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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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.

7 years ago5,689BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

How to Play Turbo Online Tournaments

Pokerstars Team Pros ElkY, Jason Mercier, Andre Akkari and Chris Moneymaker share their top tips for the Turbo Championship of Onl...

9 years ago5,284BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

The Best of ElkY

Compilation of the best plays by the one of the best known French pros Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier

8 years ago5,256BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Elky makes big seven deuce bluff against Jason Somerville

Elky makes a ballsy bluff against Jason Somerville with seven deuce on the Poker Night in America cash game - Played in Las Vegas ...

8 years ago5,137

Published 8 years ago

Blast from the Past - ElkY Puts Shakhtoor at Risk

Young Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier doing his thing

9 years ago4,915BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

ElkY Putting Maximum Pressure on Loose Cannon

Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier putting a lot of heat on the loose cannon

7 years ago4,885BestPokerVids,

Published 7 years ago

EPT Moment - Dressed to Impress!

Who could forget when Elky showed up in a Kimono at EPT Barcelona?More favourite moments from the European Poker tour.

9 years ago4,885BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

ElkY Cracking Kings Like a Boss

Sometimes you play good, sometimes you run good

11 years ago4,722LaoTze,

Published 11 years ago

EPT9 Prague Day 3 with Bertrand ElkY Grospellier

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier has doubled up during the first two levels of Day 3 of EPT Prague. He talks to Pok...

9 years ago4,710BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Dan Cates vs ElkY - Easy Read

Dan 'Jungleman' Cates squares off against 'ElkY'

Bruno Fitoussi Announced as a New Ambassador For partypoker LIVE

Bruno Fitoussi has signed a deal to represent partypoker at live tournaments throughout Europe.