Norwegian Espen Jorstad gained the 53rd World Collection of Poker (WSOP) Most important Occasion on Saturday, July 16, marking the primary victory for each Jorstad and Norway in poker’s most prestigious recreation.
WSOP 2022 Most important Occasion champ Espen Jorstad poses along with his gold bracelet at Bally’s. (Picture: Screenshot by way of PokerGo)
The 34-year-old poker professional, who lives in London, took house $10 million together with a gold bracelet. He trounced 28-year-old Australian poker professional Adrian Attenborough two hours into their heads-up motion within the $10,000 buy-in No-Restrict Maintain’em World Championship.
It was the feather in a exceptional WSOP for Jorstad, who gained the $1,000 Tag Crew No -limit Maintain’em occasion simply two weeks in the past alongside teammate Patrick Leonard. (This made him this yr’s solely Most important Occasion remaining desk entrant with a earlier gold bracelet.)
Jorstad performed with sun shades and with out expression in opposition to Attenborough, who visibly and audibly agonized a number of occasions — at one level for greater than 18 minutes — over whether or not his opponent was bluffing or had playing cards. (His deadly mistake was guessing that his pair of 4s beat no matter Jorstad was holding, which turned out to be a set of 2s.)
Attenborough earned $6 million for second place, whereas 23-year-old Argentinian enterprise capitalist Michael Duek took house $4 million.
WSOP 2022 Sees Huge Attendance
This yr’s Most important Occasion, which started July 3, was the second largest of all time, attracting 8,663 hopefuls (simply 110 entrants shy of the 2006 report) to construct a prize pool of $80,782,475. Hope died for 8,624 of these hopefuls by Day 7 when 35 took their seats vying for the ultimate desk.
In an unprecedented scenario, 17 grueling hours of play ensued till event officers lastly mercy-killed the play at 6 a.m. native time Thursday, leaving ten nonetheless standing as a substitute of the normal 9. (The “official” remaining desk started with the elimination of Brooklyn-born Las Vegas resident Asher Conniff, who walked away with $675,000 for ending tenth.)
Jorstad dominated the 11 hours of play that started at 2 p.m. Friday, which resulted in his scoring back-to-back knockouts in opposition to Matija Dobric, the primary Croatian to make the Most important Occasion remaining desk, and England’s John Eames. (Dobric gained $2.25 million for ending fifth, Eames $3 million for fourth.)
Fold Heard Around the World
Along with Jorstad’s win, this yr’s WSOP might be remembered as the primary sequence held at Bally’s after 17 consecutive years on the Rio. (From its inception in 1970 till 2004, it was held at Binion’s Horseshoe.)
It’s going to additionally go down in poker historical past for what would possibly as effectively be referred to as the fold heard all over the world. The beyond-difficult however in the end appropriate choice was made on Day 6 of the Most important Occasion by David Diaz of Houston in opposition to Jeffrey Farnes of Oregon with 14 gamers left.
Diaz, who held the lesser of two full homes in opposition to Farnes, guess seven million chips earlier than Farnes raised 18.8 million.
For six excruciating minutes, Diaz agonized, practically calling at one level earlier than Farnes requested for the clock to be placed on him, giving him 30 seconds to behave. When Diaz lastly laid his hand down, the groaning viewers felt his ache. Diaz left 11.8 million chips behind however was in a position to end thirteenth and take house $525,000. (Nonetheless, not a foul day on the workplace.)
WSOP Highlights
In different notable Most important Occasion information, final yr’s champion, Karay Aldemir, completed in seventy fifth place for $101,700.
Two gamers accused of on-line dishonest, Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler, have been eradicated on Day 2. (Neither has responded to the allegations, which have been leveled earlier this yr.)
Phil Hellmuth, the holder of a report 16 WSOP bracelets, continued his annual custom of turning up late to the Most important Occasion wearing an absurd outfit. This yr, it was Darth Vader. Nevertheless, the drive was not with him, as he busted inside an hour.
The final lady standing was Efthymia Litsou, whose spectacular run took her to 18th place.
