Peter Eastgate Calls It A Day
In November 2008 Peter Eastgate made WSOP history by becoming the youngest player to win the Main Event. In the process he broke the record that had stood in Phil Hellmuth’s name for almost 20 years. In less than 20 months Eastgate is feeling the poker burnout and has announced that he is retiring from the game. What is more surprising than the announcement is the timing of it. WSOP 2010 is in progress and Eastgate went public with his decision to quit just ahead of the commencement of this year’s Main Event.
Eastgate was sponsored by the online poker room PokerStars soon after his historic win. The decision to retire has been taken in consultation with PokerStars and in fact the statement was released through them. The statement read, “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.” Eastgate added that he has been able to travel across the world playing poker. He has enjoyed the great experience of seeing some amazing places and meeting many new people. However Eastgate no longer feels motivated towards playing high level poker and wants to find out what he would like to do with the rest of his life. He said, “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.” The statement ended with the customary thanks to his friends and family and to his sponsors PokerStars.
Michael Holmberg, Nordics Director for PokerStars, stands by the decision that Eastgate has taken. He said that if Eastgate lacks determination and excitement then he should take a break. Holmberg said, “…the young poker player from Odense, Denmark, has achieved great results and has established himself as one of the greatest natural talents the poker world has ever seen.” However, those who have been following poker would be aware of the situation in which Eastgate finds himself. The last major tournament that Eastgate won was in January 2009 and he has not cashed in any major event since March this year. He also failed to make it to the top 20 popular list for the Tournament of Champions.
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