Tournament Trail Q and A -- 2008 World Champion Peter EastgateEastgate Talks About the Tough Heads-Up Match That Led to His Victory |
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Peter Eastgate became the youngest world champion in the history of poker on Monday night at 22 years of age, breaking a record that had stood for 19 years and belonged to Phil Hellmuth. Eastgate topped 6,844 players to win the 39th-annual World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold'em main event, and he is now poker's top ambassador for the year. Eastgate had a group of Danish freinds that were very vocal in support of him at the final table, including two-time bracelet winner Jesper Hougaard, and they celebrated the win with a distinctive Danish cheer.
This was Eastgate's first cash in the United States, but he has logged many hours online in cash games, and his experience showed at the final table. He has also cashed twice on the European Poker Tour in 2008 and made the final table of the 2007 Irish Open.
Card Player caught up with Eastgate at the crowded post-final table press conference to get his thoughts on the biggest night of his life.
Question: At one point early on, you were actually trailing in chips. Were you catching bad cards or having trouble adjusting to Ivan Demidov?
Peter Eastgate: Early on, he wasn’t making any mistakes. He was catching hands, and he was taking advantage of them with his bets. I wasn’t worried when he came out strong; I was confident in my game.
Q: Did it change your game plan early?
PE: I’m always adjusting to my opponents and changing gears, but I didn’t doubt whether I was doing anything wrong.
Q: You’re very calm right now considering you’re the new world champion of poker and you have won more than $9 million. Has it hit you yet what you have accomplished?
PE: I just haven’t really realized how big this is, and that will come in the next weeks, and the next days.
Q: Were you very competitive growing up?
PE: I’m just a gambler. I’ve been gambling for four years, and that’s the way I learned to play poker …. I love the game, and the psychological efforts of the game …. The first two years, I broke even, but I learned during that time.
Q: How does it feel to be the youngest main event champion?
PE: It feels incredible, and it feels even better to beat Phil Hellmuth’s record … . I wasn’t focusing on the record though, I was just focusing on the game. I was determined to win tonight.
Q: How much of your poker playing takes place online?
PE: I love to play online, and I love to play cash games online. That’s where there is a lot of action, and I love action.
Q: Did you have specific tells on any of the players whose bluffs you picked off during the course of the final table?
PE: I was able to pick up on the complete bluffs, and I had an idea on whether they were strong or they were weak, or whether they were going to raise or fold. I picked up some reads when they looked at their cards, and that gave away the strength of their hands.
Q: A lot of young players are going to see you on TV, and they’re going to want to see if they can accomplish the same feat that you just did. What advice would you give them?
PE: The advice would be to practice bankroll management and to be disciplined about the game. You will have to improve your game by playing a lot of hands and putting the hours into it. The value of your sessions will come from the critical situations at the table, and you will definitely become a better poker player and improve as you gain experience.
Card Player also caught up with Eastgate at the WSOP main event final-table viewing party at the Rio on Tuesday night. That interview below, and you can also check out the video on CardPlayer TV (and also embedded at the bottom of this story).
Ryan Lucchesi: Obviously it feels great to be the world champion. How much more meaningful is it for you to be the youngest world champion in history, as well as the first Danish champion?
Peter Eastgate: It feels really good right now, but when I was playing I wasn’t really focusing on the money or awards, I just needed to focus on my opponents and my game, and I did.
RL: You got Ivan Demidov to bluff into you a couple of times during the heads-up match, and you always picked him off when he did. Did you have any tells on him that you were taking advantage of during the final match?
PE: I didn’t really have any physical tells on him. In a heads-up match, it’s all about getting your opponent to make mistakes, and this time it was a very bad day to make the wrong plays at the wrong times. He’s a very good player, and if we played tomorrow he might win. It’s very good to use your once-in-a-lifetime chance to get the bracelet by winning the heads-up match, and I’m very satisfied.
RL: You represent three rising demographics in poker. You’re young, you’re an online player, and you’re European. Do you feel that your win may have the same effect in Europe that Chris Moneymaker’s did in the U.S. in 2003?
PE: I will try my best to be an inspirational figure for poker players in Europe and globally. I’m not really analyzing the market — that’s not in my job description. I’m a poker player, and I will be the best ambassador that I can be.
RL: How does it feel to have more WSOP gold bracelets than your fellow countryman, Gus Hansen?
PE: It feels very good. On the other hand, there is no competition between Gus Hansen and me as to who wins the most money. I’ve met him a couple of times, and he is a very cool guy, and I like him very much. I don’t mind if he goes on winning this year.
RL: Was he a personal inspiration, as he is for so many young players in your country?
PE: Yeah, he’s an inspiration, and the way he handles the media is an inspiration, as well. I still have a lot to learn from Gus Hansen, even though I’m the world champion.
See the interview above as a video below:
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