When in Rome, do like Dario Minieri.

When in Las Vegas, too.

Minieri is the winner of Event #31 at the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and is Italy’s latest champion at this, the 39th annual WSOP.

Break out the linguini and calzones!

The event was a $2,500 buy-in, six-handed, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had 1,012 entrants, 108 payouts and a total prize pool of about $2.3 million.

For the victory, Minieri, 23, of Rome, Italy, takes home over a half-million bucks–$528,418.

It was his first career WSOP championship gold bracelet, and puts him over the $1 million mark in career poker tournament earnings.

It was the second win for an Italian at the 2008 WSOP.

Just days earlier, Max Pescatori of Milan, Italy, won Event #24, a mixed event featuring Omaha and Texas hold ‘em.

The runnerup to Minieri in Event #31 was Seth Fischer of Palm Harbor, Florida, USA, who snagged not-too-shabby runnerup dough of $330,519.

Third was Justin Filtz of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA, who copped $214,139.

Fourth was Kevin “Singa” Song of Hacienda Heights, California, USA, who picked up $141,983.

Fifth was John O’Shea of Dublin, Ireland, who snagged $98,923.

Sixth was Stu Marshak of Chicago, Illinois, USA, who bagged $73,784.

Seventh was Scotty Nguyen of Las Vegas, who collected $50,508.

Eighth was Frank Rusnak, also of Chicago, who pocketed $50,508.

Ninth was Todd Terry of Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, who took home $38,870.

Tenth was Alon Shahar of Copenhagen, Denmark, who scarfed $38,870.

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