The largest top prize ever awarded in a poker tournament outside Las Vegas has been won by a Canadian in the Bahamas.

Poorya Naziri, 22, of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, on Sunday won the Main Event of the 2009 Poker Stars Carribean Adventure, a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tourney that had 1,347 entrants, a $10,000 buy-in and a total prize pool of over $12.5 million.

For the big win, Naziri earned $3 million, which was the largest first-place payout for any poker tournament ever other than those that are part of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The largest first-place payout in poker history remains the $12 million earned by television producer Jamie Gold of Los Angeles, California, USA, when he won the WSOP Main Event in Vegas in 2006.

Egghead Naziri, who recently earned a degree in biochemistry from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, won his seat into the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure Main Event in an online qualifying tournament.

The online tourney, run by online poker room Poker Stars (www.pokerstars.com), was a $33 rebuy tournament in which Naziri spent $700.

For winning the Main Event, he also earns a free seat into another tourney, the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Monaco, which runs April 28-May 3, 2009.

Finishing in second place in the 2009 Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, which was held in a casino on Paradise Island, the Bahamas, was Tony Gregg of the USA, who earned $1,700,000.

Taking third was Benny Spindler of Germany, who earned $1,100,000.

Coming in fourth was Alex Gomes of Brazil, who earned $750,000.

Ending up fifth was Pieter Tielen of the Netherlands, who earned $550,000.

Finishing sixth was Dustin Dirksen of the USA, who earned $400,000.

Coming in seventh was Dan Heimiller of the USA, who earned $300,000.

Taking eighth was Kevin Saul of the USA, who earned $234,000.

Well-known poker pros who competed in the tournament included Joe Hachem, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, Peter Eastgate, Phil “Poison” Ivey, Gus “The Great Dane” Hansen, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Ivan Demidov, Darus Suharto, Ylon Schwartz, Tom McEvoy, Kathy Liebert, Orel Hershiser, Dennis “Fordman” Philips, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari and Eli Elezra.

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