After 3 years, nearly $250K Chase the Ace cash pot in The Pas will have a winner this Saturday - Action News
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Manitoba

After 3 years, nearly $250K Chase the Ace cash pot in The Pas will have a winner this Saturday

For three years, the Royal Canadian Legion branch in The Pas, Man., has waited for someone to win its Chase the Ace jackpot. There's now only one card remaining, guaranteeing that someone will walk away with the near $250,000 prize this weekend.

'Everybody's nervous,' says legion branch president, with only 1 card left in long-running game

A woman and man pose for a photo, the woman holding up an ace of clubs with Brad Sanderson written on it with blue marker. The man holds up a cheque for $16,368.
Angie Nikolychuk, president of the Royal Canadian Legion branch in The Pas, and Brad Sanderson, who pulled the ace of clubs during last weekend's Chase the Ace draw and walked away with over $16,000 in a split pot. This weekend, someone will win the $245,878 top prize in the contest, which started in January 2020. (Submitted by Royal Canadian Legion Branch 19)

A pot of money in a weekly drawthat has waited unclaimed for three years and has now grown tonearly a quarter of a million dollars will soon be won in the northern Manitoba town of The Pas.

The long-running Chase the Ace contest hosted by the local Royal Canadian Legion Branch has only one card remaining meaning someone is guaranteed to win the $245,878 prize during this Saturday's draw.

"Whoever gets called is winning at all," said Angie Nikolychuk, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 19. "Everybody's nervous."

Chase the Ace contests involvedrawing one ticketweekly. The selected ticket holder then gets to choose a card from a standard deck of 52 playing cards. If they draw the ace of hearts, they win the pot.

But if there's no winner, the pot keeps growing.

This current prizewas initially put up for grabs in January 2020, and started at$17,000.

However, due to COVID-19pandemic restrictions, the event was paused in March that year, and didn't start up again until the beginning of 2022.

A little more than a year later, the game comes down to a "winner takes all" draw this weekend.

The pot isn't actually the largest in the legion's Chase the Ace game. In 2018,a Flin Flon man walked away with $1,009,870.

The final draw was such a huge eventthat The Pas legion branch rented out the town's Roy H. Johnston Arena to fit in all the people who wanted a chance at the pot.

Though only a quarter of the 2018 amount, the excitement for this Saturday's draw is still high enough thatNikolychuk has needed to bring in extra help.

"With the lineups that have been out there, I've had to recruit a lot of help," she said.

A lineup of people stand outside a building with a Canadian flag hanging from the front.
People lined up in 2018 for one of the legion's Chase the Ace draws. The pot grew to more than $1 million that year. (Facebook/Royal Canadian Legion Branch 19)

She has 61 volunteers lined up to help this weekend with things like running the canteen.

"We've had to bring in security door people and stuff like that," said Nikolychuk.

Up to420 people could pack the legion hall, which means it could get pretty chaotic when the number is drawn, she said.

"Once we draw the ticketyou only have five minutes to get up to the stage,"said Nikolychuk. "So people are just scrambling, looking through their tickets for the numbers, stuff like that."

Close but not quite

During last weekend's draw, Brad Sanderson of The Pas experienced first-hand the pressure that comes with picking a card from the deck, after his ticket number was drawn.

"It was like it was a dream," he said."It was surreal I felt like my body was on autopilot walking up there, picking the card. It was just unbelievable.

Out of the two remaining cards, Sanderson did grab an acebut it was the ace of clubs, not hearts.

Even though he didn't win the big pot, Sanderson said he is still in good spirits, winning asplit pot of $16,368.

"It didn't matter whether I won the big amount or the small amount, because they're both extremely large amounts," he said. "So I walked away super, super happy."

Sanderson said he has no plans to spend his share on anything big, and that it'll more than likely go towardbills.

The winner of big Chase the Ace pot will be picked at 9 p.m. Saturday, with the event being livestreamed on the legion branch's Facebook page.