Hmm... if its in pending delete I dont think he'll be happy about the cost to get it back, I believe at this stage it costs a lot more to renew or get it back.
sometimes it may work. if he is really interested in the domain he will renew but if not he will sell it to you, thats´s 50-50 chances. a lot better than a snap.
btw, domaindock is giving a lot of error messages. check it out.