WSOP Main Event Champ Wins European Poker Tour High Roller

Espen Jorstad will not go down in poker history as a one-hit wonder, that is for sure. The 2022 World Series of Poker main event champion has found plenty of success after taking down the largest poker tournament of the year for a $10,000,000 payday. The Norwegian poker pro has recorded 49 in-the-money finishes since that career-defining triumph, adding nearly $7.7 million to his career haul.

As a result, he is now approaching $18.6 million in lifetime cashes, which means that he would be the Norwegian money leader even if one removed his eight-figure win in the big dance from consideration (second-ranked Kayhan Mokri has $7.8 million in recorded scores to his name.

Jorstad’s latest score saw him defeat a field of 34 entries in the first of several €25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high rollers running at this year’s European Poker Tour Prague festival. He earned $294,150 and 336 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his second POY-qualified score of 2024. While he did log a massive $2.2 million cash last month in a $200,000 buy-in at the Triton Monte Carlo stop, it came in an invitational event that did not award points.

The $855,950 prize pool for this event was eventually paid out among the top seven finishers, with Morten Klein getting only a fraction of his buy-in back as the seventh-place finisher after a deal was struck by the remaining players. Viacheslav Buldygin (6th – $59,890) and Nikita Kuznetsov (5th – $76,002) were the first two contenders to walk away with full-sized payouts.

Czech native Roman Hrabec was the next to fall. He shoved from the small blind with J-8, only to receive a snap call from Jorstad’s pocket aces in the big blind. Jorstad’s overpair held up and Hrabec was eliminated in fourth place ($97,414). This was the 10th final-table finish of the year for Hrabec, with three titles won including a massive win in the Triton Jeju main event for over $4.3 million. He now sits in 15th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

The tournament came to an end via a three-way all-in. Ilya Nikiforov shoved from the button for 5.5 big blinds from the button with J10 and bracelet winner Enrico Camosci re-shoved from the small blind with 99 for around 13 big blinds. Jorstad spent a while mulling over the decision, but eventually made the call with A10. The board came down Q85JA and Jorstad made a pair of aces on the end to score the double knockout. Nikiforov earned $131,652 as the third-place finisher, while Camosci walked away with $191,542 as the runner-up. This was the 11th final table of 2024 for Camosci, who climbed to 18th place in the POY rankings thanks to this second-place showing.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell, Eloy Cabacas.