2002 World Series of Poker

2002 World Series of Poker
Location	Binion's Horseshoe, Las Vegas, Nevada
Dates	April 19 – May 25
Champion
Robert Varkonyi

The 2002 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was held at Binion's Horseshoe.

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 Main Event victory of amateur Chris Moneymaker helped launch the 2000s poker boom.

Preliminary events

Event	Winner	Prize	Runner-up
$500 Casino Employees Limit Hold'em	David Warga	$47,300	Leon Wheeler
$2,000 Limit Hold'em	Mike Majerus	$407,120	David Chiu
$1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split	Perry Friedman	$176,860	Greg Mascio
$2,000 No Limit Hold'em	Layne Flack	$303,880	Tom Jacobs
$1,500 Seven Card Stud	Phil Ivey	$132,000	Toto Leonidas
$1,500 Limit Omaha	John Cernuto	$73,320	Randy Holland
$1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split	Paul Clark	$125,200	Andrew Prock
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha	Jack Duncan	$192,560	Lindy Chambers
$2,500 No Limit Hold'em Gold Bracelet Match Play	Johnny Chan	$34,000	Phil Hellmuth Jr.
$2,000 H.O.R.S.E.	John Hennigan	$117,320	Ben Tang
$2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em	Jay Sipelstein	$150,240	Barny Boatman
$2,500 Seven Card Stud	Dan Torla	$115,600	Bill Gibbs
$3,000 Limit Hold'em	John Hom	$174,840	Benny Wan
$1,500 Razz	Billy Baxter	$64,860	Chico Flynn
$2,500 Pot Limit Omaha	Jan Vang Sørensen	$185,000	Brent Carter
$2,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo	Phil Ivey	$118,440	Sirous Baghchehsaraie
$3,000 Pot Limit Hold'em	Fred Berger	$197,400	Chris Ferguson
$1,500 Ace to Five Lowball	Thor Hansen	$62,600	Brian Nadell
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em	Layne Flack	$268,020	Johnny Chan
$2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split	Eddie Fishman	$135,360	Doug Saab
$1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em	John McIntosh	$177,380	Mel Weiner
$5,000 Seven Card Stud	Qushqar Morad	$172,960	Steven Banks
$2,000 S.H.O.E.	Phil Ivey	$107,540	Diego Cordovez
$5,000 Limit Hold'em	Jennifer Harman	$221,440	Brian Green
$1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout	Joel Chaseman	$96,400	Gene Timberlake
$1,000 Ladies' Championship	Catherine Brown	$39,880	Marie Sohn
$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha	Robert Williamson III	$201,160	Patrick Bruel
$1,500 Limit Hold'em	Meng La	$190,920	Steve Kaufman
$5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split	Mike Matusow	$148,520	Daniel Negreanu
$3,000 No Limit Hold'em	Randal Heeb	$367,240	Sherman Burry
$2,000 1/2 Hold'em, 1/2 Stud	Dan Heimiller	$108,300	Ram Vaswani
$5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw No Limit	Allen Cunningham	$160,200	O'Neil Longson
$1,000 Seniors' No Limit Championship	Bill Swan	$134,000	Mike Sexton
$1,500 Triple Draw Lowball Ace to Five	John Juanda	$49,620	Paul Phillips

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.

Final table

Name	Number of chips (percentage of total)	WSOP Bracelets*	WSOP Cashes*	WSOP Earnings*
John Shipley	2,033,000 (32.2%)	0	5	$37,270
Russell Rosenblum	927,000 (14.7%)	0	0	0
Ralph Perry	766,000 (12.1%)	0	6	$43,780
Robert Varkonyi	640,000 (10.1%)	0	0	0
Minh Ly	614,000 (9.7%)	0	2	$62,155
Scott Gray	545,000 (8.6%)	0	1	$12,200
Julian Gardner	394,000 (6.2%)	0	0	0
Tony Duong	231,000 (3.7%)	0	5	$224,000
Harley Hall	161,000 (2.6%)	0	2	$25,260

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

Final table results

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Robert Varkonyi	$2,000,000
2nd	Julian Gardner	$1,100,000
3rd	Ralph Perry	$550,000
4th	Scott Gray	$281,480
5th	Harley Hall	$195,000
6th	Russell Rosenblum	$150,000
7th	John Shipley	$125,000
8th	Tony Duong	$100,000
9th	Minh Ly	$85,000

Note: Phil Hellmuth, 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.

Place	Name	Prize
13th	Martin de Knijff	$60,000
14th	Yoshio Nakano	$60,000
23rd	Phil Ivey	$40,000
24th	Minh Nguyen	$40,000
34th	Ross Boatman	$30,000
35th	Randy Holland	$30,000
36th	Tom Schneider	$30,000
42nd	David Sklansky	$20,000
43rd	Dan Heimiller	$20,000

In pop culture

In "Casino Night", the 22nd episode of the second season of the American comedy television series The Office, it is revealed that Kevin Malone, a character on the show, won a World Series of Poker bracelet for No-Limit Deuce-Seven Draw in 2002.