Espen Jorstad Wins 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event for $10,000,000

After an amazing final day performance at Bally’s & Paris, Las Vegas, Norwegian Espen Jorstad has won the 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event for $10,000,000. He defeated Australian Adrian Attenborough in heads-up to win the WSOP’s second-largest field of 8,663 participants.

Attenborough will have to settle with $6,000,000, while Michael Duek, who finished third, will receive $4,000,000.

Jorstad has become the first Norwegian to win the WSOP Main Event, surpassing compatriot Felix Stephensen, who was runner-up in 2014. He has also surpassed Stephensen at the top of the Norwegian all-time money list. Read on for more details and highlights.

Espen Jorstad’s Reaction

Jorstad began the final day as the chip leader and witnessed Attenborough send Duek to the rail on the ninth hand of the day. Only one hand later, the competition might have ended, but Attenborough tank-folded bottom pair after nearly 20 minutes. However, Attenborough did ask for his tournament life after a somewhat shorter tank, only for Jorstad to flip over a rivered full house to become the newest poker world champion.

The first thing that Jorstad did after achieving this victory is call his mother. Jorstad has told the following during the interview:

“She was crying and had trouble speaking. She’s my biggest fan, so it was kind of emotional. It feels really good.”

Moreover, Jorstad made it clear that Attenborough was the one player that he didn’t want to go up against in heads-up: 

“But I did. I just got better cards than him today.”

When asked about his plans for the future, Jorstad has said the following:

“My goal has been to reach into the High Roller scene and play more $25,000 tournaments and stuff like that. I’ve dipped my toes, but now I have a bigger bankroll to take some shots in those tournaments. I need to get in the lab and make sure I’m good enough to play them. And make some very sensible investments — cryptocurrencies and tech stocks, probably.”

Final Day Highlights

Jorstad was leading when the play resumed on the final day. In the first exchanges, Attenborough came out shooting in an attempt to reduce the deficit, while Duek’s two early shoves showed that he wasn’t content with third place.

Duek’s Main Event run ended 10 hands into the final day. He bet the majority of his stack with the top pair, only to have Attenborough shove his stack. Duek reluctantly threw the remainder of his chips in but had run into his opponent’s nut straight to finish third for $4,000,000.

Heads-up play began with both players effectively equal, albeit Jorstad was marginally ahead. The idea of a long heads-up encounter, similar to the one in 2018, loomed. However, the battle might have ended on the very first hand.

Attenborough three-bet preflop and bet on the flop and turn before checking the river to Jorstad, who shoved all in.

After nearly 20 minutes, Attenborough folded, only to immediately double back to extend heads-up. However, another deep tank with the same hand rendered Attenborough unable to put it down again, and Jorstad emerged victorious.

Here is what Jorstad had to say about his heads-up duel:

“How long was he tanking? It felt like an eternity. I was trying to focus on my breathing, did some meditation. I’ve been [meditating] on and off for an eternity. You focus on different body parts, focusing on each finger and just chilling in my zone. “I was curious how the match was going to go. The heads-up was almost finished in one hand which was kind of absurd. It went as expected. He’s a really tough opponent, plays aggressively and finds good hero calls. He’s a very tough opponent so it went as expected.”

Here are the final table results:

Who is Espen Jorstad?

Espen Uhlen Jorstad is a Norwegian professional poker player who lives in London, UK. Many may recognize Jorstad from his online poker achievements, most notably on PokerStars as “Hymn2ninkasi” and GGPoker as “COVFEFE-19.” Jorstad is mostly a cash game player, but he dabbles in tournament poker on occasion. Until this year, Jorstad had never cashed in the World Series of Poker. He did, however, have 20 WSOP online cashes, including a sixth-place result in the 2021 WSOP $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Online Championship, which was valued $603,058.

At the start of the 2022 WSOP, the prominent Twitch streamer cashed in his first live WSOP tournament, Event #5: The Housewarming. He and Patrick Leonard won Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team for $74,042 apiece, as well as their first WSOP bracelets. Jorstad’s deep run in the Main Event began with another payout, this time in Event #68: Million Dollar Bounty. Jorstad got his $10,000 WSOP Main Event spot with a $1,050 satellite at GGPoker. He, Vadim Rozin, and Tom Kunze were the final three GGPoker qualifiers standing. Jorstad earned a free WSOP Europe Main Event seat by reaching the final table, while the other two GGPoker qualifiers were eliminated.

On Day 7 of the 2022 WSOP Main Event, Jorstad sat sixth in chips among the 35 returning players. The cash game expert didn’t get involved in many critical hands right away, but he did remove Jonathan Rosa in 34th place after missing a flush draw but striking two pair on the river to come from behind and decrease the player count by one. He lost more than a quarter of his stack in a brawl with David Diaz, but he rebounded and took the chip lead when he knocked Efthymia Litsou out of the tournament in 18th place. 

Jorstad soared after a massive double with aces vs Tom Kunze’s ace-king. He eventually eliminated Kunze in 14th position and found himself on the verge of winning 100 million chips. During the 37th level of play, John Eames doubled through Jorstad, but Jorstad held his calm and walked away with 83,200,000 chips. Jorstad has said the following about his aces versus ace-king double-up: 

“Obviously it’s the dream. Getting it in as the biggest favorite that you can be in the biggest tournament and the biggest spot of your life, feels pretty good. It probably needs to sink in a bit. Right now I’m just mega-exhausted and I need to eat, drink, and sleep. Tomorrow I’ll be like ‘oh it’s pretty awesome.’

Here is the breakdown of Espen Jorstad’s Main Event journey:

Patrick Leonard and Espen Jorstad Win $1,000 Tag Team for $148,067

Team Leonard, comprising of Patrick Leonard and Espen Jorstad, won Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team for $148,067 after four days of play, defeating a field of 913 teams. The popular format generated excitement surrounding the World Series of Poker (WSOPnew )’s home at Paris and Bally’s Las Vegas, with the final day conducted under the lights on the PokerGO live stream.

A frantic start resulted in a rollercoaster heads-up versus the duo of Jamie Kerstetter and Corey Paggeot, who had entered the day as chip leaders, with the chip lead exchanging hands many times. The last four players were all vying for their first bracelets, but Leonard and Jorstad emerged victorious after overcoming a nearly 6:1 heads-up chip lead.

Here are the final table results:

It was an Instagram post that led to Leonard and Jorstad becoming Tag Team partners, and when Jorstad played the entire first day, Leonard expressed his faith in his partner. After a string of “absurd” moves midway through the competition, Jorstad had nothing but respect for his partner. Here is what Jorstad said about his teammate: 

“He was just making some absurd adjustments. Folding tens to a three-bet and the opponent shows aces. Folding jacks and the guy shows queens. Just absurd plays. And I was like ‘Ok, we’re winning this.'”

Leonard stated that the main edge he and Jprstad had was their freshness, which they had gained by splitting their time at the table over the previous several days in order to capitalize on it at the final table. As Leonard puts it: 

“A lot of people had played solo for the last few days. Some had played four days by themselves, whereas we’ve probably played about 50:50. We were fresh and taking hours in, hours out, and when I was out I was studying and I knew what to do coming in, so that was our biggest advantage.”

A critical hand in which Jorstad five-bet shoved ace-jack saw them create a significant heads-up chip lead before tagging in Leonard to seal the win.

While witnessing the last hand from the sidelines, Jorstad stated that he was enthralled by Leonard’s performance.

“I felt 100% of the all-in. It was against the team we wanted to get heads-up against as well. Jamie is obviously very popular in the community, everyone loves her – Corey as well – it felt really nice getting heads-up with them and winning in the end.”

The final day’s initial exchanges were tense, with no side wanting to be the first to bust on the PokerGO live broadcast. The overnight chip advantage was strengthened by Team Paggeot throughout the opening exchanges, which saw Team Kraemer running nines into jacks to bust to Kerstetter. Leonard grabbed a crucial double a few minutes later in an action-packed opening before Kerstetter again pushed Franco Spitale to the rail. Team Leonard and Team Tsugaru were slugging it out behind Team Paggeot, and Tsugaru was the first to blink. After rivering a pair, Paggeot sent them to the winnings desk.

Team Kerstetter had a massive heads-up chip advantage over Team Leonard, but the tables turned after two doubles for Jorstad through Paggeot. Despite the growing blinds, the lead would change hands several times before Jorstad established a sizable chip advantage. He tagged in Leonard, who won his and Jorstad’s first WSOP bracelets.

Alex Foxen Wins $250,000 Super High Roller for $4,563,700

The greatest buy-in of the summer, the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #50: $250,000 Super High Roller, began with 56 entries, and the last eight returned on Saturday to play down to a champion and their share of a $13,944,000 prize pool. Alex Foxen started as the chip leader, and it took him merely five hours to go wire-to-wire on his trip to his first gold bracelet and a new career best of $4,563,700. Here is what Alex Foxen had to say about his victory: 

“It really means a lot to me. It’s kind of been a monkey on the back. I’ve always wanted a bracelet. I’ve had some close spots and always been disappointed … this feels like a really special one to get my first in. To me, what means the most is consistent performance at the highest stakes. This is one of those, so it feels really good.”

Foxen earned just under $22 million in lifetime earnings prior to the triumph, including a previous career-high $2,160,000 for coming second in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl. Foxen, a former Boston College football tight end, was not a first-time WSOP winner. That’s because he won a WSOP Circuit ring at Harrah’s New Orleans in 2012, although for a far more modest $22,421. Speaking of rings, Foxen married his wife, three-time bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell, earlier this year and was eager to thank her with his achievement.

“I’m extremely lucky I have an incredible wife and incredible support. It’s something that can’t be overstated honestly, the amount it helps to have someone at home that to the utmost extent understands what I’m going through on a day-to-day basis and is there to talk hands all the time, and just to help me through the difficult times too, because. I’m definitely not immune to tilt and emotion. Having someone like Krissy, I can’t express how lucky I am.”

Here are the final table results: