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November Nine Player Focus: Peter Eastgate
By Simon Hopper
16th July 2008
It's more like Gus Hansen is the first Peter Eastgate.
The online pro is the youngest ME champ of all-time...
When Peter Eastgate won the 2008 Main Event he became the youngest champion in the history of the tournament and the Dane certainly has a fighting chance of continuing offline tournament success in the years to follow.
Peter Eastgate
Age: 22
Location: Odense, Denmark
2008 WSOP ME: 1st, $9,152,416
Sponsor: PokerStars
More Info: Wiki
The 22 year-old surpassed Phil Hellmuth’s 1989 victory (he was just 24); not bad for someone that’s only been playing the game for three years. Eastgate said he broke even in his first year but it’s fair to say he will be considerably in profit for 2008.
Hailing from Odense (the same town as Halfrek, though Danish bloggers insist they are not the same person), he has an association with Ladbrokes Poker (though has been wearing PokerStars gear) and is primarily an online player.
In fact, he is regarded as one of the top internet pros in Denmark, where he specialises in short-handed and heads-up high limit cash games ($200/$400 levels).
He has had a couple of promising offline showings recently, however, most notably finishing 9th in the 2007 Irish Open for $46,714. In February he also made the money in the EPT Scandinavian Open (hosted in his home country), busting in 32nd for $16,610.
UK fans may recognise him from two appearances in the Poker Million heats, finishing 2nd in October 2006 & 3rd in November ’07 (he failed to qualify from both). Whatever happens in November, Eastgate will leap into the Denmark all-time top 10 money list, being guaranteed a minimum of $900,670 for a 9th place finish.
Fellow Danish pro Jacob Rasmussen was asked before the 10-man bubble if Peter Eastgate was the next Gus Hansen. He replied: “Not really. It's more like Gus Hansen is the first Peter Eastgate.” After his volatile style took him to ME glory, Hansen has a genuine star to contend with.
Dennis Phillips, 53, Missouri, 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov, 27, Russia, 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery, 26, Canada, 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate, 22, Denmark, 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz, 38, New York, 12,525,000
Darus Suharto, 39, Canada, 12,520,000
David Rheem, 28, California, 10,230,000
Craig Marquis, 23, Texas, 10,210,000
Kelly Kim, 31, California, 2,620,000
