Peter Eastgate has gone from somebody only his mother could pick out of a crowd to a person of intense interest. There is a fairly good reason for his suddenly popularity. As of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, the young man from Denmark is the youngest player to ever win the WSOP's most prestigious event.
Eastgate was born in 1985 in the city of Odense, Denmark. To put this in perspective, he wasn’t even alive when David Lee Roth and Van Halen decided to go their separate ways. Considering his youth, his professional career has been extremely short, but he has had more success in the last two years then many players have in two decades of play.
In 2007, essentially his rookie year, he managed to reach the final table at the Irish Poker Open. This was just a hint of things to come. Before that final table appearance he had managed to take home $46,714 from the 2007 Paddy Power Irish Open. Of course none of this would compare to what was to come.
In 2008, the first year where a change in the WSOP Main Event structure would put the final table in the month of November, Peter defeated the 27 year old Russian, Ivan Demidov, to become the WSOP Main Event champion. This victory not only brought him the coveted Main Event bracelet, but also over nine million dollars, and instant stardom.
Peter had won his way into the Main Event by playing at Ladbrokes poker, and came to the final table under the Ladbrokes banner. In the middle of the event he switched teams and took his victory lap as a member of PokerStars.
With a WSOP Main Event bracelet firmly on his wrist, it is unlikely he will ever go back to college and finish the finance degree he started at Aarhus University. The banking world’s loss is the poker words gain.
