Jesper Hougaard has become the first person in history to win an event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas and an event at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in London.

Hougaard, from Copenhagen, Denmark, in June won Event #36 at the 2008 WSOP, a $1,500 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that earned him $610,304.

On Monday, the great Dane won Event #1 at the 2008 WSOPE, a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had a buy-in of 1,500 British pounds (about $3,000), a total prize pool of 615,000 British pounds (about $1.2 million) and a field of 410 entrants.

For his latest win, Hougaard earns a championship gold bracelet and 144,218 British pounds (about $288,000).

In addition to becoming the first person to win championship gold bracelets on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, by winning events at the WSOP at the Rio casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA and at the WSOPE at the Empire casino in London, England, Hougaard, just 24, brings his career earnings from poker tournaments to nearly a million dollars–$995,862 to be exact, according to tournament records.

In addition to winning WSOP and WSOPE events this year, Hougaard finished in the money in two other events at the 2008 WSOP.

He also finished in the money at the Irish Open and the Scandanavian Open this year and at a WSOP event last year.

Finishing runnerup in 2008 WSOPE Event #1 was Fuad Serhan of Cobham, England, copping 89,175 British pounds.

Third was Yev Timoshenko of Mukilteo, Washington, USA, picking up 55,350 pounds.

Fourth was Neil “Bad Beat” Channing of London, good enough to win 44,588 pounds.

Fifth was John Dwyer of Dundalk, Ireland, dunning 36,285 pounds.

Sixth was Adam Junglen of Stow, Ohio, USA, stowing away 25,598 pounds.

Seventh was Linda “Supergirl” Lee of Las Vegas, flying off with 22,448 pounds.

Eighth was Ian Woodley of London, collecting 17,835 pounds.

Ninth was Dan “Coco” Nutt of Byfleet, England, cracking open 13,222 pounds.

Tenth was Chris Bommes of Korschenbroisch, Germany, weighing in with 8,610 pounds.

Notables finishing in the money in the event were Andy Bloch of Las Vegas in 15th place, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu of Las Vegas in 24th place and Brandon Cantu of Las Vegas in 27th place.

Negreanu has won four WSOP championship gold bracelets and Cantu has won one.

Bloch, formerly a top blackjack player, headed the infamous MIT blackjack team that won millions of dollars in Vegas and elsewhere before being discovered.

A movie about the scheme was released earlier this year.

The 2008 WSOPE has three more events to go, including Event #4, the 20,000 pound buy-in Main Event.

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