ElkY: The Making of a Modern Poker Legend

Since the poker boom, only a few poker legends have joined the ranks of Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, and Stu Ungar in the annals of the game’s giants. Chris Moneymaker became an instant legend when he won the 2003 World Series of Poker main event and launched a revolution. A few players have won their way to poker immortality since that time, including the likes of Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, and Erik Seidel. Now, nearly a decade since online poker changed the game forever, a new generation of players has emerged to revolutionize the bar of extraordinary poker accomplishment. Tom Dwan might be at the top of that list in the United States, but one player who is clearly an international poker legend, and has the results to back it up, is a 30-year-old Frenchman who lives in London — Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.

Before poker, Grospellier was already a legend in video-game circles, and with his recent gold-bracelet victory at the 2011 WSOP, he took another step toward becoming a poker legend, as well. He won the $10,000 seven-card stud championship and pocketed $331,639 to go along with his first gold bracelet.

With the win, just six years after making the transition to live tournament poker, he became the fourth player ever to win poker’s Triple Crown. His recent WSOP victory joined a win at the 2008 European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event and a World Poker Tour title at the 2008 Festa al Lago main event to form the most-prized trifecta in poker.

Triple Threat On All the Major Tours

Grospellier set the bar high early in his career, but his ambition is undeterred as he continues to win titles in both the live and online arenas. He has World Championship of Online Poker and Spring Championship of Online Poker titles, and it has to be stated that he is the most successful online player who has ventured over to the live-tournament poker world. With more than $8.8 million in career earnings, he is in 18th place on the all-time money list, and there is no other young player who has more career earnings than ElkY without a world championship or deep run in the WSOP main event.

Grospellier was also the first player to achieve both Supernova and Supernova Elite status on PokerStars, the website for which he is part of Team Pokerstars Pro. He achieved that status while playing $5-$10, $10-$20, and $25-$50 no-limit hold’em cash games during his earlier days with the game. He also played in a lot of big buy-in sit-and-gos, either heads-up or nine-handed. He started making the transition to live tournaments by winning his way into major events through satellites on PokerStars and has been winning consistently on the tournament trail since 2005.

Grospellier has also been learning mixed games as of late, and his gold-bracelet win in the $10,000 seven-card stud world championship and an 11th-place finish in the $10,000 deuce-to-seven lowball world championship this summer confirm that he has been a quick study so far. After the World Series ends, he will turn his attention to the EPT, in which he hopes to become the first player to win two EPT titles during the upcoming season eight.

Much of his legacy has been cemented on the EPT, in which he is the all-time highest money winner. He has cashed 13 times while making four final tables on the tour. His one main-event championship title came when he won the PCA in 2008. All told, Grospellier has won $3,799,591 at EPT events. He doesn’t cash as frequently on the WPT, but when he does, he makes it count. He has made two final tables and won the 2008 Festa al Lago main event. He has cashed three times overall, for a total of $2,225,345. This summer has proved that ElkY can be a threat on all three of the major tours, as he has cashed three times at the WSOP to bring his total WSOP cashes to 14, and his total prize money won stands at $612,467. He now has two final tables to his credit, as well as the gold bracelet.

Grospellier has also proved that there is a fourth element to his live success from the large number of high-roller events in which he has found success. He won both the turbo high-roller and the regular high-roller events at the 2011 EPT Grand Final in Madrid. He finished in third place at the L.A. Poker Classic high-roller event in March, and his initial high-roller victory came at the 2009 PCA. Money won in high-roller events account for $1,687,187 of ElkY’s career earnings.

With his ability to win consistently online, on all three live tours, and in high-roller events, you could say that ElkY is the rare five-tool player in the poker world. Card Player caught up with Grospellier at the 2011 WSOP, and he talked about his achievements after a few years of sustained results. He also touched on his plans for the future and gave advice on his present venture into mixed games.

A Conversation with ElkY

Ryan Lucchesi: You joined poker’s most exclusive club by winning your first World Series of Poker gold bracelet. What does it mean for your poker career to have won poker’s Triple Crown?

Bertrand Grospellier: It’s really amazing, especially because I have been trying to join this group for a while. Since I won the EPT and WPT in 2008, I was trying to win a gold bracelet. I have never had too much success in the World Series up to now, so to do this makes me feel rewarded for all of the time I have tried here.

RL: What goals do you set for yourself now?

BG: This year, the World Series Player of the Year might be something that is within reach. To be the best player over the course of 58 events would really mean a lot. A second EPT would also be really important; I have done a lot of things, but to be the first person to do something would mean so much to me.

RL: You have a lot of solid results in high-roller events against some of the strongest competition out there. When you know you’re going to be playing against the best on any given day, do you gear up for that and play your best, as well?

BG: Those players are great, and they mix it up and adapt, but still, I have more experience with them, so it is a little bit easier to play against them. I find it harder to play against the unknown. Also, the event blind structures are better, and that gives you much more play. The $1,500 events [at the WSOP] are really hard, because after three hours you only have 20 big blinds, and you don’t have time to set up a game plan or anything like that. I can’t understand exactly why I do so well against better players, but it is just the way it is, I guess.

RL: Are your efforts to learn all of the mixed games a reflection of a push to win Player of the Year or the $50,000 WSOP Player’s Championship?

BG: I learned them mostly just to win a bracelet. Some of the new games I have learned to play, like deuce-to-seven, I just really enjoy. I find it refreshing, because I have played no-limit hold’em for so many years. It is interesting to find a new game, and even though I’m not as good at them, I’m learning quickly.

RL: When you first came to poker, you had a background in Starcraft and computer gaming as a competitive-gaming base for learning poker. Would you say that now, as you are learning the mixed games, that your experience playing no-limit hold’em serves as a base of poker intuition to build from quickly?

BG: It helps, because I’m used to playing under pressure. Of course, they are all still poker, so it’s not because I’m good at playing no-limit hold’em, it’s because in all poker you’re doing the same things, like observing your opponents and studying game flow. Every poker game is about those things. All of those key elements are very similar for all games. Once you have the basics down for each game — you know what to look for, the game flow, what hands you want to open, ranges, and how to read the board — then you just have to practice.

RL: You have said that one of your strengths in poker is observation. That is an important aspect of seven-card stud, so is that skill why you were able to play the game successfully so quickly?

BG: That was very important, and it definitely helped me a lot. It helps you a lot when you have to decide how many outs you have depending on what you think this board is and which cards are dead, and it helps a lot when you are deciding which hands you want to start playing. That was the trouble when we got short-handed, you can’t see as many cards. I didn’t have much short-handed experience playing seven-card stud, so it was tougher.

RL: You said after the final table that you made a few bluffs in spots that more experienced players wouldn’t have made them. Do you think your inexperience with seven-card stud made you hard to read?

BG: I would agree with that, for sure. I definitely made non-standard plays. When you don’t know what the standard play is, then you are much more unpredictable. I was very much following my instincts. It’s good, because I did the unexpected. Sometimes when you play a game for so long, it becomes harder to do something that is different from what you always do. I think it was good, but on the other hand, I made some bad plays, too, so it kind of evens out.

RL: Given your current experience, what advice would give to players who want to learn seven-card stud for the first time?

BG: It is very important to always stay focused. There are some situations in no-limit hold’em when if you have a bad hand, it is good to know the flow of the game, because you only see so many cards, so you know when to stay away from the action. But in stud, if you look away from the action for five seconds and three players muck, then you don’t know what those cards were. If players muck, and one king was mucked already, and you are showing one king, it can change a lot of the action and dynamics. Even if you have a good hand and you open strong, they won’t give you as much respect because there is a king dead.

There are all of these things that you have to look for. It is much more important in stud to pay attention to every minute of the game.

RL: So, being able to process a lot of information quickly is important. Did a background playing multiple tables online provide good training to process the information on a full-handed seven-card stud table?

BG: It definitely helped a lot. I have a good nose for the cards. Being a video gamer before that also helped me process a lot of information very quickly. That is more important in stud than any other game. That is where you see the most cards and get the most information. In hold’em, you see a maximum of five cards along with your two. In stud, sometimes you can get 15-20 cards out there. That means a lot, because it can change the game so much.

RL: Another game you are learning and playing well is deuce-to-seven, in which there is a distinct lack of information due to the fact that there are no exposed parts of your opponents’ hands. How has your learning process gone with that game?

BG: I have played a little bit of triple-draw, but I haven’t played much single-draw. I really like it, because it is seven-handed. I also like it because it is aggressive, since you have to come in with a raise, and the antes are really huge, so every pot is worth fighting for. On the other hand, it is really hard to make a very strong hand, and it is even harder to have a strong starting hand than in most of the other games. There are many more mind games, and it is much more important to be aggressive and put pressure and your opponents. It is another game in which the game flow is more important than waiting for good cards.

RL: Do you look forward to the opportunities to be creative, or almost artistic, with your poker play in aggressive games?

BG: It is very interesting. It is also more mentally challenging, because you always have to guess what your opponents have. In stud poker, you can be more straightforward, and it is easier to find out where your opponents are. In deuce-to-seven, it is really hard, and because of the fact that you only get one draw, position is really important. If you have a good hand when you are out of position and you stand pat, you can lose to random hands, and you will make it easy for people to value-bet. If you have position, you can try to draw, and you have a lot more information after the draw, which is important.

RL: Is that the main advice you would give to a player who is learning deuce-to-seven to really push the advantage of their position?

BG: Pushing position is super important, because people don’t fold very much before the draw. You don’t have to be really aggressive without a super-strong hand, but on the other hand, you also need to be aggressive, because you create more hands in position. People don’t fold their hands as much pre-draw, so if you don’t have a strong hand after the draw, you have to stay pat and pretend to have a very strong hand. It is really hard to steal the blinds and antes in that game.

You don’t want to do it too much, because people will start to call you down quite often. Position is very important, but the flow of the game is another thing that is very important. You can’t have a good hand at all times, so you have to know the right situations to bluff. It is pretty similar to no-limit hold’em in that way. ♠