A dozen years ago, a quiet, mild-mannered Danish player called Peter Eastgate won the World Series of Poker Main Event. At the time, it was amazing because of his age. At just 22 years old, Eastgate became the youngest WSOP Main Event winner in history.

However, all these years later, the lesson we might learn from Eastgate’s victory and subsequent withdrawal from the spotlight poker stardom put upon him is that to win in poker is not as uncommon as to be victorious in walking away from the game.

Poker is, by its very nature, a game within which an exit strategy is almost inherent. In this excellent 2018 article on ESPN by Bernard Lee, Eastgate was interviewed about why this was the case and had few great answers. It was, in essence a decision he made after worrying about the effect his side hustle of sportsbetting had cost him and the emotional impact losing at gambling had on him.

As far as we’re all aware, Eastgate is still living the simple life and is as happy to have left poker now as he was when he made his final cash three years after his semi-retirement in 2010. Reading his thoughts on the peace it brought him to do so, it’s hard not to wish him well in those endeavours.