Peter Eastgate

Congratulations to Peter Eastgate, the 2008 World Series of Poker main event winner.

Peter Eastgate is now the youngest player ever to win a WSOP tournament bracelet, replacing Phil Hellmuth as the record holder. I am not a fan of Phil, so I am glad that his record has been taken away. He had stated, "No one will ever replace me as the youngest player to win a WSOP poker tournament."

As I am sure that all of you are aware, Harrah's decided to postpone the final table until November. A lot of poker fans were not happy with this decision and I have received numerous complaints about the delayed final table play. I too was not happy with this decision, but I do have to admit that the anticipation was building as the time was going by. Maybe there is some merit to this idea after all.

Dare I mention the sponsorship for the WSOP? Whats with Milwaukee's Best beer? Glorified water! I would hope that with all of the exposure during the WSOP tournament, there would be bigger and better sponsors, but not so far this year.

The final table consisted of the following players, referred to as the November Nine:

Seat 1: Dennis Phillips (26,295,000)
Seat 2: Craig Marquis (10,210,000)
Seat 3: Ylon Schwartz (12,525,000)
Seat 4: Scott Montgomery (19,690,000)
Seat 5: Darus Suharto (12,520,000)
Seat 6: David Rheem (10,230,000)
Seat 7: Ivan Demidov (24,400,000)
Seat 8: Kelly Kim (2,620,000)
Seat 9: Peter Eastgate (18,375,000)

With only one known poker pro at the final table, the game was anyone's for the taking. Chip leader Phillips came into the final table with a narrow lead over the young Russian Ivan Demidov, but he ran into big trouble early at the final table and played horribly. The chip leader was soon down at the bottom in terms of chips. In all, it took over 50 hands for the first elimination to occur. Craig Marquis was the first to bust when he moved all in preflop.

The final pairing was set up when Phillips finished in third place ($4,517,773) courtesy of Peter Eastgate with pocket 3's who wound up wth trips on the flop. Now down to two players, Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov with Eastgate taking the prize pool of $9.1 million.