The 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure returned to the Atlantis Resort for its Main Event this week, drawing 1,347 entrants, the majority of whom (746) were online qualifiers. The field was jam-packed with online studs, WSOP champions, EPT champions and others all grasping at the whopping $3 million top prize. After a week in the luxurious sunny resort where he practically never saw the sun, Canada's Poorya Nazari emerged into the sun as the newest EPT champion and the newest poker Cinderella story, as his $700 investment in a rebuy qualifier turned into a multi-million dollar payday.
The final table was as stacked as the rest of field, with Team PokerStars Pro and 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Alexandre Gomes coming into the day the dominant chip leader. He vaulted to the top of the leader board in a huge hand with Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul just before the final table, but busted in fourth place here when his full house was not enough against Benny Spindler's quads. Gomes' elimination put the brakes on what had to that point been an amazingly quick final table. It took just three hours to bust the first four players from the final table, but it took four and a half hours from the time that Gomes headed to the rail in fourth place to bust Benny Spindler in third place ($1,100,000).
From there it only took four hands for Nazari to finish off Tony Gregg as the runner-up. The two newly-minted millionaires got it all in preflop with Nazari holding
to Gregg's 
. The board ran out 
, and Nazari became 2009's early-year tournament money leader. The results from the final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event:
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
Photo courtesy PokerStars
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