As in previous years, the annual World Series of Poker featured exciting tournaments, many thrills, huge cash prizes and a few superlatives – first and foremost this year’s world champion, the winner of the final table, 22-year-old poker pro Peter Eastgate from Denmark, the youngest player in the history of the event to take first prize. The prize money Eastgate, who is fluent in both Danish and English, took home is the second-highest payout ever made in poker - $9,152,416.
The 2008 World Series of Poker Final Table took place in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 9th and saw nine professional poker players competing in a no-limit Hold’em tournament. Aside from Eastgate they were Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, Ylon Schwartz, Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto, David Rheem, Kelly Kim and Craig Marquis, playing in front of a live audience of up to 3,000 spectators in the hotel’s Penn and Teller Theatre. This final table, which took place on two consecutive days, also became the longest recorded game in the history of the event. It took more than two hours until the first elimination when Marquis was eliminated, and the game lasted another 14 hours after that.
While Dennis Phillips started as chip leader at the beginning of the game, for most of the first day his Russian rival Demidov had the chip lead. However, Peter Eastgate, who had started out in fourth place, proved to be a foe to be reckoned with. Although Demidov had vowed to become the first Russian winner of the World Series, he was unable to establish any momentum during the final hours of the game. The final hand of the 2008 WSOP came when Eastgate was dealt Ad-5s against Demidov’s 4h-2h. The final board showed K-3-2-4-7 (suits were insignificant). Demidov then called Eastgate’s all-in move and tabled two pairs – fours and twos. Eastgate showed A-5, good for the straight, five-high.
Shortly after winning, the young Dane still seemed to have trouble believing his success: “I do not think I have realized yet what a big moment this is”, he said. “It will come the next days and weeks.”
With this victory, the WSOP concluded. The 2008 event was the largest ever World Series of Poker, featuring more than 58,000 players vying for 55 gold bracelets.
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