One notable player who won't be there for the Main Event is the 2008 champion Peter Eastgate, who has surprised the poker world by announcing he is quitting the game perhaps for good.


Eastgate's original plan was to skip the preliminary events but arrive in Las Vegas for the Main Event. In an article by PokerStars Blog published June 9th, he says he'd rather spend the June in his air-conditioned apartment in London watching the World Cup than go to Vegas and endure the 50 celsius heat. However, he assured he was coming to play the big one.

During this time the ex-champ has had a change of heart, and he is now saying he will quit poker altogether for now to find out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. In an announcement on PokerStars Blog, Eastgate says his goal in poker was always gaining financial independence, and that he already achieved this with his big win in 2008. "In the 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high level poker," Eastgate says.

The Dane has done well in tournaments even after his Main Event win. In 2009 he won the PCA $4.8k side event for $343k and was runner-up at EPT London for $843k. In January he also made the final table at EPT Deauville.

However, he has not fared so well taking shots at the high stakes cash games and maybe this is one of the reasons he has grown tired of poker. Despite this he is an excellent NL Hold'em tournament player and hopefully he will return to the tables sometime in the future.