Young online poker pros that have left the game

Usually the headlines involve young college kids leaving school to pursue a career in poker, usually online. However, there has been a strange trend over the past year or so where the reverse is happening, and some of the most successful young poker players have been leaving poker to go back to school, or pursue a more “normal” lifestyle.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, but in the past poker players have usually become burnt-out on poker -Huck Seed claims to have gone through just that, until the Internet came along and he his passion for poker was rekindled.

There are also the instances of players leaving the game, swearing it off, only to return at the most, a few weeks later -I’m talking to you Shaun Deeb!

However, thus far the following three players pretty much left the game on a whim, and have remained away from the poker tables for the most part:

• Steve “zugwat” Silverman

Zugwat was one of poker’s rising stars when he left the game, having won millions of dollars at the online poker tables and racking up a couple of 6-figure scores in live tournaments. Fast on his way to stardom -his legendary appearance on the GSN show 2 Months 2 Million helping in this-zugwat was one of the most talked about online poker players -which led to numerous “zugwat is busto” threads on the poker forums after he abruptly disappeared from the poker scene.

However, zugwat, known as Steve Silverman in real life, just wanted a real life! He re-enrolled in college, and is now using his poker winnings to go to school and live probably more lavishly than any other student at his college.

• Mike “Timex” McDonald

McDonald started off as an Internet sensation, and quickly conquered the live tournament scene as well with a win at the EPT Germany tournament in 2008, and a slew of final tables and 6-figure paydays after that.  McDonald, known as ‘Timex’ in online poker has won over $2.7 million in tournament earnings, and that’s not including his online success!

McDonald posted on his Cardrunners blog that he was going to go back to school and that his poker goal was to earn enough money so he would never have to work; which he has done.

• Peter Eastgate

Eastgate is probably the most surprising name on the list since his 2008 WSOP Championship heaped on him lucrative endorsement deals, including the coveted PokerStars Pro. However, Eastgate seemed to never really have the fire for poker, and has spent much of his time travelling the world and showing up at tournaments to fulfill his contract obligations.

Officially leaving just prior to the 2010 WSOP, Eastgate not only quit poker, but probably gave up on millions in endorsements, so I’m sure he put a lot of thought into what he wanted to do, and get out of life.