Can Shane Patreau make a million bucks playing poker?

Shane Patreau is a Saultbie who works for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. at the Thousand Islands Charity Casino in Gananoque.

A week from now, on December 18, Patreau will be one of ten elite players competing in a televised poker tournament at Crystal Palace Casino, Wyndham Nassau Resort (shown) in Nassau, Bahamas.

He won an all-expenses-paid trip and $10,000 after placing third out of 4,781 players in a online tournament at ParadisePoker.com.

"A few years ago, I watched the first amateur player win the World Series of Poker on television," Shane tells SooToday.com. "He won a million dollars. I made a goal to myself that one day I would play poker on TV."

"ParadisePoker.com ran a free tournament on their site where anyone could enter," Patreau says. "The qualifiers ran three times a day and had roughly 2,000 people in each one. The tournaments ran for two months or so.

"You could only try once for free - you then had to obtain points from the site (playing real money) to try at a later date. I was lucky enough to qualify my very first try.

"I had a field of 2,700 players and needed to place in the top 15 to advance to the final tournament. When there were 27 people left, I was the chip leader.

"I quickly did the math and estimated if I did not play a hand for the next two hours I should still place top 15. Because my goal was just to qualify and placing had no money value, I was the same as 15th. I just wanted to ensure I made it.

"My evil plan worked out, I ended up coming in 13th.

"After qualifying I had nearly a two-month wait. All the while I watched as the field to the main event grew to 4,871 people.

"On December 3 at 2 p.m. the tournament began. After 10 hours there were 28 people left. I was in 12th place amd needed to climb two spots to guarantee I would go to the Bahamas.

"The tournament was then paused and a message came up to say it would continue December 4 at 2 p.m.

"To my surprise I was able to get a lot of sleep through the night. When the tournament resumed on the 4th I had $383,000 in chips.

"I ran into a bit of bad luck. Every time I tried to make a move I would get caught. I went down to $80,000 with 17 players left.

"My chance looked like it was slipping away. A few late moves, some good luck with 10 players left, I had turned the 80 thousand into $1.68 million in chips to take to the Bahamas.

"I have guaranteed myself at least US$10,000. I am currently in third place with 10 remaining. I think I have faced and conquered a very tough task, but the toughest task still lies in the nine remaining players.

"On December 18 I may not win a million dollars. But I know one thing for sure - I will have fulfilled my dream. To me that is worth more then a million dollars."

Shane's brother Matt Patreau, ace sales manager at Superior 7 Advertising Ltd., will be going to Nassau to cheer Shane on.