Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier

Bertrand Grospellier, better known by his online username ‘ElkY’, is renowned as one of poker’s strongest tournament players.

Bertrand Grospellier, better known by his online username ‘ElkY’, is renowned as one of poker’s strongest tournament players, and is just one of five people to have accomplished poker’s Triple Crown.

ElkY developed a competitive streak from a young age, becoming a professional video game player in his teenage years. ElkY was one of the top ranked StarCraft players in the world, and was one of South Korea’s first generation of foreign players. StarCraft is so immensely popular in South Korea that there are two television channels dedicated to the game, and it is considered one of the country’s major sports.

ElkY achieved multiple top finishes within the StarCraft community, including 2nd place at the World Cyber Games in 2001. Eventually, ElkY began to make the transition towards poker when realising the potential financial profits, and it quickly became evident that much of his StarCraft skillset was transferrable to the poker tables. Specifically, the micro management skills necessary in StarCraft have been instrumental in ElkY’s online multi-tabling prowess. It was this skill at multi tabling that helped ElkY become the first PokerStars user to gain the Supernova Elite VIP status, achieving this in just four and a half months of play, which must have entailed some serious grinding.

ElkY has also achieved massive success in the live tournament circuit: he became the fourth person to win poker’s Triple Crown consisting of European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker titles.

ElkY’s first major tournament cash was in the 2007 Copenhagen EPT, where he finished 2nd for $399,953, before he went on to win his first EPT in early 2008 taking down the Pokerstars’ Caribbean Adventure for a $2,000,000 cash. It was in October of the same year that the Frenchman won a WPT, as he won the WPT Championship for $1,411,015. Despite winning these two events in such a short space of time, ElkY had to wait to win his first WSOP bracelet. It was not an overly long wait however, with ElkY picking up his bracelet in 2011, as he won the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship to win $331,639 and showing his versatility in the process.

ElkY has enjoyed fantastic tournament success, and at 32 he is showing no signs of slowing down.

Read More
12 years ago19,964PokerTube,

Published 12 years ago

Lex Veldhuis in Madrid 2011 on kickboxing with ElkY

Lex Veldhuis from Holland is one of the strongest European poker players today with a long list of great results both online and l...

13 years ago12,490

Published 13 years ago

ElkYs TRAILER WPT Festa Al Lago

WPT Festa Al Lago avec ElkY énorme chipleader...Nam Le et Nenad Medic également présents.

13 years ago23,464

Published 13 years ago

Negreanu, Schwartz, Mizzi, Elky, Gus, Golser, TonyG and Blom

The High Roller event in Monte Carlo will have one of the toughest fields ever in poker. You have so many of the top names in the ...

14 years ago11,803

Published 14 years ago

PCA Classics: ElkY vs Thorson

PokerStars.tv presents PCA 2008, Bahamas, Day 1. Bertrand ElkY Grospellier (France) makes a great bluff against William Thorson (S...

14 years ago5,694

Published 14 years ago

EPT 6 Warsaw Day 1B: A chat with ElkY

PokerStars.tv presents Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand ElkY Grospellier chats about his experiences of Warsaw.

14 years ago30,365

Published 14 years ago

ElkY about Life and his way into Poker

Some people say that if there is someone who can challenge Phil Ivey for the title Best Player in the World, it would be Bertrand ...

14 years ago8,406

Published 14 years ago

EPT 6 Barcelona Day 3: ElkY speaks

ElkY is flying high on Day 3. We caught up with him for a chat.

14 years ago3,671

Published 14 years ago

Bertrand ElkY Grospellier - PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo 2009

Interview with Bertrand ElkY Grospellier at PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo 2009.

14 years ago13,323

Published 14 years ago

SNG Royalty: ElkY, Khan talk World Record Challenge

PokerListings.com is here at the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo where Team Poker Stars Pro Bertrand ElkY Grospellier has taken th...

15 years ago8,379

Published 15 years ago

Bertrand Grospellier Wins PCA High Roller Event

PokerListings talks with the winner of the PCA High Roller Event Bertrand ElkY Grospellier. He also won the 2008 PCA Main Event as...

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

WSOP Event #20: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em MILLIONAIRE MAKER (Live Updates)

The five day event will start off with two day ones on the 10th and 11th of June 2017 to help get through what looks to be a huge number of entries.

Daniel Negreanu Loves Hearthstone

The Canadian has recently been as prolific in his Hearthstone play as he has been on the green felt, with a show-match against fellow poker/eSports whizz Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospelier at the BlizzCon Hearthstone World Championships.

Dani ‘Ansky’ Stern Retires From Poker

The high-stakes online pro has tweeted his retirement from the world of poker.

From Bullied to Battlestations, Gamer Djarii Joins The Poker Ranks

From being relentlessly bullied as an ‘ugly and weird’ schoolgirl to a life as one of TwitchTV’s most popular gamers and a recent addition to the poker ranks.

Poker Week in Pictures - Stay Cool and Take the Prizes

American Poker AwardsThe American Poker Awards were the big story of the past week. A lot of familiar faces made their appearances, some walked away with prizes, some will have to wait the next award

The World Poker Tour and ELC Gaming Unite for an E-Sports/Poker Festival

Ourgame’s World Poker Tour and ELC Gaming celebrated the first Poker/E-sports festival.

Live Poker Events, 9 years ago

Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Winners Through History - Part 2

The 2009 PCA saw a $25,000 High Roller event added to the schedule. A record 1,347 players came out to the beautiful Atlantis to attend the biggest festival of poker aside from the WSOP. The Main

Most Ballin' Poker Twitch Streamers

Here are some of best and up-and-coming streamers that we can watch on TwitchTV today.

Elky's Departure From PokerStars Sparks Conversation on the Future of the Sponsored Pros

Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier leaves PokerStars with a statement that has sparked a conversation on the role of the sponsored pro.

Live Poker Events, 9 years ago

Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Winners Through History - Part 1

Big:I;t is that time of the year again. Every January for the past 11 years we have had the pleasure of witnessing one of the greatest poker festivals in the world, the Pokerstars Caribbean