Just a year before his spectacular success in the tournament of all tournaments, Espen Uhlen Jorstad had a total of just over $200,000 in live tournament winnings to his name. Today, there is already a proud amount of 10.7 million, which catapulted the talented and pleasant Norwegian to the first place on the Norwegian all-time money list and to the 112th place in the world.

It was a balanced mindset and strong self-control that ensured that even a year after winning, which many of us can't even dream of, Espen hasn't changed and as he says: "I'm still the same guy, regardless of everything that's happening around me. I never dreamed or thought about the "immortality" that comes with being a WSOP Main Event champion, but to this day I find it strange when someone wants to take a selfie with me. But I'm getting used to it and continue to be who I am."

Reigning champion Jorstad was selected this year for the WSOP Thrill Team, which was created in honor of the tenth anniversary of the WSOP gaming app. Really famous recent or past poker names were selected to this group, among which the legendary Patrik Antonius, Ethan Yau, Samantha Abernathy, the aforementioned Espen Jorstad, or perhaps the biggest success - the female world number one Vanessa Selbst, who retired from poker more than five years ago.

How does Espen feel about being included in this 7-member elite group? "After last summer, I guess you feel kind of connected to the WSOP brand immediately — I'm sure other players can relate to this. So when someone got in touch when they were arranging the lineup, it immediately sounded like a pretty good fit. The lineup is really sick, and there are a lot of legends in this team. There's a good mix between old-school legends and new up-and-comers."

Espen himself is most looking forward to working with Patrik and Vanessa: "Patrik has been and always will be a big idol for me, ever since I first got into poker. While I was just starting out, he was already crushing everything around him and stayed at the top for a really long time. On the other hand, Vanessa is an  old-school legend who has never been absent from the WSOP or the High Stakes Poker show. I would never have said that one day I would end up on the same team as them!" But we can't forget about Landon Tice either, for whom Jorstad predicts a bright future: "Landon is very hungry and unstoppably driven towards success. If he keeps going like he is now, you will see him become a regular participant in the high stakes scene."

With the title of ME WSOP champion, Espen is aware that this year will not be as "easy" as last year: "The past 12 months have been crazy in many ways, I realize that I haven't had much time for myself and that my game has not improved as I wish. In the last 2-3 years I have improved a lot, but I think the pace has slowed down in the last six months. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to getting back into the flow of a massive grind and being able to focus solely on the game."

Unlike last year, Jorstad will spend two full months in Vegas, which is not easy even for a player of his quality. “Yes, I am going to the WSOP from the very beginning and I plan to play until the end. A few days ago, I was looking at the entire schedule in detail and trying to map how much money I would need for the whole festival. I figured that if I wanted to play all the big events with massive buy-ins, so I estimated that I'm going to need like 700-800 thousand dollars just for buy-ins. So it will be a crazy summer if I want to play that full schedule — which would be cool! I just need to put in a lot of work to regain confidence until then."

Source: HighstakesDB, PokerNews, WSOP