POKER INFO - PROILE - Robert Varkonyi

Playing 10-12 hours a day over a 5 day tournament, Varkonyi played from 50-60 hours of poker. You saw what, a half hour of that on ESPN? Everyone who makes the final table has to have lucky breaks, but that does not mean that luck alone can carry you to the final table. To respond to burt's comment on the Q-10: in my view, Varkonyi played all of those Q-10's well. If you would take a minute to consider how deep his stack was, how much was already in the pot and how much his opponent pushed in for, the amount in the pot and the chance to knock out an opponent more than compensated for him taking the 40-45 end of either a 60-40 of 55-45. Just because he was taking the short end of the stick does not mean he is a poor player--indeed, knowing that he had enough equity in the pot to become involved shows that he understands the game a lot more deeply than many of his critics . . .