Tournament Trail POY Q and A -- Bertrand 'ElkY' GrospellierElkY Talks About his Two Big Wins at the Book Ends of 2008 |
|
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier began 2008 with the biggest win of his career. He won the European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, emerging from a filed of 1,136 players to take home $2 million. The second major title of the year for ElkY came in October. He won the World Poker Tour Festa al Lago tournament and another $1,411,015 in prize money. Grospellier cashed a total of 10 times in 2008 and six of those cashes came at final tables. He accumulated 5,510 Card Player Player of the Year points during this performance, which is good for third place at the end of the year. Grospellier won a total of $3,618,720 playing tournament poker in 2008, which is the largest amount won by any poker player that did not make an appearance at the World Series of Poker main event final table. Card Player caught up with ElkY at Bellagio last week and he discussed the successful year he had in 2008.
Ryan Lucchesi: Would you say that your win early in 2008 at the PCA was your biggest win of the year?
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier: It was the biggest because it was the first one I guess. The one here at Bellagio for the World Poker Tour was very important also because it was a very different field and all of the set up was different. It was a big confirmation. For personal satisfaction I think I played even better at the Bellagio tournaments, but at the PCA it was a bigger field and it was my first really big win so it is still very special.
RL: Would you say that the second major title that a player wins really establishes them as a force in the poker community?
BG: I guess it is really important to make that confirmation because these days there are so many tournaments all over the world so there are a lot of tournament winners. But winning two major titles in one year is a very big feat so I’m very proud and I’m very proud of the way I worked on my game.
RL: Would the Card Player Player of the Year award be another top honor you hope to claim during your career?
BG: Yes, of course actually, I’ve had that in mind for a couple of weeks now and I tried really hard to win some tournaments. I made it deep in some events here but at the end the cards were not with me. I’m staying confident in my play and in this tournament the structure is so great that I’m even more confident because I don’t have to gamble early on and I can really develop my whole game so I can play efficiently and pick the best spots I can find so I’m very confident.
RL: You made the last $5,000 final table in the prelims along with fellow POY contender David Pham. Were you really keeping tabs on him throughout the tournament, and especially at the final table?
BG: We have played together a lot and we are really good friends and he is a really good player…John Phan is ahead of us both anyway so it didn’t really matter to me because all I want is first place. I don’t care about being in second place.
RL: You started the year really hot with the big PCA win and here we are at the end of the year where you have won the Festa al Lago. Do you feel that timing is really important in the POY race and in tournament poker in general?
BG: Of course it is very important to be in good condition because poker is a game with a lot of variance, so when the rush of cards come and the correct conditions come you have to be in perfect condition to exploit it to the maximum. Some tournaments I can win without playing my very best the whole time, but it’s very important for the big events to play your best because small mistakes can make a huge difference at the end of a tournament so you really have to exploit everything.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
