Achtung!

Germany has its first winner at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

He is Joh Carsten of Reutlingen, Germany, and he has won 2009 WSOP Event #51.

The event was a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had a buy-in of $1,500, a prize pool of almost $4 million, a total of 2,781 entrants and payouts to the top 297 finishers.

The win earns Carsten his first career WSOP championship gold bracelet and $664,426.

The runnerup in the event was Andrew Chen of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, collecting $412,632.

Finishing third was David Walasinski of Columbus, Ohio, USA, taking home $272,405.

Well-known poker pro Men “The Master” Nguyen finished in 78th place.

Movie producer Joe Reitman, best known in poker circles for being the boyfriend of poker pro Annie Duke, finished in 182nd place.

At his post-tourney press conference, Carsten, 45, a legal sports bookie in Germany, told reporters: “My friends started playing poker and I saw them winning. Some of them even moved to Las Vegas.

“I saw them and I said to myself, if they can do it and make some money, so can I.”

He added: “Poker is not quite so popular in Germany, so I am not sure if will mean as much there.”

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