From The Kitchen Counter To The Poker Table: Swedish Trainee Chef Wins World Series Of Poker

In a historic game of World Series of Poker (WSOP), that for the first time did not include an American finalist, an unlikely Swedish trainee chef has emerged as the winner.

The Washington Post reported that Sweden’s Martin Jacobson won the $10 million World Series of Poker prize.

The 27-year-old trainee chef got his start playing online poker after late restaurant nights, according to The Huffington Post.

Jacobson would come home late from nights in a restaurant and none of his friends would be awake to chat or hang out, so he started playing online poker, said his mother, Eva.

He was the only player of the final nine to have earned more than $1 million in World Series of Poker career earnings at tournaments. But he had never won the top spot, coming in second in some cases, until Tuesday, when he won the most watched contest in the tournament.

Leading up to the finals, ESPN reported that the last players standing survived nearly 12 hours of no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em from Monday night into Tuesday morning.

About 6,700 people paid the $10,000 entry fee to try their luck over the summer to be finalists in the main event.

The Las Vegas Sun indicated that the 2014 WSOP Main Event Final Table was down to three London-based players from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Caesars. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament, with a set start and stop time, and a winner determined by secret ballot.

Over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold’em Main Event, which, since 2004, has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The victor receives a multi-million dollar cash prize and a bracelet, which has become the most coveted award a poker player can win. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker.

According to the Inquistr, Phi Ivey has won the championship eight times.

The trainee chef is the first player from Sweden to make the main event final table since 2006.

Find out more about Martin Jacobson here.

[Photo credit: Card Player]