Final Table Takedown -- Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier

Bertrand Grospellier is a member of Team PokerStars, and has more than $5.7 million in live-tournament career earnings. His first big live win, for $2 million, came at the 2008 European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He would then go on to capture the WPT Festa al Lago championship, for $1,411,015. He also won WPT 2008 Player of the Year honors by finishing third in the $25,000 WPT Championship.

Event: 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker $500 no-limit hold’em rebuy event
Players in the Event: 1,169
First Prize: $232,730
Finish: First

Hand No. 1
Stacks: ElkY – 23,381; DaMurdera3 – 15,319; GambleAB – 14,180; Balla-B13 – 15,200
Blinds: 20-40
Players at the Table: 9

Key Concepts: Optimum strategy with big hands in the early stages of tournaments against aggressive opponents; deep-stack play

Craig Tapscott: Let’s focus on early tournament strategy, which is the first step to getting the chance to make a final table.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier: This hand takes place pretty early in the tournament, and all of the players are still very deep.

ElkY raises to 120 from early position with the A A. DaMurdera3 calls.

BG: The player to my left (Keith Ferrera), who is a good player, calls my raise. He probably calls with a fairly wide range in this spot, as we are all deep in chips. I evaluate his range to be any suited Broadways, any pocket pairs, and oftentimes suited connectors.

Aaron “GambleAB” Bartley reraises from the small blind to 400.

BG: I have been opening quite often, but I believe that the player in the small blind must have a playable hand in order to reraise here. Indeed, he will be out of position, and since we are all deep in chips, I rule out a squeeze attempt.

Balla-B13 calls 360 from the big blind.

CT: He has to have a big hand to be flat-calling here.

BG: Yes. When he flat-calls the reraise, he definitely must have a strong hand — 10-10+, in my opinion. (He’s an opponent whom I respect a lot, Blake Cahail.) Sometimes he may have smaller pocket pairs or a speculative hand, assuming that DaMurdera3 and I will flat-call, because he would then get good implied odds.

CT: What’s the next move to get the most value out of your aces?

BG: I really think GambleAB has a strong hand in the small blind, and I don’t want to just flat-call and see Keith do the same thing behind me for a four-way pot. I decide to four-bet, because I think we are too deep for me to set up a trap with four-way action. It’s a safer play to reraise. By doing so, I am now definitely representing a strong hand. I may sometimes four-bet with air, but that will most likely be in different situations, when I am heads up against one opponent, deeper in the tournament, and I think he’s stealing.

Furthermore, if the small blind has a really strong hand, such as A-K or K-K, he might try to come over the top preflop, which would definitely be a mistake in this spot, as he is more than 300 big blinds deep.

ElkY reraises to 1,678. DaMurdera3 folds. GambleAB calls. Balla-B13 calls.

Flop: 10 6 2 (pot: 5,154)

BG: I don’t have a diamond, but at this point, the only hand I might be losing to is probably 10-10, so I think it’s a good flop for me to bet.

GambleAB checks. Balla-B13 checks. ElkY bets 3,456. GambleAB calls.

BG: Balla-B13 tanks again for a long time before folding; he will tell me later in the tournament that he was holding K-K!

Balla-B13 folds.

Turn: 5 (pot: 12,066)

GambleAB moves all in for 9,046.

CT: Do you think he’s hit a flush here?

BG: Well, at this point, I don’t think it is very likely that he’s hit a flush draw. The A K would be the only possibility, in my opinion, but if he held such a hand, I believe that he probably would have moved in on the flop. Indeed, I think it would be an awful play to just call the flop and be left with less than one pot-size bet on the turn with such a hand. There is still a very slight possibility that he is holding 10-10, but I don’t think his shove on the turn really represents anything. I think he probably holds an overpair.

ElkY calls. GambleAB reveals the Q Q.

River: 8 (pot: 30,158)

ElkY wins the pot of 30,158.

Hand No. 2
Stacks: ElkY – 38,939; Balla-B13 – 18,812
Blinds: 40-80
Players at the Table: 9

Key Concepts: Pot control; mixing up your flat-calling range to protect your more speculative hands

Balla-B13 raises to 240 from early position. ElkY is in middle position and is dealt the K K.

CT: You’re a card rack. So that’s how you do it!

BG: (Laughing) I love PokerStars!

CT: OK, back to early-stage deep-stack strategy with big hands.

BG: Well, Balla-B13 is very deep in chips and he opens from early position. For several reasons, I decide to just flat-call.

ElkY calls.

CT: Why not reraise for value here?

BG: First, I know that Balla-B13 respects me, and I think that reraising in this spot will make him fold a majority of his range. Even if he just calls my three-bet, he will most likely play near perfectly post-flop, as he will put me on J-J+. Therefore, flat-calling helps me disguise the strength of my holding. Furthermore, by flat-calling, I give all of the players behind me an opportunity to make a “loser call,” or a wrong squeeze bet from the blinds, for example.

Flop: Q 5 2 (pot: 600)

Balla-B13 bets 400. ElkY calls.

BG: At this point, I think it is pointless for me to raise. I don’t have any spades, and I think it is unlikely that he will reraise me on a bluff, given the depth of our stacks. In addition, I have position, which will enable me to get more information on later streets. 

Turn: 2 (pot: 1,400)

Balla-B13 bets 1,000.

BG: When Blake leads again, this now tells me that he must have a strong hand. I think most of the time he is holding a queen, but he also could have a set, an ace-high flush draw, A-A, or even quads! I decide to just call again, in order to control the size of the pot.

ElkY calls.

River: 6 (pot: 3,400)

Balla-B13 bets 2,100. ElkY calls.

BG: I decide to call one more time, because I think it would be useless to raise in this spot, as well. If I raise the river bet, the only worse hands than mine that would possibly call me are A-Q and maybe K-Q. On the other hand, if Blake has me beat, I would put myself in a delicate situation with a raise on the river.

Balla-B13 reveals the A Q. ElkY wins the pot of 7,600.

CT: Could you have gotten more value out of such a big hand?

BG: I may have been able to extract a little more value on the river. Had I three-bet preflop, I think I would have ended up winning less on the hand, as Blake may have either folded or played the rest of the hand very carefully. Having position and flat-calling the preflop raise helped me disguise the strength of my hand, as my opponent thought he was value-betting every street. In addition, I was able to control the pot size all the way.

Finally, I like to mix up the way I play big hands against great players, because it makes me more unpredictable and difficult to read.