2008 WSOP Main Event Winner Retires
If you’ve heard poker compared to a sport, but thought that it was ridiculous before, Peter Eastgate, 23, has made a move more reminiscent of a professional athlete than of a poker player. In the midst of the 2010 WSOP, Eastgate announced his retirement. Yes, you read that right. He’s retiring. In 2008, Eastgate won the WSOP main event, bringing home a prize of $9,152,416, after winning his entry through Ladbrokes Poker. Following his win, PokerStars signed him up as their ambassador, and he’s done a great job of it, but he feels he lacks ambition at this point.
PokerStars released a statement saying that “Poker is about determination and excitement, and if Peter lacks this in his game, the right decision is to take a break. Peter has played amongst world champions and he has carried his title in the most admirable fashion.”
According to Eastgate, he knew that poker wasn’t his life’s dream, but he wanted to establish some financial security before he quit. In his statement, he said “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.”
“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.” he said “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.”
