Get out the Belgian waffles, it’s time to celebrate!

Belgium has its first-ever winner at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

He is Dave Kitai, a 28-year-old economist from Brussels, Belgium, and he has won Event #38 at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas, a $2,000 buy-in, pot-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had 605 entrants, 63 payouts and a total prize pool of about $1.1 million.

For the victory, Kitai collects $244,583.

Not bad for someone from the Diamond Capital of the World.

With a few hearts, club and spades thrown in for good measure.

Coming in second in the event was Chris Bell of Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, ringing up $155,805.

Third was Kevin Greer of Ft. Worth, Texas, USA, getting greedy with $94,695.

Fourth was Jan von Halle of Hamburg, Germany, hauling in a lucky $77,077.

Fifth was Lee Watkinson of Cheney, Washington, USA, fleeing with $63,313.

Sixth was Bob Cheung of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, chalking up $50,100.

Seventh was Ayaz Mahmood of Lahore, Texas, USA, in a good mood after winning $39,089.

Eighth was Ben Roberts of London, England, pocketing $30,831.

Ninth was Mike Greco of Dunbar, Scotland, who is also a British TV star, earning $22,573.

Tenth was Ben Zamani of Boca Raton, Florida, USA, taking home $14,314.

Top female poker pros Clonie Gowen and Vanessa Rousso finished in 34th and 57th places, respectively.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)