Peter Eastgate has announced his return to tournament poker.
The 2008 World Series of Poker Champion had decided to retire from poker last summer and has been absent from the game for about 8 months. At that time, he said that he was financially independent having won nearly $11 million playing tournament poker and no longer felt motivated to continue playing.
He again made headlines in the poker world when he put his WSOP Championship bracelet up for auction on eBay. He said that he doesn’t wear the piece of jewelry and donated the proceeds to UNICEF in order to help the less fortunate. He raised $147,500 for charity in the auction.
In announcing his return he said: “Last summer I decided that I wanted to stop playing poker and catch my breath and find out who I am and what I want to do with my life. Over the last 8 months I have had a chance to reconnect with my friends and most important, my family. I have spent quality time with my family and really had an opportunity to figure out who I am and what I want to do with the rest of my life.
"Having had time to think about my life and future I feel I have figured out how I can combine playing poker with a healthy life outside of poker."
He will return to poker as a Team PokerStars Pro and credits the world’s largest online poker site as being supportive of his decision to take a break from the game.
He will return to the live poker circuit when he takes part in the PokerStars EPT Copenhagen event on his home turf.
He will then play in the popular, invitation only NBC Heads-Up Championship that will feature the biggest names in the poker world including Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and this year’s WSOP Champion Jonathan Duhamel.
Peter Eastgate is a gentleman and a great ambassador of the game, it is fantastic to have him back!
