Espen Jørstad, who won $10million for taking down the 2022 WSOP Main Event crown at the weekend, lost $1million in the Luna cryptocurrency crash only two months ago – forcing him to play lower stakes than planned this summer…
Ok @UhlenPoker chad
He lost the majority of his net worth (~$1m) in Luna ecosystem, and then won $10m yesterday in WSOP $10k
But even more interesting, he only entered the 10k because he lost so much money and couldn’t play high stakes anymore
Holy shit 👑👑 before & after: pic.twitter.com/xj5B6nAD5E
— Cobie (@cobie) July 17, 2022
As we reported on Sunday morning, the former Unibet ambassador emerged victorious from heads-up play for the World Championship title. He edged out Aussie pro Adrian Attenborough to win the most coveted gold bracelet in poker, as well as a cool $10million.
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However, the 34-year-old former WoW player had to scale back his summer’s poker plans after the collapse of the Terra LUNA cryptocurrency in May of this year, in which he had more than $1million invested.
While on what he described as “the heater of my life…” in which “everything was going up for about 2-3 years straight,” Jørstad came crashing down to earth when his crypto investment plummeted.
“At the time of this collapse I had over a 1million USD in this eco-system, which was a pretty big chunk of my net worth – I ended up losing ~95% of it,” revealed the new champ.
Grinding it Back Up…$10million at a time!
This naturally affected his poker plans, Espen stating, “The reality is that my most sensible course of action is simply to step back, grind it back up, and not take overly aggressive shots at higher stakes.”
“For now, I’m just going to enjoy playing the WSOP at a lower buy-in range and sell/swap a decent amount for the higher stuff.”
That seemed to pay off when he partnered with Patrick Leonard and took down the tag team bracelet for close to $150k between them, but whether that “higher stuff” included the Main Event is unknown.
Even if he does have to pay out a % of his $10million winnings, it will still leave Jørstad well able to play the higher stakes.
“My goal has been to reach into the High Roller scene and play more $25,000 tournaments and stuff like that. I’ve dipped my toes, but now I have a bigger bankroll to take some shots in those tournaments,” he told reporters after his historic win.
He added: “I need to get in the lab and make sure I’m good enough to play them.”
It’s not clear if he has learned anything from his May crypto-crash debacle, however, as he also told reporters that he planned to “make some very sensible investments – cryptocurrencies and tech stocks, probably.”
The Phil Hellmuth – Doug Polk Crypto Battle
Crypto woes aren’t exclusive to Jørstad among poker’s elite, of course, with a recent Twitter spat between Phil Hellmuth and Doug Polk hitting the headlines.
Hellmuth has been promoting Bitcoin Latinum for a while now, his ever-present baseball cap bearing the crypto-coin’s name, whereas Polk has been sponsored by CoinFlex cryptocurrency exchange.
Both have been beset by problems, ranging from a Bitcoin Latinum lawsuit to CoinFlex issuing a withdrawal freeze, creating a panic among investors.
Twitter is the place where poker players seem to air their dirty laundry nowadays, and the duelling duo weren’t slow in taking swings at each other …
You made a big mistake @DougPolkVids! Then, you try to “compare” our involvement in the projects and throw shade at me? You are 100X more at fault. I never told anyone to buy, ever, I believed in LTNM, but I knew it was risky (I have made ZERO: was paid coins only, sold zero) https://t.co/NMu9LqlaR2
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 12, 2022
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