Espen Jorstad topped the second-largest main event field in World Series of Poker history to bank a massive $10 million first-place prize.
But how much of that cash did Jorstad actually pocket for himself? Did he sell any pieces or have backers? Action with other players? What about taxes?
As it turns out, Jorstad had no problem sharing the numbers. The 34-year-old online poker streamer revealed his summer stats on Twitter, explaining that he had swaps with 14 different players. The swaps varied from 1% ($100,000) to 7.5% ($750,000), and left Jorstad with 56% of his own action ($5.6 million).
Of course, it’s probable that a few of the other 14 players also cashed in the main event, giving Jorstad back a rebate on some of those swaps.
“Very nice feeling to make my friends a lot of money!” Jorstad said.
Norway has a gambling tax rate of 28%, which would have represented $2.8 million of the total payout, or $1,568,000 of his share.
Fortunately, the Norwegian won’t be hit with any taxes as he now resides in the United Kingdom. The UK does not tax gambling winnings. He follows in the footsteps of last year’s champion Koray Aldemir, who dodged a hefty tax bill from his native Germany by living in nearby Austria instead.
Jorstad also showed that he was up a modest amount in the 15 tournaments he played prior to the main event. At one point, he had played 10 tournaments in a row without making the money, but he broke the streak in a big way, earning his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,000 Tag Team event.
Jorstad partnered with fellow online poker standout Patrick Leonard to take down the tournament and $74,033 each. That was enough to turn his summer around and finish with a profit of $29,690 prior to the start of the $10,000 main event.
Final numbers for Vegas summer!
Excluding the main, I finished +$29,690 live, and maybe +$10k-$15k online.
For full transparency I had 14 different swaps (all between 1% and 7,5%) in the main, and ~56% of my own action. Very nice feeling to make my friends a lot of money! pic.twitter.com/QtU2qoJ5lX
— Espen Uhlen Jørstad (@UhlenPoker) July 26, 2022
When asked what he planned to do with the money, the Run It Once coach stated that he was going to invest heavily in tech stocks and cryptocurrency, and hoped to play more high roller events.
“I’ve dipped my toes, but now I have a bigger bankroll to take some shots in those tournaments. I need to get in the lab and make sure I’m good enough to play them.”
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