Worst Main Event Winner Ever

Going into this, I thought it would be easy, and I thought I knew my answer. After I did some research I realized just how wrong I was! When you look at the Main Event winners of the pre-internet era, they were mostly all studs. They were all established successful players before they won the main event. Doyle, Johnny Chan, Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson, Stu Ungar. Some, won out of nowhere as up-and-coming pros and then they remained respectable players: Jesus, Scotty Nguyen, Carlos Mortensen. You really have to look into the new internet age when the field sizes jumped from 600 to 800 to 2k, 6k, 8k..huge fields where luck plays the biggest factor.

This all started with Chris Moneymaker of course, who could be in this arguement. He created the poker boom and never did anything after that. BUT, he did. He has had four in-the-money finishes in the WSOP earning $32,000 in those events. He also had a second-place finish in a World Poker Tour event. But Chris wasn't the first name I thought of.

In 2006, in the biggest field in WSOP history (8,773), Jamie Gold ran through the field, had the chip lead from day 3 and knocked out seven of the eight people at the final table. He did it all while being a complete a-hole, breaking tournament rules around every bend. It's easy to look at his as a total Luck Sack, who wouldn't amount to anything in poker. Well, guess what? He has cashed just as many times as Moneymaker, three coming in 2007. He's not great, but he's legit.

Well, shoot. The obvious answer then has to be devout christian Jerry Yang, who won last year right? I just can't say that he's the worst ever, when he hasn't had a chance to prove himself yet. He has chosen to play only one preliminary event so far in 2008. If he disappears again for another year, then he'll probably take the crown, but not yet.

Then you have to look at the other internet era winners: Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer. Only problem is, they were fledgling pros coming into their main event wins and both had already cashed PRIOR to winning the big one. They have a combined 23 cashes between them and have reached other final tables. They are good players. Nowhere near the list.

So the winner, after all of the assumptions of the internet age, is someone who played before the internet age. The original amatuer fluke winner: Robert Varkonyi. Varkonyi famously won the 2002 Main Event, besting a field of 631 players. A newcomer to the game (an investment banker by trade), Varkonyi was considered dead money and Phil Hellmuth, who was a commentator for the final table, famously agreed to shave his head should this punk amatuer knock out all of the pros. Needless to say, Hellmuth stayed true to his word, with Varkonyi even doing some of the shaving himself after his victory.

Since the Main Event win? Mr. Varkonyi has famously been considered to be the worst winner, never cashing at the WSOP again until last years main event when he took 177th place. He has cashed in just six poker tournaments on record. Outside of the two WSOP cashes, he has made just $35,000 playing tournament poker. He considers himself to be a professional poker player. Really? Making an average of $14,000 per year? Ouch.