Germany is having an Oktoberfest in July!

Julyfest?

It just might be!

The residents of this formerly split-in-half, northern European nation they call Deutschland have, until now, been mostly known for drinking beer, eating sauerkrautt and starting wars they can’t finish.

Playing poker has never been on the top of that list.

But that may all be changing.

Germany, which going into the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) had only produced four WSOP championship gold bracelet-winners and five bracelets (one winner won two) in 38 years, has now produced three more winners and bracelets at the 2008 WSOP alone!

That’s an overall tally now of seven winners and eight bracelets.

The latest German to strike WSOP gold is Martin Klaser of Rheinbach, Germany, who has just won Event #43 at the 39th annual WSOP in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The event was a pot-limit Omaha hi-lo 8 or better tournament that had a $1,500 buy-in, 720 entrants and a total prize pool of about $1 million.

The top 10% of the finishers–72 players–earned payouts.

For the victory, Klaser wins his first WSOP bracelet and an accompanying cash prize of $216,249.

And the praise of a grateful German nation looking for a piece of the world poker stage.

The runnerup in the event was Casey “King” Kastle of Chicago, Illinois, USA, earning a palacial $137,985.

Third was Michael Fetter of Long Beach, California, USA, hitting the beach with an extra $83,538.

Fourth was top poker pro Erik Seidel of Las Vegas, earning $68,304 and coming close to winning his career ninth WSOP bracelet (with eight he has as many as Germany).

Fifth was Jon Maren of North Andover, Massachusetts, USA, amassing $56,019.

Sixth was Chad Burum of Novato, California, USA, burying $44,226.

Seventh was Joseph Haddad of Portland, Oregon, USA, who had $34,389 in winnings.

Eighth was Larry Wright of McQueenie, Texas, USA, right on with $27,027.

Ninth was Tom Chambers also of Chicago, taking to his chamber $19,656.

Tenth was Daniel Klein also of Las Vegas, claiming $12,285.

Other notables finishing in the money in the event were Joe Hachem in 35th place, Berry Johnston in 39th place, Chip Jett in 40th place and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson in 50th place.

As for the champ, Klaser, who will now be forever known as Herr Klaser to his friends despite being all of 21 years old and one of the youngest WSOP winners ever, he joins a select field of just a half-dozen other Germans who have ever mined WSOP glitter.

That lofty list includes Matthias Rohnacher in 1997, Eddy Scharf in 2001 and 2003, Michael Keiner and Katja Thater (the only female on the list) in 2007 and Jen Voertmann and Sebastian Ruthenburg this year.

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