WSOP Main Event: Eastgate Champion

By Simon Hopper

11th November 2008

Eastgate steam-rollered his way through the field, eliminating 4 players to assume the chip lead

The Dane becomes youngest winner in Main Event history after an epic final table....

It took 274 gruelling hands but after the longest final table in WSOP history Peter Eastgate emerged victorious to earn himself $9,152,416 and a place in poker folklore.

The 22 year-old is now the youngest Main Event Champion in history – surpassing Phil Hellmuth’s 1989 record – after he disposed of Ivan Demidov in a marathon heads-up session (it is believed the 500,000 – 1,000,000 blind levels were the first ever used in the ME).

Demidov, who also final tabled the WSOPE Main Event in September, earns himself $5,809,595 and surely a lengthy PokerStars deal in the process.

Poker News describes the final hand:

“Peter Eastgate has the button. He limps in and Ivan Demidov checks the big blind.

The flop comes down . Action is checked to Eastgate, who bets 1.25 million. Demidov calls, then checks again when the hits the turn. Eastgate doesn't slow down, firing out a bet of 2 million more. Demidov counts to twenty, then check-raises to 6 million. With that bet, he has committed half of his stack to the pot. It could be the point of no return if Eastgate comes along.

Eastgate thinks things over for about thirty seconds and then calls. When he does, everyone in the gallery rises expectantly to their feet.

The river is the . Demidov announces all in and Eastgate snap-calls. Could this be it? Demidov shows first, tabling Eastgate is next to show, turning over -- he's made a wheel!”

The full pay-outs for the final table are listed below:

1 $9,152,416 Peter Eastgate
2 $5,809,595 Ivan Demidov
3 $4,517,773 Dennis Phillips
4 $3,774,974 Ylon Schwartz
5 $3,096,768 Scott Montgomery
6 $2,418,562 Darus Suharto
7 $1,772,650 David "Chino" Rheem
8 $1,288,217 Kelly Kim
9 $900,670 Craig Marquis

Congratulations to Eastgate, who becomes the first Danish Champion and no-one can deny that the online specialist was one of the most talented winners the November Nine could have produced. One company who will certainly enjoy this success is PokerStars – they had both players in heads-up play and now Eastgate is set to join the likes of Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer & Chris Moneymaker in the Stars-WSOP promotions.