance at a significant payday by calling with A-J from the small blind. That hand alone cost Shipley nearly $1 million in chips. He was never a factor again. A half-hour later, Shipley shipped out when his nemesis Varkonyi called John's all-in pair of sevens with an A-10. Of course, an ace hit the board.

The Internet favorite, Russ Rosenblum, hit the skids in sixth. He will have nightmares about the Ju 6u as long as he lives. After playing brilliantly for five days, for some unimaginable reason, Rosenblum tried to steal the blinds from the button by going all in with his Ju 6u. A simple raise couldn't have been enough? If you get a play back, you dump it, right? Well, Julian Gardner found pocket aces in the big blind and had no trouble calling all in. Now, Russ had only $92,000 and was out the next hand with A-8 against Scott Gray's A-K.

Throughout the day, chants of "Harley, Harley" were heard each time Harley Hall won another all-in hand. Ninth in chips to start, Hall became the crowd favorite with his survival techniques. His luck finally ran out when his all-in A-2 from the small blind found Julian Gardner's K-7 in the big blind. The young wizard Gardner should have a thunderbolt on his forehead, as he conjured up running sevens and rode Harley out in fifth place.

There was no stopping Varkonyi. First, he had half the chips on the table, then two-thirds, then at the end, all of them. Why? Because he had the "Ultimate Weapon." Varkonyi had Q-10! Gasp! Q-10?! Yes, only Robert V. had the greatest hand in poker. This hand not only won Varkonyi $2 million, it cost Phil Hellmuth his hair. It was the Q-10 (suited) that took nearly all of Phil's chips on day No. 3 and prompted the hair-shaving boast. Now, the hand took Scott Gray out in fourth place. Gray only had a former great hand for Chris Ferguson, A-9. Sure, two queens flopped for Varkonyi. When you are runnin' fantastically, that's what happens.

For simplicity, probably, Rafael Perovskin changed his poker name to Ralph Perry. With either name, Ralph can play, but he ran up against the hot Varkonyi. When Ralph went all in with pocket jacks, Varkonyi had pocket aces in the big blind. Now, there were two.

Heads up, Varkonyi, the MIT computer science graduate, had a 4-1 chip lead on the school-of-hard-knocks graduate Julian Gardner. Julian's wizard powers finally were no match when faced with the awesome Q-10. When the flop came Q-4-4 with two clubs, Julian went all in. He had the J® 8®. Forget about it! Varkonyi can play Q-10 in his sleep and win. A 10 came on the turn. In a bizarre finish to a great tournament, a club magically appeared on the river. Gardner was still alive!

No! It was the 10®! Varkonyi had a full house, tens full of queens. How fitting. In a little housekeeping before we go, the other Phil – Phil Ivey – won Best All-Around Player honors, as calculated by Card Player. The 24-year-old Ivey won three events this year.

And in the long-delayed gold bracelet match-play event, Johnny Chan won his seventh bracelet by defeating Phil Hellmuth, who was going for his record-tying eighth WSOP win. Results of that event were:

1. Johnny Chan $34,000

2. Phil Hellmuth 17,000

3. Diego Cordovez 8,575

3. Tom McEvoy 8,575

It was indeed Robert Varkonyi's day. But forever, Robert will be known in poker not as the first "$2 Million Man," but as the guy who put a close shave on Phil Hellmuth.

Official Money Winners

1. Robert Varkonyi $2,000,000

2. Julian Gardner $1,100,000

3. Ralph Perry $ 550,000

4. Scott Gray $ 281,480

5. Harley Hall $ 195,000

6. Russell Rosenblum $ 150,000

7. John Shipley $ 125,000

8. Tony D (Tam Duong) $ 100,000

9. Minh Ly $ 85,000

10th-12th – $70,000 each: Don Barton, Amir Nasseri, Owen Mullan

13th-15th – $60,000 each: Martin de Knijff, Yosh Nakano, James Neely

16th-18th – $50,000 each: Bernard Ko, Sigi Stockington, David Rubin

19th-27th – $40,000 each: Mike Fetter, Stephen Wilsdon, Jack Fox, Dave Crunkleton, Phil Ivey, Minh Nguyen, Lamar Wilkinson, Kurt Paseka, Ray January

28th-36th – $30,000 each: Luan Phu, Sam Whitt, Rameen Sai, Scott Amos, Steve Melton, Eric Holum, Ross Boatman, Randy Holland, Tom Schneider

37th-45th – $20,000 each: Hertzel Zalewski, Doug Booth, Jason Lane, Brian Haveson, Greg Alston, David Sklansky, Dan Heimiller, Tristan McDonald, Peter Giordanou