She wants to play chess with me every night

Interview: Heads-up with 2002 Main Event Champion Robert Varkonyi
Diana Cox June 1, 2009 at 5:45 pm

Robert Varkonyi, 2002 World Series of Poker Main Event winner, took some time out from the Champions Invitational to talk with BluffMagazine.com about poker, his family and what he does in his free time.

When you won the WSOP in 2002 you had a prop bet with Phil Hellmuth. Do you have any prop bets going on this year?

I guess that was the hair cutting thing? Not that I”m aware of. But my wife might have one going on.

Are you planning on playing in the Main Event this year?

Oh, definitely yes, and my wife as well. She’s really the player in the family.

She cashed in the 2005 Main Event and you didn’t. How did you feel about that?

I felt really good. She could have won it, she had a big stack, she just got back to back bad beats.

…Now you have two daughters, and you named one of them Victoria after your victory at the Main Event.

Victoria was in my wife’s belly when I won the Main Event in 2002, so it seemed appropriate.

Does she know the story of her name?

She is starting to get inclinations of it. We haven’t told her that story yet, but a few months ago she asked me to teach her to play cards and I told her I would teach her cards after she learned how to play chess well. So I taught her how to play chess and now she goes to chess class and wants to play chess with me every night. When she gets good at that game she can learn how to play cards.

Here is the full article.