Espen Jorstad Wins His First World Series of Poker Main Event

July 18, 2022 World Events & Announcements

Norwegian Espen Jorstad won the 53rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Saturday, July 16, marking the first victory for both Jorstad and Norway in poker’s most prestigious game.

The 34-year-old poker pro, who lives in London, took home $10 million along with a gold bracelet. He trounced 28-year-old Australian poker pro Adrian Attenborough two hours into their heads-up action in the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em World Championship.

It was the feather in a remarkable WSOP for Jorstad, who won the $1,000 Tag Team No -limit Hold’em event just two weeks ago alongside teammate Patrick Leonard. (This made him this year’s only Main Event final table entrant with a previous gold bracelet.)

Jorstad played with sunglasses and without expression against Attenborough, who visibly and audibly agonized several times — at one point for more than 18 minutes — over whether his opponent was bluffing or had cards. (His fatal mistake was guessing that his pair of 4s beat whatever Jorstad was holding, which turned out to be a set of 2s.)

Attenborough earned $6 million for second place, while 23-year-old Argentinian venture capitalist Michael Duek took home $4 million.