Poorya Nazari, a 22 year-old biochemistry graduate from Toronto is the new PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event Champion, turning a $700 investment into a $3 million payday. Nazari, who got his college degree only a month ago, outlasted a total of 1,347 entrants in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em event, including 746 players who got their seats playing at PokerStars.com. The event held at the Atlantis Resort in Bahamas also established a new record for a poker tournament held outside the United States, creating a total prize pool of more than $12.5 million.

"It hasn't sunk in yet. It feels unbelievable, surreal. I can't believe it's happening. It was only (Saturday) that I started thinking about winning. At one point Friday I was down to virtually nothing but I got off to a good start (Saturday) and at that point I thought I might have a shot." said Nazari.

The multinational final table kicked off just after 1:30 p.m. EST, on Sunday with Alexandre Gomes (Brazil) leading the chip count with 8,080,000 chips, followed by Poorya Nazari (Canada) with 6,790,000, Benny Spindler (Germany) with 3,352,000, Pieter Tielen (Netherlands) with 2,310,000, Anthony Gregg (USA) with 2,245,000, Kevin Saul (USA) with 1,640,000, Dan Heimiller (USA) with 1,440,000, and Dustin Dirksen (USA) with 765,000.

The first eliminations came early with Kevin Saul (eighth), Dan Heimiller (seventh), Dustin Dirksen (sixth), Pieter Tielen (fifth), and Team PokerStars.com pro Alexandre Gomes (fourth), who were sent to the rail during the first three hours of the event. The final three players continued battling for the title for almost five more hours, however, Spindler eventually fell in third place, giving Nazari a 2-1 lead over Anthony Gregg during the heads-up match, but in the end, Nazari won the $3 million after only four hands. On the last hand, Anthony Gregg moved all in holding Q-7 and Nazari quickly responded with A -10. The board came 10-6-5-3-9, and Gregg got eliminated in second place, getting $1.7 million for his runner-up performance. Besides the $3 million paycheck, Nazari  also a won a seat in the European Poker Tour Grand Final which takes place in Monte Carlo from April 28^th to May 3^rd.

Here are the 2009 PCA final-table results:

1. Poorya Nazari - $3,000,000
2. Tony Gregg - $1,700,000
3. Benny Spindler - $1,100,000
4. Alexandre Gomes - $750,000
5. Pieter Tielen -$550,000
6. Dustin Dirksen - $400,000
7. Daniel Heimiller - $300,000
8. Kevin Saul - $234,000