Peter Eastgate recently became the youngest Main Event winner in World Series of Poker history at age 22, breaking Phil Hellmuth’s record by two years. He was the fourth Danish poker pro to win a bracelet during the 2008 World Series and pocketed the second largest WSOP payout ever.

Amit “amak316″ Makhija recently won the $5,200 buy-in Two Day Event as part of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). He recently spoke with Poker News Daily to talk about his poker career as well as his second place finish at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker tournament.

Ylon Schwartz, a member of the WSOP November Nine, just finished fourth in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, cashing for $3.77 million. He talks about how he got started in poker as well as his thoughts leading up to poker’s most prestigious tournament.

The chip leader at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table is Dennis Phillips. He sits with nearly 27 million chips, one of just two players over the 20 million mark. Phillips has undertaken a massive amount of charity work since the tournament played down to its final nine participants in July.

Ylon Schwartz is a member of the World Series of Poker November Nine, the players at the Main Event final table. He is passionate about the fact that the conclusion of the tournament should not have been postponed and now finds himself in the middle of the fray, holding the fifth largest chip stack when play resumes.

When play resumes in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event final table, Darus Suharto will be sixth in chips. He is the self-proclaimed amateur at the table and has had his life turned upside-down ever since the tournament wrapped up play in July.

David “Chino” Rheem will have the seventh largest chip stack at the final table when play resumes in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Ever since the tournament was paused for over 100 days starting back in July, his world has been turned upside down.

Grover Norquist is the head of the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a Washington-based organization fighting for lower and more transparent taxes in the United States. The ATR has also been one of the leading organizations fighting for the rights of online poker players in Kentucky.

Poker News Daily recently had the opportunity to sit down with the Chief Executive Officer of the organization, Andrew Beveridge, to learn more about eCOGRA and how it impacts the gaming world today.

Recently, BoylePoker signed Irish poker star Padraig Parkinson. He finished third in the 1999 World Series of Poker Main Event and took down Season 5 of “Late Night Poker,” defeating Korosh Nejad heads-up. Along with Marty Smyth, Parkinson serves as the face of BoylePoker.

The World Poker Congress (WPC) will occur on October 29th and 30th in Budapest, Hungary. The conference, which is being held at the Budapest Marriott Hotel, is being organized by Dawn Kirkwood, Events Director for Clarion Gaming.

PartTimePoker hosts one of the industry’s leading staking sites. Its founder, Chris Grove, spoke with Poker News Daily about the challenges of running a staking site in today’s online poker world.

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Lee: I started off playing with my dad. He loved to play poker. When I was young, my dad, uncles, and some of their friends played poker during the holidays.

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Junglen: I was 15 when I first played in home games with my friends. I was there to install a computer drive, was paid $15, and used $5 of it to enter the tournament. I won the single table tournament for around $35 and, the next day, I went out and bought a bunch of poker books.

Subscription-based online poker room PurePlay recently surpassed the 1.5 million player mark. Poker News Daily sat down with CEO Jason Kellerman to learn about PurePlay and the future of online poker.

Poker News Daily: You won the WPT Gulf Coast Championship and also won a WSOP bracelet in 2007. What’s your greatest poker accomplishment to date?

Edler: From the perspective of one single tournament, I’d have to say the bracelet win.

Poker News Daily: How did you get into poker?

Obrestad: I used to play a lot of ten pin bowling when I was 10. I was watching a bowling program on television and they had a banner in the background for a poker site. (continued)

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Phillips: I’ve played cards all of my life. Growing up, my family played everything from canasta to bridge. (continues…)

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Rheem: I’m Asian and gambling is in most Asian people’s blood. My dad hosted home games when I was young. (continues…)

Poker News Daily: Do you remember the very first time you logged on to Ladbrokes Poker?

Danielsson: It was summertime 2003 and a friend and I opened an account to play freerolls (continued…)

Poker News Daily: How did you get started playing poker?

Negreanu: I started playing when I was around 17 with friends. I was playing pool and poker seemed like a fun way to be able to hang out with the guys. (continues…)

Poker News Daily: How did you become involved with the World Poker Tour originally?

Sexton: I knew [WPT Founder and CEO] Steve Lipscomb. He filmed the PartyPoker Million and the Tournament of Champions. He then founded the World Poker Tour. Because he heard my commentary, he selected me to be one of the original commentators on the show. (continues…)

Poker News Daily: How did you get started playing poker? When did you know poker would become more than just a hobby?

Hoivold: I have played five card draw since I was very young. I started playing Texas Hold’em in 2003. In 2006, I knew it would be more than a hobby.

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Leigh: I played $5 sit and go tournaments. It was like sticking a needle in my vein. I was in college and someone transferred me money. I didn’t even want to download the software because I wasn’t yet 21 years-old. It took a lot of coercion by my friends to convince me that I only had to be 18 to play online. I won my first $5 sit and go, which became my starting bankroll.

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Bloch: I always played games growing up. I started playing poker in Boy Scouts, then with my school friends, and then played a little bit in college. They were mostly nickel, dime, and quarter games. I didn’t really get into poker in casinos until right after I graduated college, when Foxwoods opened up in Connecticut. I started going there and got bored with my job. I then got fired from a job and so played there a lot more. I started with the MIT Blackjack Team through a friend I met in a poker game in the Boston area. When my project got canceled, I decided to play blackjack and poker full time.

Poker News Daily: You’ve had a lot of success in the Sunday major online poker tournaments. You’ve taken down the Full Tilt $750K Guaranteed, the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan, and the Bodog $100K Guaranteed. What is the secret to your success?

Herm: In the Sunday tournaments, you really have to play aggressively in order to win. Aggression is the key. In order to get through that many people, you either have to get really lucky or play really aggressively. Playing aggressively in the Sunday tournaments is actually easier than playing aggressively in the daily tournaments such as the $100 rebuy on PokerStars.

Tiffany Michelle’s battle against PokerNews rages on. The controversy surrounds the poker player signing a sponsorship agreement with UltimateBet after Jeffrey Lisandro and PokerNews owner Tony G bought her into the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event. In the latest development, Tony G responded in his blog. He summed up his portrayal of the arrangement he had with his former reporter: “She is considered to be an official representative of PokerNews, and in all matters of honor and integrity, how can she discard her responsibility to PokerNews and step into a contract with someone else as their official representative?” To find out the answer, PokerNewsDaily spoke directly with Tiffany Michelle to learn her side of the story.

Poker News Daily: How did you get started playing poker?

Duke: When I was 16 years-old, my brother went to New York in order to learn how to play chess. He read all of the books and even played on the tournament circuit. There was a Grand Master in New York that he was going to study with. In New York, the games are all connected, so he got involved with people who played backgammon and poker. When he was 18 years-old, he started playing poker.

Poker News Daily: When you first started playing poker, did you have any aspirations of it becoming anything more than a recreational game?

Laso: Definitely not. During my freshman year in college, I started moving up in levels a bit. During my sophomore year, I started taking it more seriously, so I dropped out of school. When I first started playing poker, I was a sit and go player. Then, I started playing tournaments. Then, I went on to cash games and got up in the higher limits. I met Annette Obrestad and she started teaching me how to play tournaments.

Poker News Daily: When did you realize that poker could become your career and now just a hobby?

Ramdin: I was always in some kind of sport. I used to play pool for a while. I won a couple of championships. I used to play darts. I used to short-distance sprint. I started playing poker in November of 2002. I played in small tournaments. My first big event was the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003. I finished 29th.

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Lynch: Like most people, after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 Main Event, everyone was playing. I got invited to a lot of home games and I stunk. I got tired of losing money, so I started learning the game and tried to figure out what to do. One of my friends pointed me towards Party Poker and I put $50 on there and got really lucky at first. I ran my bankroll up to $300 and then it fell back down to $50 before I realized that I wasn’t very good. I started studying and started to take poker fairly seriously. Eventually, I got into tournaments. When I first started playing online in 2004, there were mainly just cash games available. I won an $11 rebuy on PokerStars in 2005 and it snowballed from there. I can’t point to any one incident that made things click. I just started running well.

Poker News Daily: When you first started playing poker, did you have any aspirations of it becoming anything other than a hobby?

James: I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a game. I grew up playing games with my family. I just had regular jobs and I just kind of fell into it. This was way before television or anything like that. It was an exciting game and I took to it like a fish to water.

Poker News Daily: How did you get into poker?

Kevin Saul: I started off playing pool and everyone wanted to have the stone nuts and so the pool action dried up, so we started playing poker. We created more action.

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Humberto Brenes: We played in our house with her family. When my father or anyone else would go to the bathroom or out of the room, I’d play some hands. I tried to learn and played with a group of people. I won every game. In 1986, I played in a poker tournament in Las Vegas and played with the best players. I like poker for its competition. I try to play with the best. I don’t play for the money.

Poker News Daily: How did you get into poker?

Annette Obrestad: I used to play a lot of ten pin bowling when I was 10 and I was watching a bowling program on television and they had a banner in the background for a poker site. I checked it out because I thought, “Poker? Sounds like fun.” So I went on and started playing online sit and gos.