Bodog Beat

Peter Eastgate has become the youngest WSOP Main Event champion in history. (Image courtesy ImageMasters DPI)

Four months and 6,800 eliminations later the 2008 WSOP Main Event has come to a close and the new World Champion is Danish poker player Peter Eastgate. After playing through the first seven bustouts of the WSOP Final Table yesterday, the November Nine was left with Eastgate and Ivan Demidov in a heads-up battle for the $9.1 million first-place prize.

The heads-up battle lasted for 104 hands, more than a third of all hands played during the final table, and ended when Eastgate turned a wheel straight to send Demidov home in second place with $5,809,595, a truly impressive performance by the young Russian who also final tabled the WSOP Europe Main Event just over a month ago.

On top of jumping up to second place in the all-time list of WSOP money winners, Eastgate also claims the distinction of becoming the youngest WSOP Main Event champion in history at 22 years of age, eclipsing the mark previously held by Phil Hellmuth.

“I was not focusing on the records I could break [as the youngest winner or the first Dane to win].  I just concentrated on the game," said Eastgate moments after his win. “I do not think I have realized yet what a big moment this is.  It will come the next days and weeks.  I expect I will get emotional about it later.  But not as much now.”

Once Eastgate hears the statistics of the tournament (second largest prize pool in history, second largest live poker tournament in history, longest final table in history, etc…), we're sure the enormity of his accomplishment will sink in. For now, he'll head back to London, his current residence, and focus on being the new face of poker.