The 2002

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...

(WSOP) was held at

Binion's Horseshoe Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel, formerly Binion's Horseshoe, is a casino on Fremont Street along the Fremont Street Experience pedestrian mall in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is owned by TLC Casino Enterprises. The casino is n ...

. The 2002 WSOP was historically notable for two reasons. The series was the first WSOP in which pocket cams were installed to allow broadcasters (on tape delay) to show the players' hole cards, although only for the Main Event (today, the cameras are used at most WSOP events), and it was also the last WSOP before the

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Main Event victory of amateur

Chris Moneymaker Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born November 21, 1975) is an American poker player who won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a wor ...

helped launch the 2000s

poker boom The poker boom was a period between 2003 and 2006, during which poker, primarily no-limit Texas hold 'em, but also other variations, became considerably more popular around the world. During the boom years, the online poker player pool at least dou ...

Events

There were 34 preliminary bracelet events at the 2002 World Series of Poker. Phil Ivey won three bracelets in this WSOP, giving him four for his career. He joined Doyle Brunson, Gary Berland, Bobby Baldwin, Lakewood Louie as the only players to win four bracelets in three years. Ivey was the first to accomplish the feat in the era of growing tournament fields.

Main Event

There were 631 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter, with the top 45 players finishing in the money. It was the largest poker tournament (by prize pool) ever played in a brick and mortar casino at the time. For the first time, the Main Event's top prize reached $2 million. Robert Varkonyi defeated Julian Gardner heads-up with a full house over a flush on the final hand.

Final table

*Career statistics prior to the beginning of the 2002 Main Event.

Final table results

Note:

Phil Hellmuth Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record seventeen World Series of Poker bracelets, the majority in no-limit hold'em. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Se ...

, as part of ESPN's broadcast team, during the first hour of their final table coverage said he would shave his head if Robert Varkonyi won the tournament. At the conclusion of the tournament, Hellmuth is seen having his head shaved.

In The Money Finishes

''NB: This list is restricted to In The Money finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.''

In pop culture

In "

Casino Night "Casino Night" is the second season finale of the American comedy television series ''The Office'' and the twenty-eighth episode overall. Written by Steve Carell, who also acts in the show as Michael Scott, and directed by Ken Kwapis, the ep ...

", the 22nd episode of the second season of the American

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

'', it is revealed that

Kevin Malone Kevin Malone is a fictional character in the American television series '' The Office,'' portrayed by Brian Baumgartner. In the series, Kevin is a member of the accounting department at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. He is shown to ...

, a character on the show, won a

World Series of Poker bracelet The World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP. Even if the victory occurred before 1976 ...

for No-Limit Deuce-Seven Draw in 2002.

References

External links

Tournament results
at the

Hendon Mob The Hendon Mob are a group of four professional poker players from London, England: Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman, and Ram Vaswani. The name of the group was first publicised by the ''Evening Standard'' newspaper in September 2000. ...

{{2000s WSOP bracelet winners World Series of Poker

2002 in Nevada