KEMI, Finland - Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 World Series of Poker Main
Event Champion, won Interpoker.com's latest Extreme Poker Challenge on
Wednesday, beating Finland's Juha Helppi in a tournament played outside
in sub-zero temperatures.
Helppi, who won the first Extreme Poker title under water in the
Caribbean Sea, chose the venue for the event, opting for a home ice
advantage in his native country.
Players who lost all of their chips early in the tournament could rebuy
by trading in their coats, and Varkonyi used his rebuy just three hands
into the tournament after going bust against online qualifier Daniel
Stein. He played the rest of the tournament in a T-shirt, running laps
between hands to stay warm.
After about an hour and a half, Varkonyi and Helppi had vanquished the
four Internet qualifiers to face each other heads up. In the
tournament's final hand, Varkonyi hit top pair on the flop with his
10-9, eventually making a full house to claim the Extreme Poker title.
"Winning this title makes my suffering through the most excruciating
cold I've ever experienced worth it," Varkonyi said in an InterPoker.com
press release. "Juha really gave me a run for the title, and my hat and
coat are off to him."
Varkonyi qualified for the 2006 Extreme Poker Championship, to be held
in a sunken ship off the coast of St. Kitts, where the first Extreme
Poker tournament was held. Helppi had already qualified for the
tournament by winning the first Extreme Poker title.
InterPoker.com has announced that the next Extreme Poker event will be
held in a plane 10,000 feet above the Las Vegas desert. Dubbed "Loser's
Leap," players who bust out of the tournament will be forced to
parachute down to the ground. Players can earn a spot in the qualifying
round of the Loser's Leap tournament by claiming a World Series of Poker
seat through InterPoker.com's online satellite tournaments.
In his previous life, Aaron Todd was a sports journalist by day and
a poker player by night. He can now be found covering the poker beat for
Casino City and making horrendously unsuccessful bluffs in his home
game. Write to Aaron at aarontodd@casinocity.com.
