One year on from becoming the youngest ever WSOP Main Event winner, Peter Eastgate, reveals how becoming world champion has changed his life
On his title defence…
I don’t have any hopes of going deep because I’m pretty realistic about the chances of going deep [again]. My poker strategy is to take it hand by hand – you can never predict what’s going to happen, and you should always be adjusting to the table dynamic which changes all the time. That’s why you can never make a pre-game strategy for the first day or the second day and so on. Also, you can make a goal of making it to Day 2, but on the other hand if there’s an hour remaining of Day 1 and I feel like I have a spot where I can accumulate a lot of chips, I don’t care about making it to Day 2, I’m going for that spot which might risk a lot of my chips.
On his life-changing win…
At first I was a little bit stressed about the media, I didn’t feel very comfortable dealing with it, but I’m improving and getting more comfortable doing it. I’m definitely on the road more now than I used to be. I wasn’t really a live tournament player before, I mainly played online. So after I qualified for the final table [of last year’s Main Event] I travelled to a lot of places – America, Asia, Australia, Europe – and found it a lot of fun. I’m learning and seeing new things and it’s very exciting.
On justifying his world champion status…
It’s always nice to have another win [in a side event at the PCA in January] to kind of prove that you’re not a fluke, but I’m not really that worried about what other people think of my game.
On how his game has changed…
My style before I won the Main Event was fairly loose and aggressive and I’ve continued that. I’ve actually stepped it up a gear, which has been very bad for me because I haven’t adjusted correctly to how my opponents are playing me now. They’re targeting me, they’re trying to get the best of me, and I think the right strategy to counter that would be to tighten up. But I’ve been overly aggressive, spewing my chips away playing bad, and I think the main reason I’ve been playing bad is because the money doesn’t mean as much to me as it used to. I need to think of a solution of how to get motivated. I could burn half my bankroll and then I might get motivated…
On getting motivated…
Right now I’m so steamed and pissed about playing so bad that it might help sharpen my focus. Now I want to win again. I’ve lost for such a long period that I can’t take it anymore. Hopefully that will ignite my motivation. But there are no guarantees that I will play better in the future. That’s what makes poker so interesting – it’s a mind game which is evolving all the time. You see big winners from 2005 and 2006 who are struggling now because the game has changed so much over the last two or three years. And it’s still changing. It’s a challenge to keep up with the modern style of poker and still be one of the young guns.
On High Stakes Poker…
High Stakes Poker has always been my favourite poker show – I like the commentary, the action at the tables – so it was a big thrill for me to get invited to the show. I made some mistakes going into the show – I took too much money to the table which I was clearly not comfortable with. The only player who covered me at the table was Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, and he had position on me and put me in some difficult spots.
On the hand where he held trips to Dwan’s audacious bluff…
I’ve been asked by a lot of people about that hand and it’s a simple one to answer: I thought I was beat. [If I called on the turn] I was worried about the river bet as well, if 90% of the blank cards hit. And I had Barry Greenstein behind me which makes durrrr’s bet look even stronger – that’s what he was taking advantage of. You could say that Barry made the same read as I did, because he folded. He must have thought Tom had a deuce or pocket tens because otherwise he had him beat. So Barry made the same read as me and that’s why Tom got away with that bluff.
On this year’s Series…
I’ve played horribly. It’s something to do with the motivation factor. Actually I’ve been drinking too much instead of being a professional sportsman and playing poker. I have a lot of Danish friends who I blame for my bad results this year [laughs]. But my results don’t worry me that much. I try to learn from my mistakes and look for what I can improve. I’m pretty optimistic.
After this interview took place Peter Eastgate made a great attempt at defending his WSOP Main Event title, eventually finishing in 78th place for $68,979.
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