Career-Best Score for Pat Donohue After Winning the Goliath High Roller
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Pat Donohue is on Cloud Nine today after padding his bankroll with £75,100, the largest cash of his poker career. Donohue collected that colossal sum after coming out on top of a 200-strong field in the £1,500 High Roller event at the Grosvenor Poker Goliath series in Coventry.
The 200 entrants created a £259,200 prize pool that the top 20 finishers shared. The 2023 PokerNews Cup champion Johnny Kelly was among the in-the-money finishers, as were Rob Boon, Ben Margedze, and final table bubble boy Ravi Sheth.
£1,500 Goliath High Roller Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pat Donohue | £75,100 |
| 2 | Iwan Jones | £49,100 |
| 3 | Daniel Laidlaw | £30,500 |
| 4 | Yucel Eminoglu | £20,000 |
| 5 | Guy Taylor | £14,000 |
| 6 | Bobby N | £10,000 |
| 7 | Candice Nice | £8,300 |
| 8 | Jamie O'Connor | £7,000 |
| 9 | Jacob Bryant | £6,000 |
Jacob Bryant's time at the nine-handed final table was short-lived because his ace-jack fell foul to the flopped two pair of Yucel Eminoglu, made with king-queen. Byrant collected £6,000 for his ninth-place finish, his second Grosvenor final table of 2024.
Leeds' Jamie O'Connor joined Bryant on the rail, after collecting £7,000 from the cashier's desk. You've got to win your coinflips to win tournaments, but O'Connor's pocket tens lost against ace-king.
The High Roller became an all-male affair with Candice Nice's elimination. Nice finished fourth in the £2,000 High Roller at GUKPT Manchester earlier this year and came unstuck in seventh in this tournament after committing her stack with top pair and a flush in a hand against Donohue. Donohue faded several outs before spiking a king on the river to send Nice home in seventh for £8,300.
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The final six became five when "Bobby N" open-shoved with king-six for eight big blinds, and Donohue called with the superior ace-queen. A ten-high board kept Donohue's hand the best, "Bobby N" busted and banked £10,000 for his efforts.
Donohue looked unstoppable and increased his already big stack by claiming Guy Taylor's chips. Taylor got his last 14 big blinds into the middle with ace-eight, only to run into Donohue's dominating ace-king. No drama from the community cards, and Taylor was gone in fifth for £14,000.
Fresh from his runner-up finish in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Super Seniors event at the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Eminoglu saw his High Roller adventure end in a fourth-place finish worth £20,000. Eminoglu's short-stack shove with ace-four was called by Iwan Jones holding ace-ten, and Jones spiked a ten on the river to make two pair.
Jones then claimed almost all of Dan Laidlaw's stack when his ace-queen prevailed against Laidlaw's pocket tens. The 35 big blind pot slid to Jones, while Laidlaw was left on life support. Laidlaw's attempts to spin up his micro stack proved futile, and he made his way to the cashier to bank £30,500, the largest score of the youngster's career thus far.
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Donohue held a sizeable lead over Jones going into heads-up, but Jones is a vastly experienced grinder who was never going to go down without a fight. Jones clawed his way closer to Donohue but what turned out to be the final hand was something of a cooler.
Jones limped in with four-deuce of hearts and called a raise from Donohue, which he made with ace-three of hearts. You know what's coming next: the flop fell queen-nine-five all hearts. Donohue led, and Jones called. An off suit three on the turn was greeted with another bet from Donohue and a call from Jones. Another three rolled off on the river, and Donohue kept his foot on the gas and bet again, sending Jones into the tank. Jones jammed halfway through his second time bank card, and Donohue snapped him off.
Jones was shown the bad news that his baby flush was second best and was resigned to the £49,100 consolation prize. Meanwhile, Donohue claimed the £75,100 first-place prize, eclipsing the £23,730 he won for a fourth-place finish in the 2022 GUKPT London Main Event.
The £200 Goliath Continues Pulling in Massive Crowds
After seeing 120 players progress from the 1,488 entrants on Day 1a of the Goliath and another 117 surviving from a field of 1,428 on Day 1b, Day 1c was expected to be much smaller because it took place on Monday. However, that was not the case because another 1,155 players bought in on Day 1c, taking the total attendance to 4,071 after three of eight flights! Including preregistration, the prize pool currently sits at an impressive £933,440.
Ninety-nine Day 1c players progressed, with John Cullen (986,000) bagging up the flight's chip lead. Others who punched their Day 2 tickets from this flight included Keith Littlewood (453,000), Alex Montgomery (394,000), Christopher Johnson (308,000), and Team Grosvenor's Jamie Nixon (185,000).
Day 1d starts at 12:00 p.m. on July 30, and another four-figure crowd is highly likely.
Images courtesy of Grosvenor Poker and the excellent Mickey May
