Pass Checks In for Grosvenor Glory

The £50 freeze-out, with £1k added prize money, at Stoke-on-Trent’s Grosvenor casino last Saturday was won by Maurice ( mozza ) Pass. Derek Hargreaves was 2nd, just inching out Rob Ho who finished 3rd, in a nail biting final 10 minutes.

63 entrants battled away with a starting stack of 15k chips. With a 30 minute blind structure this was going to be a long night and a grind to the finish. Pass, who was quiet early on, was slowly but surely finding his feet and evaluating every move that was made. Derek Litherland saw his aces cracked by Adam Ball’s pocket 6s on a 6 high flop. With nothing on the turn or river Derek was hugging the rail for the remainder of the tournament. Sean Perry must have been the unluckiest player of the night. Perry, holding pocket 4s with no raise pre-flop, saw a flop of; 4h-6c-Qd. Sean pushed all in and Dale Leighton automatically called with As-Qs. The turn card was the Ah and river Ac giving Leighton the top full house and sent Sean to the growing queue on the side lines.

At 2.10am the final table was announced and 9 players took their seats to slug out the final placings. Roger Chadwick was first to depart pushing all in with A-J only to find Rob Ho sitting with K-K. No A on the board sent roger out in 9th spot. Simon (the monk) Ball was next firing all in with 9-9 only to see the eventual winner, Pass, call with J-J. No cards came that could enhance either hand and Pass took “the monk’s” scalp – who has a habit of falling just short in these bigger events.

Eventually we were down to the final 3 and just 15 minutes from a chip count with the blinds at 8k-16k. Pass had the game at his mercy holding almost 70% of the chips in play, a cool 600k ,with Hargreaves on 250k and Ho on 85k. With 8 minutes left Ho declared “all in!” Pass thought for a minute or so then folded. Hargreaves, however, didn’t hesitate and called. Ho turned over Ah-QS, Hargreaves showed Ac-10c, the tension was immense as the dealer showed a flop of 8c-9c-7h, Hargreaves had just picked up an open ended straight draw plus the nut flush draw. A silence fell over the card room as the turn was produced 5s, Ho was noticeably nervous before the final river card fell, it was the 2d. A roar echoed around the casino as Ho had just doubled up with less than 1 minute on the clock! Hargreaves was now on oxygen with 165k left and, to make matters worse, he was the BB in the last hand of the tournament. Could he hold on? The cards were dealt, Ho under the gun passes. Pass, on the small blind, calls. Hargreaves checks. The flop of 10h-8h-2s seemed to dis-interest either player as they both checked. The turn was 6d. Pass checks Hargreaves checks. The river turned out to be the money card and would decide the 2nd and 3rd placings in the tournament. As the dealer turns over the 5s, Pass puts Hargreaves all in. Hargreaves instantly calls! Pass turned over 2c-2h for a set of 2s! Hargreaves turned over 3d-4h for the 6 high straight! The drama was almost over.

It took the TD, Matt Murray, a few minutes to declare Pass the winner taking home the £1300 first prize, Hargreaves 2nd £810 with Ho taking 3rd place and a tidy £760.