First let's take a look at how it all started:
Peter Eastgate - 79,500,000
Ivan "Soul" Demidov - 57,725,000
Even though Eastgate had an edge, it was Demidov who started the heads-up in better shape, picking up small and important pots. The very first hand of the heads-up was really tricky, as the board was "just" a full house Kings full of Tens. In the river Demidov pushed 8 million chips to the middle of the table, while Eastgate laughed and folded after some thought. After some hands with no showdown, we witnessed the second important hand. Soul raises to 2mil from the button, Eastgate calls. Both players check the flop
. The turn is a
and Eastgate bets 2.5mil
, Soul calls. The river is a
, Eastgate checks, Demidov take a look at his hole cards and fires a bet of 6mil. Eastgate calls and sees Demidov turning up
for two pairs. Eastgate mucks his hand and Demidov becomes the new chip leader. The new chip counts are 73,450,000 against 63,450,000.
That moment was very important, as Demidov had just turned around a 20 million chips disadvantage. It was the only moment where the dispute was close. Eastgate started winning key hand after key hand, getting back the chip lead and slowly and steadily enlarging his lead over Demidov.
In the following hand, Eastgate broke the 100 million chips mark. Eastgate limps from the button, Demidov raises to 1.9 million chips and Eastgate calls. The flop is
, Demidov bets 3.6 million and Eastgate calls after some thinking. The turn came
, and both players check. The river
made the board even more drawy, and Demidov fires out a bet of 7 million chips, promptly called by Eastgate. Demidov shows
for the Ace High, while Eastgate takes the big pot with
for the pair of Jacks. After this hand Eastgate was with a huge lead with 100,300,000 chips against Soul's 36,600,000.
This was one of the very key pots of the heads-up, as had the outcome of the hand been different, things would even out again. At this point Soul started to loosen up his style, stealing more blinds and reraising Eastgate more often. This reduced the gap between the two finalists a bit, but it didn't stay like that for too long.
In the 97th hand of the HU, Soul raises to 2,000,000 from the button and Eastgate calls. Both players check the flop of
. The turn is the tricky
, and Eastgate leads out 2.5 million. Demidov raises to 8.0 million and Eastgate calls. The river is the brick
, Eastgate checks back to Demidov, who bets 12,000,000. Eastgate calls and Demidov flips over
for Ace high. Eastgate shows
for the King high flush, taking down the monster pot, worth of over 44 million chips.
Just seven hands after that, with Demidov pretty much crippled with only 16 million chips, the final hand was played. It's a limped pot with the flop showing
. After Soul's check, Eastgate bets 1.2 million and Soul calls. The turn of
makes Soul check again, while Eastgate continues betting, this time 2 million chips. Soul thinks for a while and reraises to 6 million, commiting half of his stack. The river is
, Demidov moves all-in and Eastgate snap calls. Soul shows two pairs, Fours and Twos, while Eastgate flips over the Ace to five straight, the winning hand of the tournament! LiquidPoker favorite
Ivan Demidov is eliminated in 2nd place, earning
$5,809,595. Peter Eastgate breaks
Hellmuth's record and becomes the youngest champion ever of the WSOP ME, taking home
$9,152,416, the biggest poker prize of the year!
