Jesper Hougaard Wins WSOP Europe Event No. 1

Danish poker player Jesper Hougaard won the first 2008 WSOP Europe bracelet last night. (Image courtesy of WSOP)"]

The first event of the 2008 WSOP Europe wrapped up last night at the Empire Casino and Danish poker player Jesper Hougaard walked away with the first gold bracelet on offer in London and the ₤144,218 ($264,019) first-place prize.

This is the second WSOP bracelet this year for the Dane as he took down Event 38 at the 2008 WSOP - $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em - over the summer in Las Vegas. He becomes the first player in history to win a WSOP bracelet in Las Vegas and in London and joins John "The Razor" Phan as the only two multiple WSOP bracelet winners in 2008.

Hougaard started the final table in eighth place but managed to fight his way into a 5 to 1 chip advantage over his eventual heads-up opponent, Fuad Serhan, who was alos a short stack going into the final table. Finishing in third was recent APT Macau champ Yevgeniy Timoshenko, followed by popular UK poker pro Neil Channing.

Here are the full final table results and payouts:

1. Jesper Hougaard - ₤144,218
2. Fuad Serhan - ₤89,175
3. Yevgeniy Timoshenko - ₤55,350
4. Neil Channing - ₤44,588
5. John Dwyer - ₤36,285
6. Adam Junglen - ₤28,598
7. Linda Lee - ₤22,448
8. Ian Woodley - ₤17,835
9. Daniel Nutt - ₤13,222

The HORSE event is already underway at the WSOP Europe and will kick off Day 2 later today. So, stay tuned for more updates from the Bodog Beat and don't forget to check out the wide range of online poker tournaments available in the Bodog Poker room.