Richard Strzyzewski and Jacquie Ackroyd from the Tiger Inn, near Belper, Derbyshire, have won the October CaskForce draw, earning themselves a place in the final where they could win their rent being paid for a year.
The Tiger Inn will also win £4,000 to spend on improving its business as well as free training in the pub on the BII-accredited Award in Beer and Cellar Quality (ABCQ) qualification. A further 49 winners will also receive the ABCQ training.
The Union Pub Company tenants, who employ 35 staff, plan to use the prize money to improve training and also hope to attract more real-ale fans.
Strzyzewski said: 'We're refurbishing the cellar in the New Year and now we've won the cellar training, there's nothing to stop us trying to get into the Good Beer Guide.'
If they win the big prize of their rent paid for a year, the couple plan to spend the cash they would save by adding a conservatory to the pub.
Their victory means there are just six places left in the grand final taking place next June. To be in with a chance of securing a place, readers need to register a unique code which appears on casks of Marston's ale.
The next draw is on 9 December and the deadline for registration is 7 December at 5pm.
The other 49 winners are
MA|17/11/2005|4|Licensee's pub sale concern|A Welsh licensee has backed away from selling his pub at a Leicester auction after unease about the sale price.
Licensee Andrew Johnson was selling the Black Lion between Lampeter and Carmathen in Wales for £195,000, with help from Lancashire businessman Doug Glendon.
Glendon's firm Inn2gether painted the pub and organised for it to be sold through an auction organised by auction house Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker.
The auction details indicated the pub would be let for 21 years to Inn Ventures Limited on a rent of £32,500 per annum - its annual takings were just £60,000 per annum.
The auction house then changed its mind about selling the pub.
It was transferred to a Leicester auction where it sold for £260,000 thanks to a 21-year lease granted to Chameleon Leisure on a rent of £29,000 per annum. But the buyer's agent valued the pub and told him he had paid 'well over the top'.
Johnson asked Inn2gether to return his title deeds.
'Inn2gether would have made £60,000 on my pub if the deal had gone through,' he said.
West Country property agent said: 'Doug Glendon came to our office and told me he was a facilitator of sales rather a buyer of pubs. 'We wrote to our clients telling them they should make their own minds up.'
Glendon, previously a letting manager with Provence, told the Morning Advertiser: 'Andrew didn't want to wait for us to sell the pub to one of our regular investors so we tried to sell it at auction.
'We spent about £8,000 decorating the inside and the exterior. We don't go down the auction route any more.'