With the economy in freefall, it hasn’t been a good year for banks, among other entities.

But now there’s at least one bright spot for at least one bank: an employee has won a gold bracelet at the World Series of Poker (WSOP)!

He is 30-year-old Travis Johnson of North Hills, California, USA, and he has won Event #7 at the 2009 WSOP in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

He is an underwriter for Bank of America.

The event was a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had a buy-in of $1,500 and a total prize pool of $3,809,715.

There were 2,791 entrants and payouts went to the top 297 finishers.

For the victory, Johnson earns his first WSOP bracelet and $666,853.

The runnerup was Steve Carp of North Miami Beach, Florida, USA, earning $414,116.

Taking third was Mike Ciotola of Dublin, Ohio, USA, earning $273,385.

Johnson’s big win came in only the second WSOP tourney he has ever entered.

Two years ago, he also entered a $1,500 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament at the WSOP.

In the obligatory post-tournament interview session with reporters covering the WSOP, Johnson, basking in victory, addressed the suggestion that he is a “superstititious” poker player.

After all, he wore the same clothes for all three days of the tournament, and also made sure to enter the tournament room via the same door each time.

“I did that the first day and I did not think about it,” he said. “But then I started to get chips and I did not want to change anything. Normally, I am not superstitious. But if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. I figured, don’t do anything differently.”

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