It took four months, but the 2008 World Series of Poker has reached its logical conclusion, and 22-year-old Peter Eastgate is its champion.

Eastgate defeated Russia's Ivan Demidov in heads-up play early Tuesday morning to claim the 2008 WSOP Main Event title, emerging champion of the November Nine in front of a crowded Penn and Teller Theater in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and in the process becoming the youngest-ever winner of a World Series Main Event.

It was, for the most part, a dominating victory for the young Dane, who after briefly surrendering his chip lead early in heads-up play soon regained his form and then cruised to victory, picking off a number of Demidov's bluffs on the way to building an insurmountable chip advantage.

Eastgate, a PokerStars pro, had built his chip stack on the penultimate day of the competition, when in front of a raucous crowd on Sunday he benefited from disastrous bluffs by both Ylon Schwartz and Dennis Phillips, both of whom managed to shove the entirety of their stacks into the middle holding air while their counterpart held made sets.

The scene.

Those two hands resulted in Eastgate's bringing $80,300,000 of the $136,880,000 chips in play to Monday night's heads-up battle royale. With the starting blinds at $300,000/$600,000, however, Demidov was still deep-stacked with $56,600,000, and with both players proven professionals, nothing but the most painful of cooler hands would end this tournament before one of the two finalists had truly earned it.

Action resumed at around 11 p.m. on Monday night, 20 hours after Phillips' elimination in third place and after a brief ceremony honoring 2008 WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren for his accomplishments. Lindgren was awarded a custom engraved Harley Davidson motorcycle and took the opportunity to invite the night's champion to pay a visit to his personal home game as soon as the final table had concluded.

With Lindgren duly honored, boxing announcer Michael Buffer took to the mic and in his trademark call instructed the dealer to "Let's get ready to shufffffffle." Then Jack Effel did the same, albeit with less fanfare, and the game was afoot once more.

From Russia with check-raises!

Demidov jumped out to an early lead, taking a $21 million pot soon after the resumption of play after flopping top pair with K♠ 3♠ and making kings-up on the river of a K♥ J♥ 6♣ 5♠ 3♥ board, getting $6 million on fifth street out of Eastgate, who promptly mucked at showdown.

Indeed, for the first hour or so Demidov owned the table, reversing Eastgate's advantage and seeming to hold the upper hand. But Eastgate soon woke up and got his chip lead back, first with a number of small pots and then later with a couple of huge ones.

He took down a $25 million-plus pot after limp-calling pre-flop with J♠ 8♠ and calling Demidov down on a board that came 9♥ 7♠ 6♦ J♥ Q♠, making a nice call on fifth street facing a $7 million wager from the Russian, who at showdown was exposed to be holding only A♠ T♥.

A portrait of the champion before he was champion.

Then the Dane would take down what was then the biggest pot of the tournament, a head-scratcher that began when Demidov raised to $2 million from the button and Eastgate defended in the big blind. The flop came K♦ T♦ 7♣ and both players checked, but after the turn was the J♦ Eastgate fired $2.5 million into the pot.

Demidov came back with a raise to $8 million and Eastgate mulled his options before making the call. The river was the 3♠ and Eastgate checked. Demidov bet out $12 million and Eastgate made an instant call, tabling 7♦ 4♦ for the turned diamond flush. Again, Demidov could only show down A♣ 9♠ for ace-high, and Eastgate raked the pot of the tournament.

That hand gave Eastgate an advantage of nearly $100 million over his rival, and the Dane quickly began asserting his muscle, putting Demidov to a decision for his entire stack a few hands later before the two players broke for the last time.

The combatants.

It would only take one hand after their return for Eastgate to seal his victory. As the two combatants settled in once more, Eastgate limped his button and Demidov checked in the big blind. The flop came K♠ 3♥ 2♦ and Demidov checked. Eastgate bet out $1.25 million and his adversary made the call.

The turn was the 4♣ and Demidov checked again. Eastgate fired $2 million into the pot and Demidov returned with a raise, making it $6 million to play. Eastgate opted to smooth-call, although by this point Demidov was pretty well committed with one card left to come.

That card was the 7♠ and sure enough, Demidov shipped it. Eastgate insta-called and tabled A♦ 5♠ for the wheel straight. Demidov could only muster 4♥ 2♥ for two pair and was forced to concede the hand, and the tournament, to his rival.

Ship it!

For the win, Eastgate picks up his first WSOP bracelet and a first prize worth $9,152,416, while Demidov takes $5,809,545 back to Mother Russia, a nice complement to the £344,850 he earned for his third-place finish in this fall's World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.

Meanwhile, the face of poker now belongs to young Peter Eastgate, who follows in the rather inauspicious footsteps of previous champs Jerry Yang and Jamie Gold as the man who will be expected to serve as the game's ambassador.

Time will tell whether Eastgate will fare better than his most recent predecessors in that regard, but judging by his poker resume, we certainly expect better from him.

PokerListings.com got an interview with the champ shortly after his thrilling victory, which you can read all about it right here. We've also got a sweet recap of the action up on PokerListings TV and we encourage you to hear hostess Paula Elle's retelling of the day's events.

The World Series of Poker is now over for 2008 and the November Nine experiment concluded. Whether or not it has been a success is debatable, but anyone who was in the Penn and Teller Theater for this, the most spectacular final table in the history of the game, still might not be ready to crown poker a sport, but they'll surely attest that it can pull off the look when it wants to. Congrats to the finalists and to the WSOP for an incredible event.

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