Bertrand Grospellier (; born 8 February 1981 in

Melun Melun () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the kilome ...

), also known as ElkY , is a French

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player and former '' StarCraft: Brood War'' and ''

Warcraft III ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to ''Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', after ''Warcraft II: Tides ...

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

player. He has won a

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the fi ...

(WPT), a

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...

(WSOP) bracelet and a

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Tex ...

(EPT) title, giving him the

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Trip ...

. He is a partypoker Pro and he currently resides in

Prague, Czech Republic Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oc ...

. ElkY is ranked #77 on the

Global Poker Index The Global Poker Index (GPI) is a leaderboard index that ranks over 450,000 live tournament poker players in the world. The GPI poker rankings are updated on a weekly basis. Players’ performances are assessed by their finishing positions in pok ...

(info from 8 July 2014). In November 2015 ElkY returned to the esports scene by joining

Team Liquid Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. With the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty'', Team Liquid signed their first professional players. In 2012, Team Liq ...

as a ''

Hearthstone ''Hearthstone'' is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthstone'' builds upon the existing lore of the ''Warcraft'' series by u ...

'' player.

''StarCraft'' and ''WarCraft III''

ElkY was one of the top ranked ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance am ...

'' players in the world, having placed second in the

World Cyber Games The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an international esports competition with multi-game titles in which hundreds of esports athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions also known as Esports Olympics. WCG events attempt to e ...

in 2001 and continuing his career in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in the years subsequent including a fourth-place finish in an

Ongamenet OGN (formerly known as Ongamenet) is a South Korean pay television channel that specialized in broadcasting video game-related content and esports matches, particularly ''StarCraft'', ''Starcraft II'', ''League of Legends'', and Overwatch. OGN ran ...

Starleague. By 2002, he picked up the newly released '' WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos'' and garnered success by finishing second in the televised Ongamenet WarCraft Retail League before retiring.

Accomplishments

*3rd - '' StarCraft: Brood War'', KBK Jeju, 2001 (

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, South Korea) *2nd - ''StarCraft: Brood War'', World Cyber Games 2001 (Seoul, South Korea) *4th - ''StarCraft: Brood War'', World Cyber Games 2002 (

Daejeon Daejeon () is South Korea's fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of 1.5 million as of 2019. Located in the central-west region of South Korea alongside forested hills and the Geum River, the city is known both for its technology and ...

, South Korea) *4th - ''StarCraft: Brood War'', SKY 2 Ongamenet Starleague, 2002 (Seoul, South Korea) *2nd - '' WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos'', Ongamenet WarCraft Retail League, 2002 (Seoul, South Korea) *1st - ''StarCraft: Brood War'', Euro Cyber Games 2003 (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France) *Round 8 - ''StarCraft: Brood War'', World Cyber Games 2003 (Seoul, South Korea) *Round 16 - ''StarCraft: Brood War'',

World Cyber Games 2004 The World Cyber Games 2004 was held in San Francisco, California, United States from the October 6–10. It was the first ever World Cyber Games to be held outside of Korea. Official games PC games * '' Counter-Strike: Condition Zero'' * ''FIFA ...

(

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

)

Poker career

He has turned his attention to professional poker the last few years. ElkY was a member of Team

PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the large ...

. He was the first person ever to reach "Supernova" and "Supernova Elite" statuses on PokerStars - having earned 100,000 and 1,000,000 player points in 2 weeks, and months, respectively.

Accomplishments

He set the Guinness World Record for most Single Table Sit & Goes played in one hour for a total of 62 at a $6.50 buy in with a profit of $23.60. As of February 2018, his total live tournament winnings exceed $13,500,000.

European Poker Tour

On Saturday, 20 January 2007, he finished second in the

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

event on the

for 309,000 Euros. In January 2008, ElkY finished in 1st place winning $2,000,000 at the

's (EPT)

PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was an annual televised poker tournament. The event was first held in 2004 and was originally co-sponsored by PokerStars and the World Poker Tour. In 2008, the event moved from the WPT to the European Poker Tour. ...

. A year later, while being knocked out of the main event of the

on day 1, ElkY went on to take home the EPT5 $25,000 buy-in "High Roller" side event for $433,500.

World Poker Tour

In October 2008, ElkY added to his tournament haul by winning the

's Festa al Lago tournament, claiming a $1.4 million first prize. The win marked ElkY's first-ever cash on the WPT. He also became just the third person, along with

Roland De Wolfe Roland De Wolfe is an English professional poker player and a former writer for the poker magazine ''Inside Edge''. After winning first prize in an event at the 2004 Gutshot Poker Festival, De Wolfe went on to cash in the $1,000 No Limit even ...

and

Gavin Griffin Gavin Griffin (born August 28, 1981 in Darien, Illinois) is an American professional poker player. He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Starting as an internet poker player he successfully made the transition to live pok ...

, to win a title on both the WPT and EPT. As a result of his success on the seventh season of the World Poker Tour, ElkY was awarded the distinction of "WPT Player of the Year."

World Championship of Online Poker

ElkY was disqualified from event 29 in the 2008

World Championship of Online Poker The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is an online poker tournament series sponsored by PokerStars. It is played on the PokerStars website in September. Established in 2002, WCOOP is PokerStars' attempt to establish the online equivalen ...

(WCOOP) for agreeing to go all-in blind with another player. This violated the tournament rule which states "Poker is an individual (not a team) game. Any action or chat intended to help another player is unethical and is prohibited." His winnings were forfeited and other places were moved up in the standings to replace his finish. Two other players ( Annette_15 and charder30) had also violated the same rule earlier. On 18 September 2009, ElkY won his first WCOOP bracelet in event 38. He added a second bracelet only three days later in Event 43 by besting a field of 9,220 entrants. His winnings for both events totaled nearly $500,000. Spring Championship of Online Poker Titles

World Series of Poker

ElkY won his first WSOP bracelet in the '2011 Seven Card Stud Championship', overcoming a field of 126 to collect $331,639 in prize money. This win made ElkY only the fourth player to win a WPT, EPT and WSOP title. ElkY won his second bracelet in the 2019 WSOPE winning the $550 Colossus No limit holdem event. An "E" following a year denotes bracelet(s) won at the World Series of Poker Europe

Charity

Today, ElkY is a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by

Peace and Sport Peace and Sport, also known as "L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport" is a neutral and independent organization based in the Principality of Monaco and under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco. Peace and Sport work in areas acros ...

, a

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

-based international organization.

''Hearthstone''

In November 2015, Elky returned to the esports scene by joining

as a ''

'' player.

References

External links

Team PokerStars profile

Blonde Poker interviewGlobal Gaming League interviewBertrand "ElkY" Grospellier ProfileBertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elky Sportspeople from Melun 1981 births Living people French esports players French poker players StarCraft players Warcraft III players Hearthstone players European Poker Tour winners World Poker Tour winners World Series of Poker bracelet winners