Peter Eastgate, the young poker player from Denmark who shot to fame by winning the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, has called time on his poker career.
The 24 year old learned to play the game at high school and dropped out of University early on in order to play poker full time. Seemingly though, it wasn’t his intention to become a professional poker player for the rest of his days, as in a statement released through sponsors PokerStars.com, Eastgate said: “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”.
And boy is he financially independent. After winning his buy-in to the World Series of Poker Main Event through Ladbrokes Poker, the young Dane went on a tear and became the youngest ever WSOP Main Event winner, breaking the record set by poker legend Phil Hellmuth in 1989, who was 24 when he won his title. Eastgate was just 22 and he netted $9,119,517 for his efforts.
He made a bold bid to defend that title the following year, making it right through to day six, before eventually busting out of the tournament in 78th place. That effort earned him $68,979 towards his total career earnings of just under $11 million. Eastgate has also enjoyed a degree of success on the PokerStars sponsored European Poker Tour, making two final tables and cashing a further six times.
The PokerStars press release continues, with Eastgate explaining his decision to quit further: “In the 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high level poker … 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”.
What the statement doesn’t reveal, is whether Eastgate feels he might ever return to the game. The phrase “take a break” rather suggests there might one day be a return for the young man from Odense. Until then, his presence on the poker circuit will undoubtedly be missed.
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