Poker Player - Bertrand Grospellier
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Bertrand Grospellier is a member of Team Pokerstars. He is well known for being the first player ever to reach the “Supernova” and “Supernova Elite” statuses on Pokerstars.com after having earned 100,000 player points in only two weeks and reaching the one million mark after four and a half months. As of 2008, Grospellier’s total live tournament winnings are in excess of $2.5 million.
Before poker, Grospellier was an online gamer who, after a change of heart in 2004, successfully transferred his skills to online poker and became well known as ‘ElkY’. While being a professional gamer, Grospellier achieved a high rank, making it to the Starcraft Final at the World Cyber Games and moving to South Korea. More recently Grospellier has been participating professionally in live poker tournaments, which he was prepared for by the World Cyber Games. At the final, he played in front of a live crowd of thousands as well as a massive television audience. He now claims, “I’m used to the pressure so I don’t get nervous.”
While an online poker player, Grospellier would play 12 to 14 tables at a time squeezing them all onto his one monitor, he says “I like having to think on my feet and make decisions at speed; it’s what I’m best at.” This makes it no surprise that he was able to reach Pokerstars.com “Supernova” status in only two weeks.
Grospellier was born in France on February 8, 1981 and made the move to South Korea in December 2001. His first big live success came when he came in second place at the EPT Copenhagen event in 2007. He was crippled after losing with three of a kind against his opponent’s full house. And only a few hands after this, Grospellier was eliminated, winning $400,000. But he was still disappointed at having missed out on the win.
However in 2008, he won the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure and $2 million in a field of 1,013 runners. Rumours have also circulated that Pokerstars also gave him $500,000 extra and a new car in return for winning a major live tournament. He has also seen success in the WSOP and has cashed four times. His best finish has been 9th place in the $2,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event in 2007.
Although Grospellier doesn’t devote a lot of his time to much outside of poker, he still enjoys gaming and has hinted that he may relocate to London, which would bring him closer to the biggest European poker events. Still, he enjoys long distance running, cinema and travelling. He is also fluent in three different languages: English, French and Korean.
Danielle Almond
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