Continental Airlines today announced that Bill Shiver, a Houston area resident and Continental frequent flier, took home 21 million frequent flier miles as the grand prize winner of its OnePass 21st Birthday Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Shiver, who has been playing poker for four years as a hobby, plans to use some of his winnings toward a Mediterranean cruise, a trip to Italy with friends, and to road football games of his alma mater, Texas A&M University.

Continental's award-winning OnePass frequent flyer program has recognized its customers with outstanding benefits for more than two decades and we look forward to continuing this service for many years to come, stated Jim Compton, Continental's executive vice president marketing.

Prizes totaling more than 25 million OnePass miles were awarded to the top finalists in the tournament that drew 243 players. Second place winner, David Michaels of San Francisco received one million OnePass miles. Other top ten finalists received prizes ranging from 500,000 to 100,000 OnePass miles, and the top 40 finalists received 50,000 OnePass miles each.

The contest's grand prize could be redeemed for up to 200 roundtrip BusinessFirst tickets from Houston to Rome, up to 400 roundtrip economy tickets within the United States, or be used to bid on exclusive OnePass Online Auction items including premier sporting events, VIP performing arts experiences and vacation packages.

OnePass 21st Birthday Texas Hold'em Tournament 10 winners:

    1st Place  21 million bonus miles Bill Shiver         Spring, Texas

    2nd Place  1 million bonus miles  David Michaels      San Francisco,

                                                           Calif.

    3rd Place  500,000 bonus miles    Rajappa Chidambaram Sugarland, Texas

    4th Place  400,000 bonus miles    Bob Shega           Parma, Ohio

    5th Place  350,000 bonus miles    Diego Samaniego     Scottsdale, Ariz.

    6th Place  300,000 bonus miles    Steve Harris        Pompano, Fla.

    7th Place  250,000 bonus miles    Don Bowdoin         Avondale, Pa.

    8th Place  200,000 bonus miles    David Granik        Brooklyn, N.Y.

    9th Place  150,000 bonus miles    Adam Smith          Morristown, N.J.

    10th Place 100,000 bonus miles    Michael Black       Riverton, Utah