In a packed Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio Peter Eastgate of Denmark beat Ivan Demidov of Russia in the heads-up of the WSOP 2008 Main Event. It took 104 hands and four hours of seesaw battle for Eastgate to wear out his opponent. Eastgate won the bracelet and the top prize of $9,152,416.
With this huge win Eastgate has made it to the top five cumulative lifetime prize money winners. Demidov won $5,809,595 for the second place. Earlier in the year Demidov had final tabled in WSOPE Main Event, becoming the first person to reach the final table of both WSOP events.
Dennis Phillips, the last American standing, finished third. It was the first time that an American has failed to make it to the heads-up. Going into the final table Phillips was chip leader and favorite. The other positions in descending order were Ylon Schwarts, ScottMontgomery, Darus Suharto, David “Cheemo” Rheem, Kelly Kim and Craig Marquis.