'Poker Isn't Everything': Why Champ Espen Jorstad Skipped This Summer's WSOP
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After winning the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $10 million, longtime poker pro Espen Jorstad dove headfirst into the world of Super High Rollers, traveling the high-stakes circuit from Cyprus to South Korea and firing $100,000 and $200,000 buy-in events.
But the two-time bracelet winner took a step back this year from the game he's played since 2004, skipping this summer's WSOP in Las Vegas to focus on the finer things in life: meditation, mental health and connection with others.
"I didn't play much poker (this year)," the Norwegian told PokerNews. "Poker has kind of been an all-in adventure for a lot of years now. And it was nice to take some time off and ... work on myself a little bit more, just focus on health, fitness, relationships."
PokerNews caught up with the 2022 champ at WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas — his first poker stop in months — about returning to the game, processing his eight-figure victory, and working as an ambassador for GTO Wizard, a tool that he described as "a one-stop shop" for poker strategy.
"There's Other Things in Life"
For Jorstad, a break from poker, a game that he began playing professionally and full-time around 2017, offered a chance for reflection on the $19 million he's won and the places the game has taken him.
"It's hard to reflect while you're in it because you're so all in on the whole journey," said Jorstad. "Like for me, poker has been my entire life basically for eight, nine years now.
"And since then, I didn't take much time to like sit back and have like a birds-eye view ... it's hard when you're in it to really reflect on what's going on. You're kind of just doing your thing. And I think now since taking a break I'm a bit more appreciative."
But the Main Event champ, who won a second bracelet in 2022 in the Tag Team event with Patrick Leonard, added that he's always been conscious of how pure he's run in poker. Yet, poker isn't everything.
"I think I've realized that poker isn't everything. I think that's like the main takeaway over the last year or six months or whatever since stepping back a little bit. That poker isn't necessarily everything. There's other things in life."
Playing Without Judgement
Jorstad did the unthinkable this summer and didn't even attempt to defend his Main Event title. Now that he's back on the WSOP felt, he admitted he feels "a bit more rusty in some spots" but added that he now plays with greater intuition.
"I don't feel as sharp as when you're studying every day, playing all the time," he said. "You're very on top of things. Now I second-guess myself a bit more and stuff like that. But I also feel like I have a bit more of an ability to play without judgment now."
Jorstad may be overselling his rustiness as he is one of the most visible ambassadors for GTO Wizard, which he noted can benefit players "whatever format you're playing ... tournaments, cash games, ante, no ante" and said is "the main tool that I use myself."
"Back in the day, you had all kinds of different softwares, you had a bunch of different tools. You had one tool for preflop, one for postflop, one for ICM. Now GTO Wizard basically just has everything. So it's like a one-stop shop ... I think if you have that, you're just set."
Jorstad's return to poker in the Bahamas was an exciting one. On Tuesday, he and 15 other Main Event champions competed in the first-ever Main Event Champions Invitational, which awarded four seats to the $25,000 Super Main Event.
Unfortunately for our Norwegian hero, he wasn't among those who won one of the four seats, which went to Scotty Nguyen, Ryan Riess, Scott Blumstein and Greg Raymer, who won the battle of the champions for bragging rights — a prize more valuable than money among a group of men who have all won millions.
