2008 WSOP Champion Eastgate joins Team Betfair

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Feb 22, 2012 Posted in Poker Player News, Poker Room News | No Comments »

Peter Eastgate has been a bit of an enigma ever since he became the youngest World Series of Poker Main Event Champion back in 2008 (a record broken the following year by Joe Cada). Eastgate was one of the most promising young players in the game after his WSOP victory, and seemed destined for super-stardom after joining Team PokerStars Pro.

However, Eastgate threw away the sponsorship dollars and left the gamed of poker in 2010, just before the 2010 WSOP, going so far as to auction off his 2008 WSOP Championship bracelet on eBay –Eastgate donated all of the proceeds from the auction to charity. At the time Eastagte released a statement through PokerStars where he stated, “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.”

His retirement was fairly short-lived, and by 2011 Eastgate had rejoined the poker world, and was even sponsored for the 2011 EPT Copenhagen Main Event by PokerStars. Now back to playing poker full-time (or very close to it), and as a former WSOP Champion, Eastgate will always be one of the most coveted players when it comes to representing an online poker room.

Even though it seemed Eastgate was working his way back into PokerStars good graces, a new sponsorship deal never emerged between the two, and on Tuesday Eastgate inked a deal with Betfair Poker. Eastgate will sport the Betfair logo at the 2012 WSOP where he hopes to have a triumphant return to poker: “I had a 10 month hiatus where I didn’t play poker and then I felt the lust to play poker again because I still enjoy the game and there’s still a lot of challenges to the game. I’m not by any means the best player in the world so there’s still a lot of challenges,” were Eastgate’s words in a recent video interview with his new sponsor Betfair.

Eastgate was the only poker player added to the Team Betfair roster on Tuesday. The site also announced the signing of Eastgate’s countryman Stefan Raffay. While not as well known in the poker world as Eastgate, the Danish poker pro has amassed nearly $550k in career tournament earnings including a win at the 2006 Danish Championships and more recently a final table at the 2011 WSOP in a $1k NLHE event where Raffay finished in 5th place.

The two will join a Betfair Poker Team that also includes John Tabatabai and Hans Vogl. Betfair’s Danish Country Manager Peter Weinreich had this to say about the new additions to Team Betfair, “We hope their expertise and popularity in the poker community will ensure a positive relationship for both parties”.