What a tournament, and what a winner! Espen Jørstad has claimed the most coveted title in poker, the WSOP Main Event, walking away with $10,000,000 and the gold bracelet to rule them all. Jørstad ploughed through a huge field of 8,663 players for the ultimate championship title after a gruelling 9 days of play. He is the first Norwegian ever to win the Main Event title.
How the final day of play went down
Three players went into the final day with Jørstad an overwhelming chip leader with 57% of the chips in play (298,000,000). Adrian Attenborough from Australia was in distant second on 149,800,000, and the Argentinian Michael Duek was short stacked with 72,100,000.
On the tenth hand of the day, Attenborough went up against Duek in what would be the latter’s final hand of the tournament. With blinds on 1.5M/3M, Attenborough found on the dealer button and raised to 6m. Duek on the small blind looked down at and re-popped to 23M. Jørstad folded his K8o from the big blind and Attenborough called. Both players checked the flop, only to see the party card on the turn. Duek bet 17M and Attenborough smooth called. The uneventful river saw Duek all but shove his stack, leaving himself with a 5M chip behind to which Attenborough announced all in. Duek tossed in his final chip to be beaten by broadway and left the tournament in third with $4,000,000.
The intense heads-up duel began with a hand that lasted almost 30 minutes, Attenborough tanking for his tournament life with bottom pair. He eventually found the fold, but lost over half his stack in the process. The final hand of the tournament saw a similar tank from Attenborough, but this time, he couldn’t find a fold.
Blinds on 2M/4M, both players on similar stacks, with Jørstad about 50M ahead. With no action preflop, both players went into the flop with mediocre hands: Attenborough with and Jørstad with . The flop promised action, showing . Attenborough checked, and Jørstad put in a baby bet of 4M. Attenborough raised to 14M and Jørstad 3-bet to 32M. After a pretty quick call from Attenborough, the turn showed a nothing-card to which Attenborough checked. Jørstad put in a bet of 62M and Attenborough called. The river filled Jørstad up with a to which Attenborough again opened with a check. Jørstad took his time, eventually announcing all in. After a mammoth tank, Attenborough made the call, thinking he was being bluffed by Jørstad. He left the tournament second taking home $6,000,000.
A formidable opponent, Jørstad happily accepted his bracelet and his monster first prize of $10,000,000.
Who is Espen Jørstad?
Having played most of the tournament barefoot and finding his ‘chill’ every time he was faced with an important decision, Espen Jørstad was the picture of level-headed throughout the WSOP Main Event.
Primarily a cash player, Jørstad dabbles in tournaments every now and again, and he is quite well known online as Hymn2ninkasi on PokerStars, and COVFEFE-19 on GGPoker. He won his seat to the Main Event online at GGPoker in a $1,050 satellite and will continue onto the WSOP Europe Main Event after securing a seat simply by making the final table.
He has mentioned that with his winnings, he’s excited to start playing in more tournaments as his bankroll is now considerably bigger. He’s looking forward to getting into the High Roller scene and playing more $25,000 tournaments. He has also mentioned, however, that he needs to get back to studying the poker basics to be sure that he’s good enough. Humble much? The first thing he did when he won was phone his biggest fan: his mother.
She was crying and had trouble speaking. She’s my biggest fan, so it was kind of emotional.
Currently living in London, Jørstad is a former Unibet Poker Ambassador and popular Twitch streamer.
2022 WSOP Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Espen Jørstad | Norway | $10,000,000 |
| 2nd | Adrian Attenborough | Australia | $6,000,000 |
| 3rd | Michael Duek | Argentina | $4,000,000 |
| 4th | John Eames | United Kingdom | $3,000,000 |
| 5th | Matija Dobric | Croatia | $2,250,000 |
| 6th | Jeffrey Farnes | United States | $1,750,000 |
| 7th | Aaron Duczak | Canada | $1,350,000 |
| 8th | Philippe Souki | United Kingdom | $1,085,000 |
| 9th | Matthew Su | United States | $850,675 |
| 10th | Asher Conniff | United States | $675,000 |
Congratulations to Espen Jørstad on a very well-deserved win. Keep your eyes peeled for what we can only assume is the first of many wins to come. For more poker content and fun, be sure to check out our PokerDeals Discord, and join our FaceBook group.
Images courtesy of PokerGO.
