22-year old Peter Eastgate has just won the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event! Eastgate not only took the title, the bracelet, and the $9,152,416 first prize, but he also claimed Phil Hellmuth's long held record as the youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event.

Runner-up Ivan Demidov, earned $5,809,595 for his second place bow and will also leave the table with his own impressive record; the only player to ever to make it to both the WSOP Main Event Final Table and the WSOP-Europe Main Event Final Table in the same year. It should also be noted that Demidov finished in the top three in both events.

The heads-up battle for the WSOP title lasted less than five hours and just over 100 hands. The match saw numerous limped pots as both players carefully and cautiously, jockeyed for position. Eastgate started the match with a moderate chip lead of about 24,000,000 chips, but that chip lead would be lost and found numerous times throughout the course of the exciting evening.

Eventually Eastgate did gain a substantial edge, in a crucial hand where he turned a flush and allowed the aggressive Russian Demidov, to continue betting into him. Demidov's final called river bet, found him with nothing but Ace high, and on the losing end of a pot worth over 40,000,000 in tournament chips.

No one would question Demidov's skills after such an impressive tournament run, but after losing such a large pot, as well as several key smaller ones, it was beginning to appear to everyone that the writing may be on the wall. Less than ten hands later, Ivan Demidov got his last 16 million into the middle of the table, after turning two pair on a 2-K-3-4-7 board, only to discover that Peter Eastgate had made a wheel with Ace-five.

The final hand of the four month World Series of Poker Main Event had at last been dealt and only one man remained of the 6,844 players that had entered the tournament. That man's name is now permanently etched in poker's rich history for all to know, the pride of Denmark, Peter Eastgate.

Story by Mark Anderson