Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Wins $2 Million and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Title

The European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) was the first major poker tournament of 2008, and it featured a collection of the world's best poker talent. It attracted 1,136 players, making it the largest non-World Series of Poker tournament with a buy-in over $5,000. PokerStars.com, the EPT's title sponsor, sent more than 650 players to the event via online qualifers, making this EPT stop the largest tournament in its history. It demolished the old record set at the 2007 EPT Grand Final, which drew 706 entrants. The massive field made for a large prize pool ($8.5 million), and it had the 478 players left after the first two days of play focused on the $2 million first-place prize.

Days 2-4 - "The Dragon" Takes Control
The second day of action proved to be swift, and the field was cut down by a sizeable number, as more than 300 players made their exit during the fast play. Of the 153 players who remained after the day had ended, Eric "Rizen" Lynch was atop the leader board with 526,900 in chips. He was followed closely by Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who held 435,000, and Peter "Apathy" Jetten, who rounded out the top three with 401,800.

Day 3 would see the passing of the money bubble, and the remaining field started the day by timidly approaching that benchmark. But after the bubble popped, two hours into the day, action sped back up and resumed its inevitable march. One of the most talked about hands in the tournament took place during money-bubble play, when a Team PokerStars battle broke out between a young gun and an old pro: Hevad "Rain" Khan eliminated Barry Greenstein in a hand that featured the classic cooler situation. Khan was holding aces to Greenstein's kings when they got all of their chips into the middle of the table on the flop, and Greenstein's tournament was over.

Card Player 2007 Player of the Year David "The Dragon" Pham climbed to the top of the leader board on day 3, and finished the day with 2,003,000 in chips. One player who was surprisingly absent at the end of day 3 was Jetten. He took the lead by becoming the first player to have 1 million in chips earlier in the day, but he finished the day on the rail, finishing in 42nd place. He was joined on the rail by 112 other players on day 3, including Lee Markholt (110th place), Tony Cousineau (114th place), Ted Lawson (64th place), Khan (45th place), and Jon Friedberg (43rd place).

The final 40 players returned on day 4 and fought for a spot at the final table. It took more than 10 hours to reach the final eight. Three players who did not advance during the fierce competition included Lynch (26th place), Victor Ramdin (25th place), and William Thorson (ninth place). Day 4 was a roller-coaster ride for Pham, who started the day with the chip lead (2,003,000), and after his stack shrank to just over 1 million, he caught fire and ended the day as he began, atop of the leader board (7,390,000). The Dragon had made his first EPT final table, but the road to victory would not be an easy one, thanks to a formidable opponent with a lot of EPT experience and chips. The final Team PokerStars member remaining, Grospellier, had finished deep at EPT stops in Baden and Warsaw, and made the final table of the EPT Scandinavian Open, all in 2007.

Final Table - Grospellier Takes the Day, the Table, and the Win
Here is how the chip stacks stood at the start of the final table:

David "The Dragon" Pham - 7,390,000
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier - 3,060,000
Joe "BigEgypt" Elpayaa - 2,755,000
Hafiz Khan - 2,560,000
Kris Kuykendall - 2,150,000
Richard Fohrenbach - 1,855,000
Craig Hopkins - 1,770,000
Christian Harder - 905,000

Richard Fohrenbach was the first player to take his leave from the final table. Two hands after he doubled up with pocket jacks, he was eliminated in eighth place ($150,000). He held pocket jacks once again in the last hand, but they were no good against the A-K of Grospellier, who hit a king on the flop. This was only the beginning of a good day for the Frenchman, and a few minutes later he found himself in another battle; this time he held pocket jacks, and they won. He had his opponent Christian Harder covered, and Harder could muster only unimproved pocket sevens. He was eliminated in seventh place ($200,000).

The speed of play at the table then began to slow down for some time, but the march to a champion continued when Joe "BigEgypt" Elpayaa shoved all in preflop with the K J. Grospellier once again played the role of the eliminator when he flipped over A-Q. The board bricked out, and Elpayaa was sent home in sixth place ($300,000). Grospellier had dominated the final table up to this point, but Pham got into the act when Craig Hopkins moved all in with the K 8. Pham made the call with pocket tens, and added insult to injury when he flopped a set to send Hopkins packing in fifth place ($450,000).

The final table had undergone a restructuring of hierarchy at this point of play:

Betrand "ElkY" Grospellier - 9,551,000
Hafiz Khan - 5,720,000
David "The Dragon" Pham - 5,045,000
Kris Kuykendall - 2,665,000

The four players left seemed content to take measure of each other for a while, and rarely did a pot exceed a million in chips. This was due partly to the fact that the chip leader, Grospellier, was flexing the muscles of his large stack and imposing his will by making his opponents lay down to large bets. Pham wore a target on his back for most of the tournament, as many players wanted to lay claim to the title of dragon slayer. The final table was no different, and finally, Grospellier claimed the title when he sent Pham home in fourth place ($600,000) on this hand: Grospellier raised 400,000 preflop from under the gun, and Pham made the call from the big blind. The flop rolled out K Q 5, and both players checked. The turn brought the J, and Pham checked. Grospellier bet 700,000, and Pham moved all in for an additional 2.5 million. Grospellier tanked for a moment before making the call and flipping up the A 2. Pham showed down the Q 5 and the race was on. The river brought one of the cards that Grospellier needed, the 7, and Pham was sent to the rail.

Kris Kuykendall was the next to fall a short time later. This time, it was Hafiz Khan who got his hands dirty. First, he crippled Kuykendall down to 1.5 million with pocket kings, and then he raised from his blind a few hands later, which forced Kuykendall to make the all-in call on a very short stack. Kuykendall had the K Q, but Khan turned over the A 7, and after the board bricked out, Kuykendall was sent home in third place ($800,000).

A battle of mismatched chip stacks was set for heads-up action:

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier - 16,200,000
Hafiz Khan - 7,705,000

The heads-up battle did not last long, as Grospellier took a million-chip chunk out of Khan's stack early, and then Khan chose an ill-fated time to make a huge bluff: Grospellier raised from the button preflop, and Khan reraised all in for just over 6 million. Grospellier made the call very quickly and flipped over pocket eights. Khan showed down the 9 3 for a bluff gone wrong, and the board came 7 5 2 4 4. Khan was eliminated, and took home $1,094,976 for his runner-up finish. Grospellier emerged from the hand as the champion of the 2008 PCA, and he banked $2 million for the win. Most importantly, Grospellier captured his first major tournament title on the EPT, where he has come so close before, and began 2008 on a very good note.

While Grospellier has already won a lot of money in his short time of playing poker, he was not always a poker player; he has already achieved a large amount of fame and success in Europe and Asia for his skills in the professioinal gaming arena. In 2001, ElkY moved to Korea from his home country of France to pursue his professional gaming career, and he is one of the top-ranked "Starcraft" players in the country. As a result of his international travels, Grospellier is fluent in French, Korean, and English. While he has had only a small amount of success in the United States (four cashes at the WSOP), he has become a dominant force on the EPT. He finished 16th at Baden and 18th at Warsaw before making his first EPT final table at the 2007 Scandinavian Poker Open. He was the runner-up at that final table, winning $399,389, which was his largest tournament win until the PCA. Grospellier's first major title has thrust him upon the poker scene as an international star.