Peter Eastgate

Peter Eastgate has been playing poker ever since he graduated from high school in Odense, Denmark. For most people, the prospect of going straight from education to playing cards for a living would be a risky one. But most people aren’t Peter Eastgate. In the space of just a few years, he would find himself going from amateur to being one of the highest earning players of all time.

He made his first impact on the live tournament scene at The Irish Open in 2007 - making the final table for $46,714. It was only a small cash, but it proved that Peter had the skills to perform well in events with huge fields, filled with the best players on the circuit. Then came two cash finishes on the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour. He picked up $16,610 for a 32nd place finish at the Copenhagen event in Season 4. This was followed later in the season by an 18th place finish at the London leg of the tour - good for another $29,871. They were impressive results, but Eastgate seemed destined to achieve way bigger things than that. Over in Las Vegas in July 2008, that’s exactly what was about to happen.

When the World Series of Poker* rolled into town, it was obvious that the Main Event was going to be another big one. By the time the dealers shuffled up and dealt, there were 6,844 players ready to take their shot at the glory and the riches. Days later and Peter emerged as one of the last men standing - ready to return in November for the Final Table. He started off 4th in chips and as one of the favourites to win. By the time it was just him and Team PokerStars Pro Ivan Demidov left, Peter had his opponent out chipped by 3:1. It was all over four hours and 105 hands later, with Peter being crowned the new Champion. Along with the title and bracelet came a bumper payday of $9,152,416 - one of the biggest cash finishes in the history of poker and one that puts Peter at the top of the money list for players from Denmark, and Scandinavia as a whole. He also entered the record books as the youngest ever winner of the Main Event at the time- at just 22-years. Squashing any suggestion that his Vegas victory might have been a one-off, Peter won a side event at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $343,000. He then rounded off the year in style with a runner-up finish at EPT London in October, worth another $843,734.

Perhaps the most incredible thing about Peter’s success though is that he doesn’t even consider himself to primarily be a live player. Before his World Series success, most of his poker income came from the high stakes cash tables online at PokerStars.

Still only in his early 20’s, Peter is already living the poker dream, achieving more in just a few years than most poker players do in a lifetime. If he never cashes in a tournament again, it wouldn’t even matter. He could retire from the game now and still live off his winnings for the rest of his life. Just don’t put any money on that happening anytime soon. Peter is a member of Team PokerStars Pro and plays online using the screen name ‘PeteEastgate’.