World Series of Poker Main Event Final Heads-Up Recap

Posted by James on November 14, 2008

Heads-up play for the World Series of Poker Main Event started Monday night at 10 p.m. Pacific Time. According to Barry Greenstein, the decision to start at 10 p.m. was to keep various media sources from being able to print the winner of the Main Event in their morning editions.

Peter Eastgate entered heads up play with 79.5 Million in chips. Ivan Demidov started play with 57.725 Million. The very first hand was potentially explosive and ended a little odd. The board by the river showed K-10-10-K-K to put a full house on board. Demidov then made a bet of around 8 Million and Eastgate went into the tank. Many players expected Eastgate to call in this spot. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson said later that he would have even raised it 12 Million. Eastgate shocked everyone when he ended up folding his hand and giving the pot to Demidov. Later on it would be revealed by Demidov in an interview that he indeed had the case king in his hand and Eastgate made an amazing laydown. Demidov continued to apply the pressure early on and took the chip lead in hand 12 of heads up play after making two pair on the river. He had nearly a 9 million chip lead at that point.

It would be the last chip lead that Demidov would hold during the main event. Eastgate won several pots afterwards to take back the chip leads and move up to around 75 Million in chips. Demidov was set to take back the chip lead in hand 33. On a flop of 5d-7h-4d, Demidov raised the action to 3.375 Million in chips. Eastgate called and an 8h fell on the turn. Demidov would then check-raise a bet from Eastgate to 14 Million total. Eastgate would make the call. The 3d fell on the river and both players checked, fearing the flush. Demidov showed 6c-8c. He had flopped the straight. Unfortunately for him, Eastgate turned over 4c-6h. The turn had given Eastgate the same straight, and the players wound up chopping the pot.

Eastgate would extend his chip lead in hand 35. After a raised to 2.8 Million preflop, both players saw a flop of Ad-3s-Jh. Both players checked and the Jd fell on the turn. Eastgate would be out 2.5 Million on the turn and was called. The river came the Qc and Eastgate bet out 6.9 Million. Demidov insta-called and players thought he might have a big hand. Eastgate turned over Ac-Qh for top two pair. Demidov mucked his cards and Eastgate moved up to 86.65 Million. Demidov slipped to 50 Million.

Four hands later, Demidov took another blow to his stack. Eastgate called a raise of 2.75 Million and both players saw the flop of 9h-7s-6d. Demidov bet 3.625 Million and was called. Action was checked around on the turn of the Jh. The Qs fell on the river and Demidov bet 7 Million. Eastgate insta-called and showed Js-8s for a pair of jacks. Demidov was caught bluffing and was only holding ace high. Eastgate took in the 26.95 Million pot and moved up to 100 Million. Devidov slipped to around 36.275 Million.

Demidov would slip down to as low as 29.725 Million in chips before making a bit of a comeback. He began to apply pressure a lot on Eastgate again with a lot of min-raises pre-flop. A couple of key re-raises pre-flop also helped Demidov rebuild his stack. He was able to rebound to around 52 Million. At this point it seemed that Demidov had retaken the momentum in the event.
Hand 98 wound up being another huge hand between the two. After another min-raise preflop, Eastgate made the call and both player saw the flop of Kd-10d-7c. The flop was checked around and the turn fell the Jd. Eastgate bet 2.5 Million and Demidov came over the top to make it 8 Million. Eastgate called and the river fell the 3s. Eastgate checked to Demidov and he bet out 12 Million. Eastgate snap-called and flipped over 7d-4d for the flush. Demidov mucked his cards and Eastgate moved up to 106 Million in chips. Demidov slipped to 30 Million.

At this point, it seemed that Demidov had nearly conceded defeat as he slipped under 20 Million in hand 104. The very next hand would be the final hand of the event. Eastgate limped in and Demidov would check his option pre-flop. The flop came Ks-3h-2d and Eastgate bet out 1.25 Million. Demidov made the call and the turn fell the 4c. Eastgate bet out 2 Million and Demidov raised to 6 Million. Eastgate called and the river fell the 7s. Demidov pushed all-in and Eastgate insta-called. Demidov showed 4h-2h for two pair and Eastgate showed Ad-5s for the wheel and the win. With that hand, Peter Eastgate became the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event champion.

Eastgate showed very little emotion when the final hand was shown. He stood up, walk away from the table, and then was mobbed by his fans. He then began to smile a bit as realization set in that he had just won the most coveted prize in poker. Also, Eastgate’s win makes him the youngest Main Event champion in history, a title formerly held by Phil Hellmuth.

And just like that, the 2008 World Series of Poker concludes. It all started back in May when players from all around the world came to the Rio in Las Vegas to chase a dream of winning a bracelet. After 6 weeks of events, the Main Event started with 6844 players. After many grueling days and then a four month wait, we finally played out the final table until Peter Eastgate emerged as the newest World Champion. Congratulations to Peter Eastgate, the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion!

Whether you loved or hated the idea of the final table delay, it looked as if the end result was just what Harrah’s and ESPN wanted. No announcement has been made about next year’s Main Event, but don’t be surprised if we have another “November Nine” in 2009.