Somebody call the Kremlin!

Russia has its first winner at the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

He is Vitaliy Lunkin, from Russia’s capital city, Moscow, and he is the winner of WSOP Event #27, a massive, $1,500 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had nearly 3,000 participants, and was the largest tourney so far this WSOP.

Specifically, the event drew 2,706 entrants, paid the Top 270 finishers and had a total prize pool of about $37 million, making it the largest prize pool so far at this year’s WSOP.

For Lunkin, the win means a tidy $628,417 will be added to his bank account.

That will buy a lot of borscht and vodka.

It is his first career WSOP win and first career WSOP championship gold bracelet.

Coming in second in the event was Brett Kimes of San Antonio, Texas, USA, earning $387,837.

Third was Bob Firestone of Santa Barbara, California, USA, earning $277,026.

Fourth was Ken Terrell of Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA, earning $232,702.

Fifth was Trevor Donaldson of Phoenix, Arizona, USA, earning $190,225.

Sixth was Rich Alm of Hollywood, California, USA, earning $149,594.

Seventh was Barry Schultz of Memphis, Tennessee, USA, earning $112,657.

Eighth was Bob Brown of Roseville, California, USA, earning $84,955.

Ninth was Phil Yeh of Stenungsund, Sweden, earning $57,990.

Tenth was Tony Gargano of Sterling Heights, Michigan, USA, earning $36,567.

Noted poker nut case Humberto “El Wacko” Brenes, who earlier this month cashed in a WSOP event for the 50th time in his career to join a small select group, finished in 33rd place in this event.

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