Espen Jorstad talked about life after winning the WSOP main event

6 March 2023

Recently, in an interview with PokerNews, Norwegian poker pro Espen Jorstad talked about life after winning the WSOP main event, the creation of the WSOP Thrill Team, and plans for 2023 and compared himself with other poker stars. Recall that Jorstad won the central event of the World Series of Poker and earned 10 million USD.

Espen Jorstad talked about life after winning the WSOP main event 1

A year ago, the earnings of a Norwegian player offline were 200,000 USD. Yes, Jorstad received more than 600,000 USD for the 6th place in the WSOP 2021 main event, but that was online. Even in his wildest dreams, Jorstad could not have imagined that he would become a two-time WSOP champion and win 10 million USD. In addition to the main event, Jorstad, together with Patrick Leonard, became the champion of the team tournament in the summer of 2022.

The Norwegian’s name was immediately added to the list of the greatest poker players, but Jorstad said that the victory did not change much, and he does not feel like a different person.

“I see myself as the same guy. Nothing has changed in me. The concept of “perpetuating” the champions of the main event is not the thing I was thinking about. It’s still strange when I show up at tournaments, I’m at the airport or a restaurant, and someone comes up to me to take pictures,” said Jorstad.

In honor of the decade of the WSOP application, Jorstad was called to the WSOP Thrill team, consisting of 7 famous players. Players will participate in an advertising campaign that will last until the end of the WSOP 2023 series. In addition to Jorstad, the team is represented by:

Patrik Antonius
Vanessa Selbst
Samantha Abernathy
Adam Hendrix
Landon Tice
Ethan Yau

Jorstad said that he knows all the players well and that the team perfectly combines experience and youth. According to him, Antonius was one of his idols.

Summer series

Very soon, the next WSOP series will begin in Paris and The Horseshoe. The organizers are making every effort to ensure that the central event breaks the attendance record set in 2006. Jorstad will defend the title of champion.

“I have had very little free time, and I feel that my poker game has not improved as much as I would like over the past six months. I’ve improved my game a lot over the last two or three years, but in the last six months, I just haven’t had time to work as hard as I used to,” said Jorstad.

The Norwegian stated that he plans to play in the summer series from the very first day but has not yet decided how much money he will spend.

“I decide whether to spend 250,000 USD or 100,000 USD. I figured that if you play in all major events, you will need 700,000 – 800,000 dollars. If I decide to spend this amount, then the summer promises to be crazy,” said Jorstad.

The WSOP has already published the full schedule of the summer series, which will begin on May 30 and end on July 18. The main event should start on July 3, and the winner should be determined on the last day of the series.