Welcome to the Millionaires Club!

A 69-year-old retired electrical engineer from Houston, Texas, USA, who now plays poker professionally, has won his second career World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship gold bracelet.

And become a WSOP millionaire. Panayote “Peter the Greek” Vilandos, who won his first bracelet 14 years ago, has won Event #24 at the 2009 WSOP in Las Vegas.

Event #24 was a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had a buy-in of $1,500, a total prize pool of about $3.4 million, 2,506 entrants and 270 payouts.

For winning Event #24, Vilandos, a Greek immigrant who came to the USA 42 years ago, wins $607,256.

The runnerup in the tourney was Andy Seth of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA,? who won $372,855.

Taking third was Michael Greco of London, England, who picked up $248,855.

Well-known Central American poker pro Humberto “El Wacko” Brenes finished in 225th place.

Vilandos’ first WSOP gold bracelet came by winning a pot-limit Texas hold ‘em tourney at the 1995 WSOP.

That win earned him $148,500.

He has also finished in the money in several other WSOP events, including a second-place finish in Event #4 at this year’s WSOP.

He now has earned a total of $1,304,975 in WSOP winnings in his career.

With his latest payout, he becomes the 126th player in WSOP history to earn at least a million dollars from WSOP play.

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