Unibet Ambassador Espen Jorstad Chats Dublin, "Isildur1" and COVID-19
In amongst the growing number of cancelled or postponed poker tournaments, Unibet just held their latest stop in Dublin just finished and by all accounts was a great success with Martin Olali eventually crowned champion, taking home €64,110.
Unibet pride themselves on holding fun tournaments with an exciting atmosphere both on and off the felt, and we caught up with Unibet Ambassador Espen Jorstad to find out how the tournament went on.
"Both the festival and the atmosphere were great," said Jorstad. "Catching up with all my friends and fellow Ambassadors was great as always, but there was not enough time for it at this one."
That might have been down to Jorstad's deep run in the Main Event, where he finished sixth for €12,100, but that wasn't the only deep run he made. He also finished third in a special Battle Royale that featured and was won by legendary online pro Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom.
"It was a fun tournament for sure," said Jorstad. "I’ve played with Viktor before, and for someone who does not focus on MTTs/SNGs he plays them very well. I was most impressed by him and fellow ambassador DaVitsche (who finished second). Both are cash game focused players, so it was fun to see how they intuitively understood so many of the ICM spots during the end-game. The bubble lasted for what felt like an eternity, so there was a lot of fun spots to run after it was all said and done."
Jorstad said that several other Ambassadors made deep runs during the festival, so much so that it meant that opportunities to catch up and socialize were limited.
"David Lappin and Dara O'Kearney both final tabled side events, and obviously I final tabled the main event. Also shoutout to Monica Vaka who took home the Queen Rules ladies event!"
With the coronavirus and COVID-19 seemingly on everyone's lips in the poker community, we asked Jorstad what impact - if any - it had on the festival as a whole.
"I think it did have an impact on final numbers," he admitted. "But there was not much talk of it at the tables. I got the sense that both players and staff were aware of it and took their precautions, frequently using the sanitizer bottles that were placed throughout the tournament area.
Back in December, Unibet launched a dedicated HexaPro client. Why not give it a try today?
Jorstad says that his 2020 is off to a great start and his strong showing in Dublin was just another success at the beginning of another busy poker year.
"January was my best month to date, just printing everywhere (MTTs, cash games, buying pieces and betting). February luckily got me back down to earth quickly, with some variance going the other way. Overall it's looking good, but I don't really like setting specific goals in terms of achievements. I think it's better to set progression based goals in this business since variance is such a big part of how a poker player’s year will pan out. My goals are therefore more short term and progression based.
"For now, I'm aiming at averaging about two hours of study and five hours of playing per day, alongside my goals for fitness and personal development.
"It's gonna be interesting to see what's gonna happen with this COVID-19 situation, and how the tournament organizers will handle it. We are already seeing some live stops being postponed/cancelled, so that will naturally influence how the rest of my year as a player will look. 2020, the year of online poker?"
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
