04 Nov 08

November Nine: Peter Eastgate

Each day a November Nine in detail. Today: Peter Eastgate – With 22 years, the Dane is the youngest player on the final table and has the opportunity to become the youngest Main Event winner of all times.

When asked if Peter Eastgate was the next Gus Hansen, the Swedish pro Jacob Rasmussen said, "Gus Hansen is rather the first Peter Eastgate".

Even though this quote was taken out of the overall context and could be regarded in many different ways, it is still clear that Peter Eastgate, and with him a whole generation of young Danish online pros – like Søren Kongsgaard and Soren Jensen – are thought to be capable of representing their Danish colours more and more often in the international poker business. Eastgate is regarded as one of their best.

Motivated by the pioneering work of Gus Hansen, the small country with only about 5.5 million people is able to send an almost excessive amount of players to the majors, and also represents a strong faction at the online tables.

Ironically enough, Eastgate would vault himself on top of the Scandinavian All Time Money Lists with a win, and especially knock Gus Hansen ($7,300,000) back on rank 2, who significantly influenced the Danish playing style with his loose-aggressive plays. However: "Gus Hansen is and will be the figurehead for poker in Denmark", says Eastgate himself.

At the same time he knows that he has the opportunity to overtake his big role model at least in tournament winnings with only 22 years. Furthermore, he would also become the youngest Main Event winner of all times, a title which is currently held by Phil Hellmuth, who won back in 1989 aged 24.

Like many young up-and-coming players, Eastgate also emerges from online poker. There he regularly plays the limits up to the $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em games, and he does so quite profitably. Live, he already cashed twice so far at the EPT and finished ninth in the Irish Open 2007.

To prepare for the final table, Eastgate studied his opponents meticulously, even though he was sure that each finalist improved himself in the long break, and that he will practically face new opponents on November 9th.

Eastgate will enter the finale with 18,375,000 in chips, and so lies about 6 million in front of Ylon Schwartz, who we will take a closer look at in tomorrow's report.