More on Poorya
What does a 22-year-old from Richmond Hill do with millions of dollars in poker prize?
A record $3 million first prize in the largest poker tournament outside Vegas has been won by Poorya Nazari, a 22-year-old from Richmond Hill who is relatively new in the world of professional poker.
Nazari has recently graduated in biochemistry from McMaster University, but poker has been a hobby of his throughout the years.
He started in Grade 10 of high school, playing small-stakes games with friends.
His mother speaks fondly of his skills as a mathematician, noting, "He is very, very smart."
A seemingly regular university student with a knack for poker, Poorya has been successful in his career as an online poker player, the winnings of which have served as his main source of income for several years. His competitions took place on PokerStars, the largest online poker cardroom in the world.
With more than $12.5 million in total at stake, this year's PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure (PCA) tournament brought in 1,059 PokerStars players, 746 of whom had won their seats online, including Nazari.
Nazari qualified for the PCA through a $33 rebuy turbo tournament-a series of aggressive, quick-paced games with the opportunity of buying back in to the tournament even after a loss-on PokerStars, after narrowly missing out on qualification to the tournament last year.
Asked for his strategy before the game by PokerStars, Nazari conceded to the factor of luck and said, "I'm very patient."
He added, "I'm trying my best not thinking about the money, because it would start toying with the way I would play."
The final showdown was between eight players, among whom sat Nazari, decorating his poker face with a pair of black shades.
During the last hand, he scraped by a win with a pair of tens, while his opponent only carried Queen high-both relatively dismal hands.
Nazari admits that he was utterly stunned by the win, which is one of the biggest sporting prizes in the world.
Immediately after the win, he told an interviewer from PokerStars, "It hasn't sunk in it, it hasn't hit me yet. It definitely feels unbelievable; it feels surreal. I can't believe what's happening."
With this victory, Nazari, who has never been to Europe, has a place in the European Poker Tour Grand Final, which takes place in Monte Carlo, from Apr. 28 to May 3.
His win recalls a comment he made in the interview before the game. "I haven't really thought about what I would do with the money," he said with a shrug and a smile.
Best Damn Poker Show 
There's a second season of Best Damn Poker Show on tap, and poker fans can watch on FSN, Monday nights.
The first episode airs at 9 p.m. across all time zones in the United States, and will run Monday nights. Each broadcast of the seven-episode series will be repeated at 11 p.m. and 12:230 a.m., with additional footage available exclusively online.
Best Damn Poker Show pits Phil Hellmuth against Annie Duke to see which of them makes a better teacher for the game of Texas Hold'em. They have to transform ordinary poker players into champions competing on the world stage.
Much like the first season of the show, online poker players at UltimateBet competed for a spot on the show by creating and submitting an audition video that highlighted why they deserved to be on the poker reality series.
One of the players chosen was Tony "TheTonz" Wind, who is a regular in the PokerListings forum. Wind won his way onto the show by creating a video titled "The Neverland Ranch Poker Invitational."
Along with the players who won through audition videos, some of the Best Damn Poker Show contestants won a spot via online qualifiers at UltimateBet. There were also live auditions that took place during the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
The majority of the 24 hopefuls were cherry-picked from the on-camera interviews at the live auditions to join the online qualifiers and the video audition winners.
Now the 24 chosen players can be seen competing for the favor of Duke and Hellmuth, who will be choosing which players to eliminate and which to keep through the series.
Each episode will include player eliminations, with Duke and Hellmuth highlighting the cardplay, analyzing the competition and commenting on the eliminations.
A small preview of this season's highlights comes from the mouth of Hellmuth himself through his blog.
"Expect some real twists and turns this season! Also, expect a few old familiar faces, like Hollywood Dave returning, but this time as a moderator," Hellmuth writes.
"Of course, I do choose a Russian Model (Olya) for 'Team Hellmuth,' but this time not at the expense of a great player - like in season one - just at the expense of a good player!!"
More information about the Best Damn Poker Show can be found at UltimateBet.
source: pokelistings.com&thestar.com
Poker News Daily 01/13/2009 
