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The opening gold bracelet to be awarded at this year's World Series of Poker Europe in London has been given to Denmark's Jesper Hougaard.

Hougaard took the $144,218 first prize by beating 410 rivals in the first of the four events, the £1,500 No-Limit Hold'Em.

The 24-year-old becomes just the second player to win multiple gold bracelets in a single year of World Series of Poker events after John Phan.

And it's been quite a year for the man from Copenhagen who cashed in two WSOP events before winning his first bracelet in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em in Las Vegas.

There were four English players at the final table but it was 20-year-old American online sensation Adam Junglen who held a commanding chip lead.

He held 795,000 chips, almost a third of the chips in play and nearly 300,000 more than his closest rival Ireland's John Dwyer.

Russian Yevgeniy Timoshenko (345,000) was third with the English trio of Daniel Nutt (207,000), Neil Channing (199,000) and Ian Woodley (153,000) behind.

The sole woman of the final nine, Linda Lee (121,000) was next with Hougaard short stacked on 89,000 and only ahead of Fuad Serhan (61,000).

Hougaard started his bid as early as the eighth hand when he doubled through Junglen with a pair of pocket nines against Ace, King but was just a bystander five hands later when Nutt departed in ninth place for $13,222 after pushing All-In with King, Queen only to be met by a pair of nines from Timoshenko which held up.

Hougaard again doubled through Junglen in the 24th hand and in the very next hand the home contingent continued to dwindle as Woodley went to the rail for $17,835.

The 48-year old, the first person in the world to win a million pounds on a TV game show, earned his fourth WSOP cash but it was not to be a winning one when his Ace, Queen was usurped by a pair of pocket sixes from Hougaard.

We had to wait until the 49th hand until Lee exited in seventh place for $22,448. The 36-year old Vietnamese native, who now lives in Las Vegas, had already bettered her 11th-place finish in this summer's $3,000 WSOP No-Limit Hold'em event but fell when Serhan picked up a Queen on the flop to complete a winning pair.

Hand 57 saw Timoshenko take a monster pot from Junglen and the young star could only match his sixth place finish from the European Poker Tour event in Barcelona as ten hands later a five on the turn completed Dwyer's set at the American's expense.

After 96 hands Timoshenko (960,000) had surged ahead on chips with twice as many as nearest rival Hougaard only for the Dane to turn the tables by doubling through the Russian in the next hand.

Dwyer departed in fifth for $36,285 soon after as the 44-year old accountant from Dundalk moved All-In with a pair of pocket fives only for Timoshenko to call from the big blind with a pair of kings.

"Bad Beat" Channing was eliminated in fourth place ($44,588) when the 40-year-old London pro, making his first WSOP final table after 14 previous cashes, saw his pocket eights nullified by a pair of jacks on the flop and a pair of tens on the turn with Hougaard's Ace high taking the pot at the expense of the Irish Open champion.

The topsy turvy final table continued as Timoshenko doubled through Hougaard in hand 113 for an imposing chip lead but the Dane returned the favour 11 hands later and at the dinner break he had 1,540,000 chips with Timoshenko on 590,000 and Serhan sticking around on 330,000.

Timoshenko was finally eliminated in hand 157 when he called Hougard's Ace, Jack with a pair of fours but an Ace hit the flop and the Russian had to settle for $55,350.

The head-to-head started with Hougaard on 2,020,000 chips, nearly five times more than Serhan (440,000), and it lasted just five hands.

Hougaard moved All-in with Ace, Jack of diamonds and Serhan called with Ace, King of clubs. An all-diamond flop gave the Dane the nut flush to seal the victory, leaving Serhan with $89,175 for his efforts.

Hougaard, who was a former coach of the Danish national table tennis who was taught poker by Gus Hansen, said: "I cannot describe my feelings in words. I am simply overwhelmed. Yesterday, I was chip leader for quite some time, and then it slowly dawned on me that I could possibly win this thing."

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport