Norway’s Espen Jorstad reigns as 2022 WSOP Main Event champion

The 53rd annual World Series of Poker has finally wrapped up this year’s most awaited Main Event with Norway’s Espen Jorstad bagging the biggest payout of the season. The lengthy battle awarded Jorstad a life-changing $10,000,000 after beating Natural8’s Team Hot member Adrian Attenborough in heads up play. The 2022 games almost broke the record largest 2006 Main Event and was only 110 players short of doing so. It did, however, surpass the 2019 prize pool by a slight margin to become the second largest WSOP Main Event in history.

A total of 8,663 entries were recorded for this year’s festivities which generated a staggering US$ 80,782,475 prize pool shared among the top 1,302 runners. Nine days of thrilling action played through before the first Norwegian WSOP champion was crowned. Espen Jorstad along with Matthew Su led the final ten with both a commanding 69 big blind stack to start Day 8. The Main Event final tablists did not waste any time with chips swinging back and forth early on to jumpstart the action. By the first level, American runner Asher Conniff was eliminated in 10th place after losing a flip with pocket Tens against Michael Duek’s flopped Quads, and the official nine was set.

All-ins were seen left and right yet no eliminations were recorded for quite some time. While Su began with the lead, he would soon find himself losing significant showdowns beginning with his vs Attenborough’s followed by a classic flip with against Aaron Duczak’s , and lastly, right into Philippe Souki’s for his ninth place exit.

Souki followed behind shortly after, having shoved his short stack with onto Matjia Dobric’s big blind who found the call with . Unfortunately for Souki, the board revealed giving his opponent a Broadway straight while missing to fill up a boat by the river. Souki was eliminated in 8th place finish for $1,075,000, the first seven-figure payout of the event. A few hands later, Canada’s Duczak with ran into John Eames’s where all the chips went in on a flop of . No help on the turn and river arrived for Duczak, costing him the majority of his stack while busting out the next hand after.

As blinds continued to increase, pressure was building up on the short stacks and Jeffrey Farnes would soon pick up on his action. Beginning with an open from the button from Eames, both Farnes and Jorstad defended their blinds to see a flop of . Farnes open-shoved for his remaining ten big blinds with and Eames called behind with . The run out saw two three’s complete the board to counterfeit Farnes’s two-pair for a sixth place finish and $1,750,000 in prizes. Croatia’s Dobric was the table’s next casualty after losing a crucial flip with to chip leader Jorstad’s . The Norwegian pro then carried on to send UK’s Eames to the rails with and closed the day with a massive lead against remaining contenders Michael Duek, and Adrian Attenborough.

The final trio were already guaranteed a minimum payout of $4,000,000 heading into the final day. It didn’t take long for Duek to fall into the hands of Natural8 ambassador Attenborough within the first ten hands. Attenborough open-called Duek’s three-bet preflop to see on board to which both players checked. The turn saw Duek leading out for 17M and Attenborough once again called behind. A on the river encouraged Duek to fire a 52M bet, leaving himself with 5M. Attenborough responded with an all-in and Duek called for his tournament life as Attenborough turned over the nuts .

Heading into the heads up battle against Australian pro Attenborough, who had the shortest stack of six big blinds with nine players in the running, Jorstad continued to extend his chip lead albeit slightly. An interesting first hand played through which saw Attenborough tank fold for 20 minutes with a worse pair for another run of the $10M top payout. However only a couple minutes later, Attenborough would see his end, again with the same hand. A limp pot between the two opened a flop of and Attenborough check-raised Jorstad’s 4M bet to 14M. Jorstad answered with a clickback raise to 42M and Attenborough called. An showed up on the turn and Attenborough once again check-called Jorstad’s bet of 62M. The completed the board and Attenborough checked to his opponent who shoved for the Australian’s remaining 131M. Attenborough tank-called off with and was doomed as Jorstad revealed .

The final win left Attenborough to settle for a runner-up finish and $6,000,000 in winnings while champion Espen Jorstad secured his second WSOP bracelet for the series plus an additional $10,000,000 in prizes for his impressive performance.

Date/s: July 3-18, 2022
Buy-in: US$ 10,000
Players: 8,663
Prize pool: US$ 80,782,475
ITM: 1,302 places

2022 WSOP Main Event Final Table Results