Peter Eastgate really came out of nowhere to win the biggest event in poker when he won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2008. At the age of just twenty two he was at the time the youngest ever winner of the tournament. His win put him squarely on the map as one of the real rising stars in the world of poker; the only question is whether or not he wants to make a career out of the game.
Peter Eastgate comes from the city of Odense in Denmark which is where he got his start in poker. He started out playing online which is pretty standard for players learning the game these days. For a couple of years he studied economics at university but he left without a degree when his poker career started to take off. One of the most amazing things about Eastgate’s WSOP win is that it was the first time he had ever played in a live event. He had qualified through an online tournament so he decided to give it a go.
Once you have won a World Series of Poker Main Event you are pretty much welcome at any other tournament so Eastgate had no trouble finding a place to play. Mostly he has been playing in the European Poker Tour so that he can stay close to home. While nothing that he ever does in the world of poker will ever top his WSOP win he has managed to prove that he it was not just luck that won him the event. He has managed a few money finishes on the EPT and also returned to the WSOP where he also finished in the money.
In 2010 Peter Eastgate decided to retire from poker, his reason being that he was just not interested in playing any more. It is hard to blame him, he did win the biggest event in the world his first time out. The ten million dollars that he won meant that he could do pretty much anything that he wanted to. Not only did he stop playing in poker tournaments he actually sold his WSOP bracelet and gave the money to charity.
After about a year away from poker Peter Eastgate returned and started to enter tournaments again. He has not played in a lot of them but at least he is back playing. For now his focus seems to be mainly on the WSOP so he will likely continue to enter only a small number of events. If he chooses to he could possibly become one of the greatest players in the history of the game. On the other hand he may just decide that he has had enough of poker and move on to do something else, he has plenty of options.