Hand History Time Capsule: Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier

In this new series, “Hand History Time Capsule,” Card Player digs up memorable hands to help you relive, or perhaps discover for the first time, pivotal situations from some of poker’s most exciting moments.

In the 2008 World Poker Tour Festa al Lago main event, 368 players put up the $15,000 buy-in to create a nearly $5.4 million prize pool and a first-place prize of $1.4 million. The dominant force heading into the final table was France’s Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who had more than a third of the chips in play. A former professional video game player, Grospellier had quickly proven himself on the international poker tournament circuit with a huge win at the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $2 million and a runner-up finish at the 2007 European Poker Tour Copenhagen main event.

Although Grospellier held the chip lead, it was far from a sure thing. He was up against some tough competition, which included Nenad Medic and Nam Le, who are both WPT champions. Adam “Roothlus” Levy entered with the shortest stack at the final table, but brought a wealth of experience in tournament play as one of online poker’s more successful players. Amateur players Osmin “Oddie” Dardon and Will Mietz rounded out this six-handed final table.

Building On The Lead and An Incredible Call

Six-handed play began with blinds of 50,000 -100,000 and a 10,000 ante. Grospellier raised to 275,000 with A 8 and Nam Le called with the A 5. The flop came 10 10 3 and Grospellier bet out for 335,000. Le deliberated for a moment before he called and the turn brought the 8. Grospellier checked and Le bet 400,000. Grospellier called and the river brought the 2. Grospellier checked once again and Le checked behind, hoping that his ace high would be good. Grospellier revealed that he had the best hand with a pair of 8s, and raked in a sizable pot early on against one of his toughest opponents.

After that hand, Grospellier had increased his already solid chip lead and grown his stack to 7.36 million, with Nenad Medic having the next largest stack with 3.2 million. What happened next only accelerated Grospellier’s momentum.

In arguably the hand of the tournament, Grospellier raised to 260,000 with A 10 and William Mietz called with K 10. The flop brought the 9 7 4 and both players checked. The turn brought the 9 and ElkY bet 360,000. Mietz deliberated for a while before announcing that he was all in for 715,000 more. ElkY asked for the dealer to bring in the chips and count down the amount he had to call.

Incredibly, he did decide to call with just ace-ten high and Mietz revealed that he held only king high. The river changed nothing with the 9 and Mietz was sent to the rail in sixth place as a result of an unbelievable call from Grospellier.

ElkY Continues To Roll

Shortly after eliminating Mietz, Grospellier sent another oppponent packing. Adam Levy found himself all in with A 9 against Grospellier’s Q Q. The board rolled out K 3 2 Q 7 and Grospellier’s set of queens sent Levy packing in fifth place.

Four-handed play continued for a while with ElkY building on his lead. With 10.25 million in chips, and the combined chips of his three opponents totaling only 6,315,000, it was clear that Grospellier was a strong favorite to take home the title.

With the blinds still at 60,000-120,000 with a 15,000 ante, Nenad Medic raised to 305,000 with the 8 6. Grospellier reraised to 865,000 with 6 6 and won the pot, leaving Medic short on chips. After that, Grospellier kept the pressure on, putting Medic and his other opponents to the test. On two different occasions where players folded facing a call for their tournament life, Grospellier showed them that he had gone all-in holding only 3-2 suited.

After folding a few of these moves, Medic soon found himself all-in with pocket sixes himself against Grospellier’s K J before the flop. The board brought the J 9 3 2 5 and Medic was sent to the rail in fourth place with $373,010 in prize money to console him.

Sure Thing?

When three-handed play began, Grospellier held nearly 13.4 million of the roughly 16.5 million chips in play. With incredible aggression, skill and luck, it seemed that the tournament was well within his grasp.

With the sizable blinds of 60,000-120,000 with a 15,000 ante, and such a dominant stack, Grospellier decided to stomp on the gas pedal even harder. He moved in preflop multiple times, showing hands like 5 3 and Q 5 when his opponents folded. After a few hands of folding, Nam Le finally called all in with A J and he was ahead of Grospellier’s measly 8 3. Grospellier did not improve, and Le doubled up to 2.62 million.

Shortly after Le’s double up, Dardon found himself all-in in the small blind with Q J against Grospellier’s A 4. He immediately started calling for paint cards to hit the board. He got his wish when the board ran out K J 6 10 3 and doubled him up to 3.45 million. After the hand, he asked Grospellier if that would put an end to the onslaught of all-ins.

Dardon slowly built his stack back up to 5.7 million, when he played a huge hand against Grospellier, who had fallen back within reach of the pack.

The blinds had increased to 80,000-160,000 with a 15,000 ante. Dardon raised to 400,000 with A 10 and Grospellier called in the small blind with 4 4. The board rolled out A Q 5 and Grosepellier checked his underpair. Dardon checked behind with his top pair, and the turn brought the 7. Once again, both players checked and the river paired the board with the 7. Grospellier then bet 160,000. Dardon raised to 860,000 and Grospellier called. Dardon showed his pair of aces with a ten kicker to win the pot and just like that, overtook the chip lead from Grospellier.

Back on Top

It did not take long for Grospellier to regain the lead. Seemingly undeterred by the setbacks he experienced early in three-handed play, he kept up the preflop aggression. In one key hand he raised to 360,000 with K 4 and Dardon called from the big blind with 5 4. Dardon took the lead on the flop when it brought the 9 5 3, but checked to Grospellier who also checked. The turn brought the K, which gave Grospellier the higher pair. Dardon checked and Grospellier bet 460,000. Dardon called and the 7 hit the river. Dardon checked for a third time, and called the hefty 960,000 bet from Grospellier only to find that he had lost the lead on the turn, and in turn lost the chip lead.

Grospellier continued to play his game, and his prior aggression earned him many pots uncontested and many calls when he picked up big hands. He was able to increase his lead back to nearly the one he held entering three-handed play. Dardon was the most interested in putting up a fight against the onslaught, while Nam Le mostly folded his bad and marginal hands and kept out of the fray and had blinded down to a very short stack.

Finally, the conflict came to a head when Grospellier raised to 330,000 with 10 2. Dardon studied his options for a bit with A J and decided to raise to 1,130,000. Grospellier decided to move all-in over the top of this raise, perhaps due to the fact that with a very short-stacked Nam Le, Oddie Dardon had some motivation to avoid putting his tournament life at risk. Dardon did call, however, and although the flop brought the 9 4 2 giving Grospellier a pair of deuces, Dardon still had two overcards and the nut-flush draw. The board ran out with the 9 on the turn and 3 on the river, however, and Dardon was eliminated in third place, leaving Grospellier heads-up with a massive lead of 15.6 million to Le’s 920,000.

Domination Complete

With such a massive disparity and Grospellier’s willingness to go for the win, heads-up play seemed destined to be a quick affair. Le was able to double up twice, with pocket deucess winning a race against Grospellier’s 6 3, and A J prevailing over Q 3, but he was still well behind. The players got all in for a third time with Le holding A Q against Grospellier’s 10 10. The board brought the 10 7 6 9 K and just like that Grospellier had won his second major tournament of 2008 and $1,411,015 in prize money. Le pocketed $943,215 for his second place finish.

Grospellier has gone on to earn just under $9.4 million in tournaments so far in his career. At the the 2011 World Series of Poker he added his first WSOP bracelet to his WPT and EPT titles, becoming only the fourth player in history to achieve poker’s “triple crown.” This win at the 2008 WPT Festa al Lago introduced many American poker fans to the legend of “ElkY,” the fast and aggressive Frenchmen who seemed to have no fear and a relentless betting arm. With an incredible call early in the final table, persistent aggression, and some luck, Grospellier won this final table in dominant fashion. ♠