Teenager wins PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

(PRESS RELEASE) -- The seventh PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, the richest poker tournament ever held outside of Las Vegas, has ended with a 19-year-old poker pro from Jupiter, Florida scooping the $2.2 million first prize to become the youngest ever PCA champion.

Harrison "gibler321" Gimbel bested a 1,529-strong field from 57 countries after winning his seat into the $10,000 no limit hold'em tournament in a $1,000 satellite held the night before the event started.

(photo by Neil Stoddart)

Gimbel - who started college in September but gave it up three weeks later - beat PokerStars player Tyler Reiman after a heads-up battle lasting less than an hour. Prior to this year's PCA, his best live result was winning the 2009 Florida State Poker Championships for $67,860. He has numerous big cashes in online tournaments including a $47,000 prize for finishing sixth in the PokerStars Sunday Million online tournament in November.

"I'm so excited," he said. "It's been a really good day. It feels amazing. I've always wanted to win a major tournament and luckily I have accomplished it on one of my very first ones. A lot of these players were very good but I had a lot of confidence in myself coming into today and it really showed. I'm now going car shopping!"

Runner-up Tyler Reiman, who was chip leader for much of the final day, takes $1.75 million back home to Morton, Illinois. Third place - and $1.35 million - went to Barry Shulman, the 63-year-old owner of Card Player magazine, who won the World Series of Poker Europe event in London in October for £801,601.

Some of the best players in the world competed in this year's event as well as dozens of stars from the world of sport and entertainment, generating a total prize pool of $14,831,300. More than 750 players won their seats - and trip to Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas - online with PokerStars. Darren Keyes qualified for 75 Frequent Player Points and left the Bahamas $150,000 richer after cashing in 10th place.

Mike Ward, Tournament Director, said: "With more than 50 events on the schedule, we expected a lot from this year's PCA and it certainly hasn't disappointed. The main event has generated the biggest prize pool and the biggest field we have ever had and the buzz in the Atlantis Imperial Ballroom has been astonishing. Congratulations to our winner Harrison Gimbel, as well as all 224 players who cashed and the 756 players who won seats to the event on PokerStars. "

EPT founder John Duthie survived the longest out of the 55 members of Team PokerStars Pro who competed. He bust in 12th place, winning $130,000. The other Team Pros to cash were Vicky Coren, Ivan Demidov, Dario Minieri, Victor Ramdin, Johnny Lodden, Florian Langmann, Matthias De Meulder, Luis Medina and former PCA champion Steve Paul-Ambrose. Other Main Event entrants included world champion Joe Cada and poker legend Daniel Negreanu.

Other stars who competed included American rapper Nelly, Playboy Playmate Jayde Nicole, Team PokerStars SportStars: Tennis legend Boris Becker, NHL star Mats Sundin and Dutch hockey pro Fatima Moreira de Melo. Friends of PokerStars Baseball legend Orel Hershiser, UK football star Teddy Sheringham and US talk show host Montel Williams

Since it started in 2004, more than $53 million has been won at the PCA, with more than 6,000 players taking part - including thousands of PokerStars qualifiers. Previous winners include Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and poker pro Gus Hansen. Last year's event was won by Poorya Nazari from Canada for $3 million.

The PCA Main Event was filmed for television broadcast all over the world and also covered by PokerStars' celebrated live webcast. The PCA continues until January14 with many more events including the World Cup of Poker and the $25,000 High Roller Event.

Detailed reports from the PCA can be found on the PokerStars Blog - www.pokerstarsblog.com and video blogs on www.pokerstars.tv. The official website is www.caribbeanpokeradventure.com.