How Swede it is!

A former blackjack dealer from Sweden is the first Scandanavian to earn victory at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

Tomas Alenius, 33, from Stockholm, Sweden, has won 2009 WSOP Event #26, a limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had a $1,500 buy-in, an $877,695 total prize pool, 643 participants and payouts to the top 63 finishers.

For the victory, he earns $197,509 and his first career WSOP championship gold bracelet.

The runnerup was Dr. Jason Tam of Markham, Ontario, Canada, snagging $121,999.

Taking third was Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri of Long Beach, California, USA, picking up $80,072.

Top poker pro Barry Greenstein finished in 53rd place.

Alenius previously worked as a blackjack dealer at various casinos in Stockholm.

He retired a few years ago to play poker professionally.

He is just the second Swede in history to win a WSOP championship gold bracelet.

Chris Bjorin is the other Swedish WSOP bracelet-winner, and he has won two of them.

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