After a short-lived retirement of less than one year (actually about 7 months), 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate has announced he will be returning to poker, and even more surprising is that he will once again be sponsored by PokerStars!
The 24 year-old Danish poker pro wrote on the PokerStars blog –the same place he announced his retirement last May—that he would be returning to poker, albeit on a limited schedule:
“During my hiatus from poker, PokerStars have been very supportive. Therefore, I am pleased that I will start out with playing two events where I will be sponsored by PokerStars. First, I will be playing the PokerStars.com EPT Copenhagen which of course means a lot to me, since it is on my home ground. Then I will play the NBC Heads Up Championship. I am fortunate that PokerStars have the best online tournaments, so I have an opportunity to get back in tournament shape.”
It should be noted that Eastgate didn’t officially retire; he more announced he was taking a break from poker, and made it perfectly clear he was leaving the door open for a return at some point. It seemed at the time that Eastgate was simply uneasy with his role as an ambassador for poker, and he touched on this in his latest blog post:
“Sometimes in life a person can feel lost and wake up one morning not recognizing who he is. Last summer that was how I felt. Prior to winning the WSOP in 2008, my life was very much a good solid routine of playing online poker and hanging out with my friends and family. Winning the WSOP changed that. I relocated to London and started a new life, the life of a high profile poker pro. For almost 2 years I was in a constant spotlight, travelling from poker tournament to poker tournament, doing thousands of interviews and never had a chance to catch my breath. In the whirlwind that followed winning the WSOP I lost track of the most importing thing in my life, myself.”
Eastgate’s retirement seemed very legit, as he even went so far as to auction off his 2008 WSOP bracelet on EBay –donating the proceeds to UNICEF—and after this very few in the industry expected Eastgate to return to the game; especially this soon. For all intents and purposes it appeared that Eastgate had closed the door on poker, but as I have heard for many years now, “You don’t quit poker: Poker quits you.”
Related Posts
- 2008 WSOP Champ Peter Eastgate Quits Poker - July 8, 2010
- Peter Eastgate’s 2010 Poker Saga - December 29, 2010
- Third WSOP Bracelet Finds Way onto EBay - December 2, 2010
Written by Bill Nye on February 11th, 2011