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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9 years ago4,028ThePokerAces,

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PCA High Roller: ElkY in Action

Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier trying to extract max value against Will Molson

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HSP: David Benyamine vs ElkY

David Benyamine in a big pot against ElkY on High Stakes Poker

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PokerStars Shark Cage - Episode 4

Episode 4 of the PokerStars Shark Cage - Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Ike Haxton, Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari, Bill Perkins

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PCA 2009: ElkY vs Molson

An interesting hand between ElkY and Will Molson during PCA 2009 High Roller

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High Stakes Poker: Dwan and ElkY Tangling

Tom Dwan and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier in a monster pot

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Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier Interview

French poker star talking about World Series of Poker

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Meet the Pokerstars Proteges 2014

Joe Stapleton introduces the winners of the 2014 WCOOP protege competition who are also joined by the Pokerstars team pros.

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Best Laydowns - Elky vs Tan

Elky makes a solid laydown with top pair worse kicker against Tan

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Top 5 'Couch Cannon' Hands

5 of the most entertaining 'couch cannon' hands, sweating the hole cards of an amateur as he faces the pros.

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Top 5 ElkY Grospellier Hands

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

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

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ElkY Honors Prop Bet with Doug Polk

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

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Pavel Shirshikov Wins PokerStars Championship Sochi For $514,895

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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.

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

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Poker Week in Pictures - Stay Cool and Take the Prizes

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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