Jorstad and Su Lead Ten Players into Unofficial Final Table of Main Event
The unofficial final table of the most famous poker tournament in the world is set as only ten players remain in Event #70: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event World Championship at the 2022 World Series of Poker.
Norway’s Espen Jorstad bagged the shared chip lead with United States’ Matthew Su, as both players will return to the felt with 83,200,000 chips, good for 69 big blinds when action resumes.
There were 8,663 players who began the tournament, and after grinding it out for many hours over the past week, 35 players took their seats on Day 7 with aspirations of reaching the prestigious Main Event final table. The field was whittled down to 10 contenders, and only one of them will achieve poker immortality by winning $10,000,000 and the prestigious gold bracelet.
The original plan was to play down to nine players, but after a marathon day that lasted more than 16 hours, a decision was made to stop play and end the night, or rather, end the morning, as the sun was already shining brightly in Las Vegas when the announcement was made shortly after 6 a.m.
The remaining players rejoiced and bagged to return for Day 8, (which will commence after a day off) on Friday, July 15th at 2 p.m. local time. They will battle it out on a single table, slated to be streamed on PokerGO.
2022 Main Event Unofficial Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philippe Souki | United Kingdom | 13,500,000 | 11 |
| 2 | Adrian Attenborough | Australia | 50,800,000 | 42 |
| 3 | Matija Dobric | Croatia | 68,650,000 | 57 |
| 4 | Michael Duek | United States | 49,775,000 | 41 |
| 5 | Matthew Su | United States | 83,200,000 | 69 |
| 6 | John Eames | United Kingdom | 54,950,000 | 46 |
| 7 | Jeffrey Farnes | United States | 35,350,000 | 29 |
| 8 | Aaron Duczak | Canada | 56,000,000 | 47 |
| 9 | Espen Jorstad | Norway | 83,200,000 | 69 |
| 10 | Asher Conniff | United States | 24,400,000 | 20 |
A huge turning point down the stretch occurred when the biggest pot of the tournament transpired with Jorstad on the right side of a massive cooler. He picked up aces against the ace-king of GGPoker qualifier Tom Kunze and held to claim the massive pot.
"Obviously it's the dream,” Jorstad said as he bagged up for the night. “Getting it in as the biggest favorite that you can be in the biggest tournament and the biggest spot of your life, feels pretty good."
"It probably needs to sink in a bit. Right now I'm just omega-exhausted and I need to eat, drink, sleep. Tomorrow I'll be like ‘oh, it's pretty awesome.’"
Jorstad recently won his first WSOP bracelet in Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team along with Patrick Leonard, who was on the rail to cheer on and support his bracelet buddy.
Su came into the day with a stack in the bottom half of the chip counts, but rivered two pair to survive early in the day, and steadily added to his stack to share the end-of-day chip lead with Jorstad.
Matija Dobric bagged the third-biggest stack and has some experience with deep Main Event runs as he made it to Day 7 in last year’s Main Event before he ultimately fell in 32nd place. The Croatian has already surpassed that result and will soon have a shot at a gold bracelet.
Canada’s Aaron Duczak, United Kingdom’s John Eames, and Australia’s Adrian Attenborough are in the middle of the pack and will also have an opportunity to claim the title and eight-figure payout.
Michael Duek, Jeffrey Farnes, and Asher Conniff will be near the bottom of the leaderboard when play resumes, but they will each have at least 20 big blinds and room to play in the famously deep-structured tournament.
United Kingdom’s Philippe Souki was on the ropes several times and down to three big blinds at one point, but was cheered on by his exuberant rail every time he won a pot, and he will be entering Day 8 with a short stack of 11 big blinds and a dream.
Final Table Payouts
All ten returning players have locked up at least $675,000, with $10,000,000 waiting up top for the winner.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | $10,000,000 |
| 2nd | $6,000,000 |
| 3rd | $4,000,000 |
| 4th | $3,000,000 |
| 5th | $2,250,000 |
| 6th | $1,750,000 |
| 7th | $1,350,000 |
| 8th | $1,075,000 |
| 9th | $850,675 |
| 10th | $675,000 |
Day 7 runners that did not bag for another day include two-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson (35th - $262,300), 2020 WSOP Main Event champ Damian Salas (27th - $262,300), Aaron Mermelstein (20th - $323,100), last woman standing Efthymia Litsou (18th - $323,100), and Kenny Tran (17th - $410,000).
Day 8 will resume with 108 minutes remaining in Level 38 with blinds at 600,000/1,200,000 with a 1,200,000 big blind ante, and play is scheduled to continue until there are four players left. The tournament is slated to conclude with the final four players returning for Day 9 on Saturday, July 16, (time yet to be determined) and they will battle it out on the felt until a winner is declared.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews team continues to provide coverage of all the final table action of the 2022 WSOP Main Event from Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.