Jorstad, Attenborough and Duek to Battle for the 2022 WSOP Main Event Title
The 2022 World Series of Poker in its new home at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas will determine a champion in the second largest WSOP Main Event in history today. Only three players out of 8,663 entries remain in the pinnacle live poker event of the year and it certainly is an international line-up to battle for the elusive WSOP Main Event bracelet.
Norway's Espen Jorstad started Day 8 with the most chips and retained the top spot once the field was whittled down to the final trio last night, bagging up 298 million in chips. Jorstad has an overwhelming lead with two times as many chips as second-placed Adrian Attenborough (149.8 million), who himself is well ahead of Michael Duek from Argentina (72.1 million).
The three finalists have locked up the biggest portion of the $80,782,475 prize pool and earn at least $4 million for their efforts. Significant pay jumps await as the runner-up will collect $6 million, and the new world champion walks away with the top prize of $10 million.
Seat Assignments for the Final Day
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adrian Attenborough | Australia | 149,800,000 | 50 |
| 2 | Michael Duek | Argentina | 72,100,000 | 24 |
| 3 | Espen Jorstad | Norway | 298,000,000 | 99 |
There will be 25:20 minutes left in Level 42 at blinds of 1,500,000/3,000,000 and a big blind ante of 3,000,000, Michael Duek will be on the button.
While the final trio may not necessarily be known to the average poker enthusiasts, each of the contenders for the 2022 WSOP Main Event title have already showcased their talents at the live and online poker tables for years.
The 34-year-old professional poker pro Jorstad leads the way and has an online poker background. He hails from Steinkjer in Norway and moved to London in the United Kingdom in 2019. Jorstad has been streaming his exploits for several years and previously represented Unibet Poker before recently becoming an Elite MTT instructor for the Run It Once training platform.
While his Hendon Mob profile only reveals $271,872 in live poker cashes, he finished 6th in the 2021 WSOP Online International $5,000 Main Event on GGPoker for $603,058. During the 2022 WSOP, Jorstad notched up his first bracelet win after he took down Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team alongside Patrick Leonard.
He considers Aussie Attenborough as the toughest opponent ahead of the final hurdle, which is not only based on the stack size.
"I think he has twice as many chips as Duek. For sure he's going to be the toughest one. Also he's a tournament regular and Duek is a PLO cash game regular. I've been really impressed with how he's been playing. He told me he doesn't really play hold'em tournaments."
Second-placed Attenborough vanished from the live poker MTT scene for the last few years after the 28 year old from Brisbane in Australia moved to Las Vegas, where he has been playing high stakes cash. Alongside the Australian High Rollers Michael Addamo and Kahle Burns, Attenborough previously took part in high stakes competitions and accumulated nearly $1.5 million in cashes prior to his 2022 WSOP Main Event run. He was the 2017 GPI Player of the Year for Australia and may become the second Australian to win live poker's grand spectacle besides none other than Joe Hachem.
Last but not least, Pot-Limit Omaha specialist Duek may also follow into the footsteps of a countryman as well. In 2020, Damian Salas lifted the WSOP Main Event bracelet for the winner shots and fewer than two years later, it could be Duek to potentially earn a life-changing $10 million payday and engrave his name into the history books of poker.
Duek resides in Florida and was supported by a large rail. Some of his family flew in for the special moment and chanted "Mickey, Mickey" throughout the night in which Duek locked up a seven-figure payday. It has been a breakout year for the Argentinian, who already came close to winning a WSOP bracelet. In Event #69: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship, he finished in third place for $548,015 before embarking in the unusual NLHE journey.
One of these three will be crowned the new world champion and you can follow the conclusion right here on PokerNews. The trio will return at 2 p.m. local time and the action will once again be broadcast on the PokerGO platform. All live updates will be based on the delay of the live stream, which is expected to be on a one-hour delay.
In the meantime check out some of the video coverage from Day 8.
Results on Day 8 and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000,000 | ||
| 2 | $6,000,000 | ||
| 3 | $4,000,000 | ||
| 4 | John Eames | United Kingdom | $3,000,000 |
| 5 | Matija Dobric | Croatia | $2,250,000 |
| 6 | Jeffrey Farnes | United States | $1,750,000 |
| 7 | Aaron Duczak | Canada | $1,350,000 |
| 8 | Philippe Souki | United Kingdom | $1,075,000 |
| 9 | Matthew Su | United States | $850,675 |
| 10 | Asher Conniff | United States | $675,000 |