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.

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8 years ago3,605BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

ElkY vs Kamatakis - Two Big Hands and One Lucky River

Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier and Iliodoros Kamatakis playing a pot with an interesting river card

10 years ago3,580

Published 10 years ago

EPT London Tatjana Pasalic Interviews - Barney Boatman, Elky, Katchalov

Tatjana Pasalic Interviews Barney Boatman, Elky and Eugene Katchalov

11 years ago3,533

Published 11 years ago

PCA10: ElkY Attempts PCA Triple Crown

Sarah talks to Bertrand 'ElkY' Grosspellier about his return to blonde hair, the possible Triple Crown and the antics at the featu...

9 years ago3,410ThePokerAces,

Published 9 years ago

Fans Calling Out 'ElkY'

Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier gets a good laugh out of it

9 years ago3,116welovepoker,

Published 9 years ago

Top 5 ElkY Grospellier Hands

A collection of the best Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier hands.

10 years ago2,870Arnas1254,

Published 10 years ago

ElkY vs Eli Elezra High Roller PCA

Really nice video from ElkY's perspective. What would you have done?

11 years ago2,800

Published 11 years ago

Pistons87 plays 10k$ highroller with Elky

Pistons87 plays 10k$ highroller with Elky

8 years ago2,650BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier in Malta

Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier having a great time in Malta

10 years ago2,565Rajko1,

Published 10 years ago

NBC HU 2013 - J. Smith vs Elky

NBC HU 2013 - J. Smith vs Elky (Ep02)

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

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

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

Serious Approach to Sit and Go Tournaments

Sit & Go's are often neglected format, especially at Euro rooms, which, in turn, can make them very profitable to play

“ElkY” Grospelier Lands Online Gaming Sponsorship

​French poker pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospelier became the first sponsored poker pro to also land a sponsorship deal in the online gaming world

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.

Live Poker Events, 6 years ago

Pavel Shirshikov Wins PokerStars Championship Sochi For $514,895

Russian Pavel Shirshikov took the opportunity to scoop the half-million-dollar plus first prize at the PokerStars Championship in Sochi.

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.

Reynad Yanuk: From Poker Player to Hearthstone Star

The story of Andrey "Reynad" Yanuk might serve as a sign of the emerging paradigm shift. In the last few years, esports managed to pass poker by.

ElkY Honors Prop Bet with Doug Polk

Back in early June during the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop when Polk and ElkY were the final two players remaining, the pair made a prop bet.