For he’s a jolly good Fellows!

The first Canadian winner at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas is Zachary Fellows.

Fellows, 27, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has won WSOP Event #21, a H.O.R.S.E. tournament that had a buy-in of $3,000, a prize pool of about $1.25 million, 452 entrants and 48 payouts.

H.O.R.S.E. involves alternating among five different poker games: Hold ‘em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight-or-better stud.

For the win, Fellows earns $311,899 and his first WSOP championship gold bracelet.

The runnerup was James van Alstyne of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, earning $192,866.

Coming in third was Tim Finne of Fanwood, New Jersey, USA, earning $126,199.

Names of note finishing in the money in the tourney were Gavin Smith in 10th place, Chau Giang in 16th, Ylon Schwartz in 18th, Steve Billirakis in 23rd, Dan Shak in 24th, Marcel “The Flying Dutchman” Luske in 26th and Barry Greenstein in 43rd.

Fellows told reporters after the victory: ‘It’s unbelievable, surreal. Even right now, it’s not going to sink in for a couple of more days.

“This is something that everybody wants. It’s something everybody goes after. I fell really lucky and very fortunate to come out on top.

“You have to run good and you have to play good. A lot of guys do one, but not the other. I was fortunate to do both today. I don’t play a lot of heads-up H.O.R.S.E. But a lot of the guys who are here with me do.

“I talked to them and developed a strategy. I would be aggressive with the good steal card in the stud games and just try and put the pressure on.”

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