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
7 years ago14,904BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Poker Night in America - Elky's Big 72 Bluff

Elky runs a big bluff holding the worst starting in poker, seven deuce, against fellow Twitch Streamer Jason Somerville in this sp...

7 years ago11,902BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Party Poker Big Game - Elky Traps Kamatakis

Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier traps Iliodoros Kamatakis with pocket aces in this hand from the Party Poker Big Game at the Mayfair C...

7 years ago22,867BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Poker Night in America - S4 Ep 8 - "Aces That Fly"

Poker Night In America - Season 4 Episode 8After losing the biggest pot in Poker Night history, Antonio Esfandiari is slowing rega...

7 years ago24,806BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Poker Night in America - S4 Ep 7 - "Psychic Flow"

Poker Night In America - Season 4 Episode 7The poker from Las Vegas continues apace, and Phil Laak channels the psychic energy of ...

7 years ago34,563BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Poker Night in America - S4 Ep 4 - "Damn, Daniel!"

Poker Night In America - Season 4 Episode 4As word gets around Las Vegas that our cash game is in full swing, some notable players...

7 years ago30,094BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Poker Night in America - S4 Ep 3 - "The Kissing Bet"

Poker Night In America - Season 4 Episode 3The Twitch Celebrity Cash Game in Las Vegas barrels on into the night as our curated co...

7 years ago23,350BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Poker Night in America - S4 Ep 1 - "It Begins"

Poker Night In America - Season 4 Episode 1We collect the best poker streamers from Twitch.tv, as well as a few notable Vegas pros...

7 years ago8,422BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

My Number One Tip For Playing Poker

Pokerstars Team Pros give their Number One top for playing poker. Featuring Jason Mercier, Elky, Jake Cody and more!

7 years ago8,683BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Global Poker League - Eurasia Conference Week 1 Matches 5 - 7

Full replay of the Global Poker League Week 1 EurAsia conference Heads-Up matches, played on the dedicated GPL online software.Fea...

7 years ago8,169BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

Global Poker League - EurAsia Week 1 - Match 6 Highlights

Highlights of the already legendary heads-up battle between Daniel "Jungleman12" Cates of the Berlin Bears and Bertrand "ElkY" Gro...

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

Anatoly Filatov Wins Party Poker Live Germany High Roller For €64,125

The Kings Casino in Rozvadov has become a happy hunting ground recently for 29-year old Russian pro Anatoly Filatov.

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

Jack Sinclair Wins German Poker Championship High Roller For €250,000

Englishman Jack Sinclair’s sizzling summer continued this weekend when he took down the €25K Super High Roller at the German Poker Championships.

UFC Fighters Use Poker to Unwind After a Training Camp

A short UFC promotional clip that was posted recently on Alistair Overeem's Twitter account shows that fighters affinity for card games is still alive and well

Online Poker , 6 years ago

Lex Veldhuis Wins $42K and Smashes His Own Twitch Records

PokerStars Online Team Pro Lex Veldhuis broke some personal records when 15,000 pairs of eyeballs tuned into his Twitch.tv channel.

Dani ‘Ansky’ Stern Retires From Poker

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

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

Hossein Ensan Wins 2017 WSOP Circuit Rozvadov Main Event For €184,812

Hossein Ensan emerged as the Main Event champion after defeating a field which included Phil Hellmuth, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and Brandon Cantu

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, 6 years ago

Hafiz Khan wins WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley Main Event for $188,686

California pro Hafiz Khan doesn’t often hit the headlines, but when he does it’s usually courtesy of a massive win.

Philipp Gruissem Added to Party Poker Pro Roster

The hits just keep on coming for Party Poker, as the aggressive and growing poker room landed German poker star Philipp Gruissem as their newest sponsored pro.

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.