As if it wasn’t already shocking enough when 20 year-old Michael McDonald retired from poker after making millions of dollars, Peter Eastgate added more shock when he recently announced that he would be retiring from poker.
The 24 year-old pro from Denmark first gained poker stardom after he won the 2008 WSOP Main Event at age 22. By winning the Main Event at 22, Eastgate became the youngest Main Event winner in history (this record was broke by Joe Cada last year). With the win, Eastgate earned more money than most people see in a lifetime with $9.15 million.
Eastgate announced his decision to quite poker through his PokerStars blog. He broke the news by starting the blog off with the following: “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.”
Peter explained his feelings further by writing, “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. I have decided to take a break from live tournament poker, and try to focus on Peter Eastgate, the person.”
Obviously, Eastgate’s retirement shows that he couldn’t really see himself playing poker for the rest of his life. Some people relish in the poker player lifestyle while others are only in it for the money, and have other aspirations for their life. In any case, I wish Eastgate good luck in whatever he decides to do in the future.
