WSOP Main Event '08 Champion Peter Eastgate Retires From Poker
Former World Series of Poker main-event champion Peter Eastgate has chosen to retire in dramatic fashion, releasing a statement through his now former sponsor Pokerstars, the night before the World Series of Poker Main Event.
The 24-year-old Dane released a statement saying, "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. The period following has taken me on a worldwide tour, where I have seen some amazing places and met many new people; it has been a great experience.
"In the 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high-level poker along the way, and I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life. 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. I want to thank PokerStars, my friends and family for their support over the last 20 months, and for their support in my decision to take a break from poker."
Eastgate collected just over $9 million for his victory in '08.
It seems the sentiment around the poker world is that people are commending Pete's decision. He says he lost his motivation to play at a high level, I think he just couldn't stand a chance at the high levels and realized it. He won the Main Event, and had to run like God to do so (Ivan Demidov is heads and shoulders better than Eastgate in this writer's opinion). He got served up in High Stakes Poker and whooped up on in the nosebleed stakes on his own site. Who knows how many millions he has left from his '08 score but nothing wrong with a 24 year old millionaire quitting the frustration of the daily 'grind' of poker to pursue whatever else. Good for him. I like Eastgate, he seems like a nice enough kid. Decent player. Could he ever hang with the top, top pros? I didnt see it.
Now, there are two times in my poker career where I felt completely naked from being so outclassed at the table. One time was when a mentor of mine named Ben Stark (a very accomplished poker and Magic player) and I had cleaned up a cash game years ago, and I was feeling, in the words of the infamous Teddy KGB: "proud and good!" I challenged him to a heads up game since we had all the chips, and long story short is I left with my tail between my legs and not much else. The other time I got destroyed is when I played a live game with a kid named Ashton "Ashman" Griffin. This kid is so LAG-gy and creative and downright fierce at the table, it was the 2nd time that I truly felt like I didn't belong at the table with such a phenom.
Many of you may know of that name. His story is well documented in the online circles. He took a meager investment online and ran it to over a million, and blew it all in less than a week, then proceeded to take another meager investment and run it well into the millions. In my circle, we call that going "busto to robusto to busto to robusto."
It feels kind of good that the only times I've ever been thoroughly and soundly beaten at the tables, I was facing players who have made millions and millions of dollars playing poker.
So why do I mention all of this?
About three months ago, I saw The Ashman online. He was sitting at 3 different No Limit tables with $40,000 each. That's astounding enough, that I happened to have played with a guy that robusto. But when I clicked his tables I was in for the shock of my life. He was doing $40k flips with Peter Eastgate!!! (for those that dont know, yes, that means pushing all in regardless of cards). I believe Eastgate won in total 5 flips for around $200k!! Then he made a very revealing confession, now up $200k he asked if they could just play the regular way and stop flipping, and he said flipping was "the only way I can beat you". I was floored that he would say such a thing out in the open. Well, sure as gold, The Ashman proceeded to win his $200k back and then some, and Peter Eastgate ran for the hills without so much as a murmur.
up his retirement well, if you ask me.
Former World Series of Poker main-event champion Peter Eastgate has chosen to retire in dramatic fashion, releasing a statement through his now former sponsor Pokerstars, the night before the World Series of Poker Main Event.
The 24-year-old Dane released a statement saying, "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. The period following has taken me on a worldwide tour, where I have seen some amazing places and met many new people; it has been a great experience.
"In the 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high-level poker along the way, and I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life. 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. I want to thank PokerStars, my friends and family for their support over the last 20 months, and for their support in my decision to take a break from poker."
Eastgate collected just over $9 million for his victory in '08.
It seems the sentiment around the poker world is that people are commending Pete's decision. He says he lost his motivation to play at a high level, I think he just couldn't stand a chance at the high levels and realized it. He won the Main Event, and had to run like God to do so (Ivan Demidov is heads and shoulders better than Eastgate in this writer's opinion). He got served up in High Stakes Poker and whooped up on in the nosebleed stakes on his own site. Who knows how many millions he has left from his '08 score but nothing wrong with a 24 year old millionaire quitting the frustration of the daily 'grind' of poker to pursue whatever else. Good for him. I like Eastgate, he seems like a nice enough kid. Decent player. Could he ever hang with the top, top pros? I didnt see it.
Now, there are two times in my poker career where I felt completely naked from being so outclassed at the table. One time was when a mentor of mine named Ben Stark (a very accomplished poker and Magic player) and I had cleaned up a cash game years ago, and I was feeling, in the words of the infamous Teddy KGB: "proud and good!" I challenged him to a heads up game since we had all the chips, and long story short is I left with my tail between my legs and not much else. The other time I got destroyed is when I played a live game with a kid named Ashton "Ashman" Griffin. This kid is so LAG-gy and creative and downright fierce at the table, it was the 2nd time that I truly felt like I didn't belong at the table with such a phenom.
Many of you may know of that name. His story is well documented in the online circles. He took a meager investment online and ran it to over a million, and blew it all in less than a week, then proceeded to take another meager investment and run it well into the millions. In my circle, we call that going "busto to robusto to busto to robusto."
It feels kind of good that the only times I've ever been thoroughly and soundly beaten at the tables, I was facing players who have made millions and millions of dollars playing poker.
So why do I mention all of this?
About three months ago, I saw The Ashman online. He was sitting at 3 different No Limit tables with $40,000 each. That's astounding enough, that I happened to have played with a guy that robusto. But when I clicked his tables I was in for the shock of my life. He was doing $40k flips with Peter Eastgate!!! (for those that dont know, yes, that means pushing all in regardless of cards). I believe Eastgate won in total 5 flips for around $200k!! Then he made a very revealing confession, now up $200k he asked if they could just play the regular way and stop flipping, and he said flipping was "the only way I can beat you". I was floored that he would say such a thing out in the open. Well, sure as gold, The Ashman proceeded to win his $200k back and then some, and Peter Eastgate ran for the hills without so much as a murmur.
up his retirement well, if you ask me.
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