Tournament Trail Q and A -- Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier

French tournament pro Bertrand Grospellier burst onto the tournament circuit in January 2007 when he finished runner-up at the EPT Copenhagen Scandinavian Open for nearly $400,000. A year later, he tore through a huge field at the 2008 EPT Caribbean Adventure and took down the $2 million first-place prize. After a WSOP and APPT final table, Grospellier turned his attention to Bellagio, where he stormed through a stacked field for the top spot at WPT Festa al Lago, good for an additional $1.4 million on his poker résumé.

Grospellier has always been actively involved in competition, even before he discovered poker. But unlike many card sharks who came from Magic: the Gathering, this gamer evolved from the top ranks of the computer-game craze Starcraft. At one point, Grospellier actually moved to Korea to pursue his passion and quickly became one of the best in the world.

Take a look at this clip of Grospellier battling it out with another known gamer on Korean television:

As Starcraft’s popularity declined and poker’s popularity boomed, ElkY turned his attention to the sport that would ultimately make him a millionaire. Because of his five final tables this year, Grospellier has suddenly found himself in second place in Card Player's Player of the Year race, just 1,300 points behind the once uncatchable John Phan.

Grospellier spoke to Card Player shortly after his pocket tens spiked a set to win at Bellagio to talk about the final table and his aggressive play-to-win style.


Julio Rodriguez: So, Bertrand, how does it feel to add a WPT title to your résumé?

Bertrand Grospellier: It feels really great, actually. I think I was playing pretty well all week and things went pretty well for me. The final table started very easy for me. I knocked out [Will Mietz], and when Adam Levy shoved on me, I woke up with queens and they held. Then the player to my right, Oddie [Dardon], was catching a lot of cards and I made one little-bit-loose call, and he got the chip lead, and he was getting more confident. So, I had to tighten up a little bit and get spots to get my chips back, and it happened, and everything was going well until Nam Le doubled up twice [heads-up].

If he doubled up a third time he would have had almost the same chips as me, so it would have been a much, much tougher game. So, I'm really relieved that 10 came on the flop.

JR: Because of the slow crawl to the final table, the blinds were quite high for the final table. Do you think a fast structure like this one really suited your particularly loose-aggressive style?

BG: I think it depends. Against some players I would rather have much deeper stacks. Against players like Nam Le, it's not that bad, because he's a really tough player, and with the blinds that big, it's harder for him to defend his chips so much. So, I guess it depends on who you are up against, but I would rather have much deeper stacks, obviously, because we were really deep-stacked all week, and it really suited my style. I was at or near the top of the leader board all week, so I love the structure of this tournament.

It kind of got fast at the end, since yesterday we slowed down a lot and the blinds went up quite a bit, but I think I adjusted well to it.

JR: After you busted Joe Sebok the day before the final table, you just seemed to put your foot on the gas and never let up. How important was that hand to this win?

BG: I think yesterday, you said it true, I busted Joe Sebok, and that was the most important hand of the tournament. Not only because it was a 4 million chip pot, but also I knew if I took out Joe in that hand that I would have a huge chip lead and people would be scared of making moves on me, because I called him with A 9 (Sebok had moved all in with a dominated K-9). So then I could just raise all of the hands at the end of the day. I won like 1.5 million in chips at the end of the day raising everything because nobody wanted to fight back, especially because of the TV bubble.

JR: On the hand in question, the action folded to you in the small blind, and you raised. Sebok pushed over the top, and you made a tough call. Sebok has been taking a lot of heat for that move. What was your opinion of the play?

BG: Especially because I had been raising his blind all day ... people don't know the history of the shove. I raised his blind almost every time, sometimes I did have a hand, but yeah, I did it almost every time because I really had no hands yesterday at that time, so I had to pick up those pots where I could. But yeah, small blind/big blind, it was a good spot.

I think it's a good move by him because I'm going to fold most of the time, but also, if I fold this time, it's going to be harder for me to raise his next blind. It was very important for me to call, because I wanted to control the table nine-handed. It was very important for me to get the chip lead back. If I folded, I could have survived, but then I couldn't get that stack, get to the final table, and bully the table yesterday. I think it was very important for me in terms of table domination to bust Joe Sebok and double up, and I knew the other players would try not to bust before the final table and give me respect.

When I call with a hand like A-9 suited, they can't really make a move on me without committing themselves. When they see me calling with a hand like that, they don't want to make a move against the chip leader, so it's very easy for me to play after that, because I knew they wouldn't make a move on me with a medium-strength hand.

JR: Going back to day 4 when you grabbed the chip lead for the first time, were you conscious of the fact no one had been able to hold a lead in this tournament to that point?

BG: I heard about the curse of the chip leader, actually. My friend told me about it. On day 3 I had like 1.1 million in chips, and then I was like, I hope I'm not the chip leader. I wasn't the chip leader, but then the day after that I was the chip leader, and I went from like 2 million to 1 million right away. But that was the first day [that the chip leader survived], I guess.

Then, yesterday, the blinds were really big so that I really couldn't develop my game as much as I wanted to. I had like 2 million and the blinds were 30,000-60,000 or 40,000-80,000. The chips were more precious, and I couldn't just open a lot of pots and then give up easily. Every pot was really, really important, and I had to be even more careful about the spots I chose, so it was the toughest day. Then, today, I had a good chip lead and I was really able to put the pressure on my opponents. Even if they would have doubled up, I felt I could outplay them.

I guess I made little a mistake with the 10-2, but I thought [Oddie Dardon] would be more scared and fold. Because Nam was so short, and I didn't put him on something even as good as A-J. I figured I would be like 30 or 35 percent against almost anything except a little pair. At the same time, I knew he would make the reraise with a lot of hands, because he knows I'm opening a lot of hands, and everyone was folding to me almost the whole final table.

I really thought he would fold his hand, so I was surprised when he called, but I got lucky. Although, even if I had lost that pot to him, we would still have the same amount of chips. He was chip leader for a little bit, but he made some mistakes, so I was confident I could outplay him again.

JR: Do you think Dardon turned out to be your toughest competition at the final table?

BG: He was the one getting the most cards, for sure. Nam would have been tough if he doubled up one more time. He was tough because you can't bust him. Nenad Medic and Adam Levy were really good, but they just never got the hands to be so dangerous. Especially if Adam Levy had won that hand, he would have had big chips, and he knows how to use them. Then I would have been in trouble. So, I guess Adam Levy and Nam Le were my toughest opponents.

JR: So, now that you've won a WPT and EPT title, two pieces of poker's Triple Crown, will you make an extra push for a WSOP bracelet this summer?

BG: I tried this year, also, but it didn't go so well. I had the chip lead in one event, but it didn't go so well. I will try again next year, but my style of tournament play is to either have a big stack the whole way or not even cash. I never look at the pay jumps, and I never look at just cashing. The only place I look for is the first one. Sometimes I make some risky moves to try to dominate the table. I'm just really happy my style worked when it mattered.

Check out this video from Card Player TV shortly following the conclusion of Festa al Lago:

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