Las Vegas Weekly

November 10, 2008 · 6:47 AM

Morning Call: Russia’s Ivan Demidov faces Denmark’s Peter Eastgate for WSOP’s $9 million winner’s prize

By Robin Leach

Ivan Demidov.

Photo: World Series of Poker

In the end, it came down to just two poker players … at 12:37 a.m. today, in the Penn & Teller theater at The Rio, as the World Series of Poker inched closer to the final, head-to-head battle.

It’s an international flashpoint as 27-year-old Russian Ivan Demidov and 22-year-old Peter Eastgate from Denmark became the two finalists. First they will face us ink-stained wretches today at 1 p.m. for a Q&A session, and we’ll try for the inside scoop on the emotions, the tensions, the nervousness, the sweating they’ll face in the final showdown.

Then they will either get massages or go to sleep until 10 p.m., when boxing announcer Michael Buffer will officially get the $9 million prize battle underway. Cards should be in the air by 10:15 p.m., and a crowd of several thousand is expected to line up to get into the theater to watch.

We’ll have the results here early morning tomorrow when the flop stops, the river runs dry and the cards stop turning -- probably between 4 to 5 a.m.! If you can’t get down to The Rio to watch in the Penn & Teller theater, ESPN will air the finals starting at 5 p.m. PT tomorrow.

Click HERE for our November Nine final table coverage yesterday, and click HERE for our Friday rundown of the players, including Ivan and Peter. The winner rakes in $9,152,416, and the runner-up grabs $5,809,595. If Peter wins, he would become the youngest ever WSOP king, beating Phil Hellmuth’s record of age 24.

This was the largest WSOP in history, with 58,720 entries surpassing last year’s 54,288 -- an 8% increase. In addition, it’s the richest WSOP, with a whopping $180,676,248 in 2008 prize money from all tournaments -- no other sport comes close and is an increase of $20,880,030 over last year!

Here’s how it went down:

Craig Marquis was the first to go, eliminated in 9th place, as we reported yesterday.

Kelly Kim was eliminated in 8th place, with $1,288,217.

David Rheem was KO’d in 7th place, with $1,772,650.

Darus Suharto was in 6th place, with $2,418,562.

Scott Montgomery placed 5th, with $3,096,768 in winnings.

Ylon Schwartz was in 4th at $3,774,974.

America’s last hope, 53-year-old Dennis Phillips, went out on the 169th hand just 37 minutes after midnight this morning. He walked away with $4 million and says he will return to his day job as an account manager for a St. Louis trucking company. That’s because he’s donating the win to several charities, including multiple sclerosis, as his brother suffers from the disease.

And then there were two. Peter Eastgate from Odense, Denmark, is the chip leader with 79 million, and Ivan Demidov from Moscow has more than 57 million chips.

Peter has been playing poker for only three short years and has won $76,084 to date in two live tournaments. Nicknamed “Isser,” he put up his own $10,000 to join 58,720 entrants from a record 124 countries for this 39th annual WSOP.

Ivan has earned $65,081 to date playing in three live tournaments. His professional status comes from playing in online poker rooms, and, growing up in the Soviet Union, he had no knowledge of professional sports as almost no sports events were televised. Ivan, nicknamed “Soul,” is single and, when not turning the cards, enjoys skiing and scuba diving.

Last night, two new players were inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Recognition was given to Holocaust survivor Henry Orenstein, who won the 1996 World Series of Poker but is best-known as an inventor, holding more than 100 patents for everything from Sesame Street toys and the Hole Card Cam invention, which made poker a made-for TV attraction and spurring the game’s meteoric rise. Duane “Dewey” Tomko, a three-time WSOP bracelet winner, also was inducted.

Vegas DeLuxe will have the hand-by hand play through the late night and into dawn tomorrow right here on the Morning Call -- plus photos of the $9 million prize pot!

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