A 32-year-old poker book co-author has finally seen his poker expertise pay off.

To the tune of $241,654!

That’s how much Jerrod Ankenman of Avon, Connecticut, USA, has earned by winning Event #42 at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

The event was a mixed tournament, featuring eight different forms of poker: limit Texas hold ‘em, no-limit Texas hold ‘em, pot-limit Omaha, Omaha hi-lo split 8 or better, seven-card razz, seven-card stud, seven-card stud hi-lo split 8 or better and 2-7 triple draw lowball.

The tourney had a buy-in of $2,500, a prize pool of about $1 million, 412 entrants and 40 payouts.

In addition to his financial windfall, Ankenman earns his first career WSOP championship gold bracelet.

Finishing runnerup in the tourney was Sergey Altbregin of St. Petersburg, Russia, snagging $149,341.

Taking third was Chris Klodnicki of Voorhees, New Jersey, USA, copping $97,896.

Big poker names finishing in the money in the event include Layne Flack in seventh place, Michael Binger in 20th and Andy Black in 31st.

Ankenman had previously finished in second place in two WSOP events in his career–a limit Texas hold ‘em tourney in 2006 and a limit Texas hold ‘em tourney in 2008.

As for his literary career, Ankenman co-wrote the book “The Mathematics of Poker” with Bill Chen, who has won two WSOP gold bracelets of his own.

At a post-tournament news conference with reporters, Ankenman said: “Before the WSOP started, I was playing poker, doing some research and even worked for an options-trading company for a time.”

He went on: “Those second-place finishes were bittersweet. It’s really nice to get the prize. I think this is a great tournament and great format. You get to play all kinds of different games. Most of the players are good at some games but are not that good at others.

“I really like the mixed games format because it really shows off your chops as a good all-around player, instead of just all these tournaments everywhere else where they playing nothing but hold ‘em. The WSOP is the last bastion of these kinds of games.

“Most of the other tournaments around Las Vegas and everywhere else are always no-limit, no-limit, no-limit, no-limit. It’s nice to be able to come here and play a wider variety of games.”

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