Peter Nicolas Eastgate (born 13 December 1985)
is a
poker player from Denmark, best known as the winner of the
Main Event
In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...
at the
2008 World Series of Poker
The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30th, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All ...
. At the time, he became the youngest player ever to win the event.
He was subsequently surpassed by
Joe Cada
Joseph Cada (born November 18, 1987) is an American professional poker player from Shelby Charter Township, Michigan, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
By winning the 6,494-entrant Main Event a ...
in 2009.
Early life
Eastgate was raised in Dalum, a suburb of
Odense
Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...
,
Denmark
)
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, song_type = National and royal anthem
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
to English parents, he went to Sct. Canute's
Gymnasium, where he was introduced to poker by his classmates as he stated in season 5 of the show
High Stakes Poker
''High Stakes Poker'' is an American cash game poker television program. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. The first four seasons ran from January 16, 2006 to December 17, 2007 on GSN. The next three seasons ran fr ...
. He attended
Aarhus University
Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...
to study economics, but dropped out to play poker full-time.
Poker career
World Series of Poker
Eastgate qualified for the Main Event via the
Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK and International. UK operations are c ...
Poker website, and travelled to Las Vegas as part of Team Ladbrokes. Eastgate reached the final table with 18,375,000 in starting chips, the fourth largest stack behind
Scott Montgomery (19,690,000),
Ivan Demidov
Ivan Demidov (russian: Ива́н Деми́дов, ; born 1981) is a professional poker player from Moscow, Russia.
Demidov is one of the original "November Nine", having made the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 2 ...
(24,400,000) and
Dennis Phillips (26,295,000).
Eastgate and Demidov reached the 2008
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...
(WSOP) heads-up stage. At the final hand, Eastgate had 120.4 million in chips, and Demidov went all in with 16.5 million chips. Eastgate beat Demidov at 2:33 AM local time, after a two-day final table consisting of 274 hands that took 15 hours and 28 minutes to play.
[ Eastgate won the first place prize of $9,152,416.]
By winning the Main Event at age 22, he became the then youngest WSOP Main Event champion, surpassing Phil Hellmuth
Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Even ...
, who was 24 when he won in 1989. He was surpassed as the youngest winner of the WSOP by Joseph Cada the following year at age 21
In 2009, Eastgate defended his Main Event title until day 6. He was eliminated in 78th place as a result of a rivered flush. He was the last remaining Main Event Champion at the time of his elimination.
Other events
Prior to the WSOP, Eastgate's live tournament results included a money finish in the 2008 European Poker Tour event in Copenhagen and a final table finish at the 2007 Irish Poker Open
The Irish Poker Open is the longest running No Limit Texas hold 'em poker tournament in Europe and second longest in the world after the World Series of Poker.
First organised in 1980 by Terry Rogers, a well known Irish bookmaker, the tournam ...
. Eastgate's previous biggest win was $46,714 at the 2007 Paddy Power Irish Open. After his WSOP Main Event victory, Eastgate took to the tournament trail and quickly found success. He cashed in the European Poker Tour (EPT) PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event and then won the $5,000 side event for $343,000 Eastgate came second in the 2009 London EPT, winning £530,000.
In 2010, Eastgate finished 5th in the NBC National Heads-Up Championship in Las Vegas for $75,000.
As of 2014, his total live tournament winnings exceed $11,200,000.
Hiatus
In July 2010, Eastgate announced that he was taking a break from poker in a statement through his sponsor PokerStars
PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the large ...
.com, saying, "When I started playing poker for a living, it was never my goal to spend the rest of my life as a professional poker player. My goal was to become financially independent. I achieved that by winning the WSOP main event in 2008. The period following has taken me on a worldwide tour, where I have seen some amazing places and met many new people; it has been a great experience."
“In the 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high-level poker along the way, and I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life. What this will be, I do not yet know. I have decided to take a break from live tournament poker, and try to focus on Peter Eastgate, the person. I want to thank PokerStars, my friends and family for their support over the last 20 months, and for their support in my decision to take a break from poker."
PokerStars said of Eastgate's decision: “We know that poker will miss this world-class player and world-class role model, but PokerStars has only the deepest respect for Peter’s decision. Poker is about determination and excitement, and if Peter lacks this in his game, the right decision is to take a break. Peter has played amongst world champions and he has carried his title in the most admirable fashion.”
In November 2010, Eastgate put his main event bracelet up for auction on eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
with a starting bid of $16,000. It eventually sold for $147,500 and this money was donated to UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
.
In February 2011, Eastgate announced that he would be ending his eight-month break to return to poker.Peter Eastgate's return, in his own words
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Notes
External links
Pokerstars.com profile and interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eastgate, Peter
1985 births
Living people
People from Odense
Danish poker players
World Series of Poker bracelet winners
World Series of Poker Main Event winners
Danish people of English descent