Ultimate High Roller: The Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Interview

By Arthur Crowson Jan 8, 2009 | 10 months ago

Bertrand Grospellier wins the 2009 PCA High Rollers Event

It wasn't quite the same as beating more than 1,100 players in last year's PCA main event, but Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier managed to outlast 48 of the world's toughest poker players and win the 2009 High Roller event on Thursday night.

The former professional gamer has put together one of the most impressive tournament records over the past 12 months with wins on the EPT, WPT and several cashes at the WSOP. For those keeping track at home, that's over $4.1 million in tournament cashes.

Grospellier sat down with PokerListings.com just minutes after winning $433,500 and becoming the 2009 PCA High Roller.

So ElkY, why have you found so much success in the Bahamas?

I don't know. [laughs] It's poker I guess. I think I've been playing very well in this event. I thought I was playing really well in the main event too. I came in like two weeks earlier and I was very well-rested and ready for to play.

The baddest in the Bahamas.

The main event went well too but sometimes things don't go your way.

How disappointed were you to bust out of the main event?

It was pretty disappointing because I was defending champion. I really hoped that I could go far again. I was dreaming of going back-to-back. That would have been really tough to do. I was really happy to get to play another event immediately after the main event. I'm feeling really good now. It is such a great start to the year.

You've had considerable success on the poker tour. Where does this tournament rank as far as your personal achievements go?

Calling all high rollers.

It's definitely a special place because it was the toughest field. There were only great players and the structure was a bit deeper than the main event. Of course it also feels good to win against a +1,000 field. Last year's win will always be very special to me but this one was important because I proved to myself I can defeat even the toughest players.

It's very important as a poker player to be very good all-around. You don't want to just be good against one kind of player. I'm very happy that I was able to adapt my game to beat either huge fields or really tough fields.

One of the early casualties.

I was able to pick my spots very well and I got in some very good situations and a few lucky ones. Especially the set-over-set versus Humberto [Brenes], but I guess that's part of the game.

What was your strategy going into the final table? Were you just going to pile on the standard aggression that you are known for?

Yeah, kind of. I mean you always have to adapt in poker and go with the flow of the game. In the beginning I won a big pot but then I was just waiting for a good spot. Some of the best players - like Eli Elezra and Nick Schulman - got unlucky so that helped me.

I think when we got down to five or six players there were people that weren't really playing to win. They just wanted to move up the payouts. I tried my best to take advantage of that. I thought I played really well but I was also running good too. I had a lot of hands against Scott Seiver and of course the set-over-set.

Set-over-set no good for Huuuumberto.

It seemed like you slowed down a bit more than people expected after you won that pot versus Brenes; was that your intent?

Well, it was a big pot, but I had to sort of pace myself because the blinds were still relatively small and the other players were kind of deep.

There were also players that were really short so it was hard for me to raise because they would be forced to just shove.

Thanks for the money!

I wanted to just keep grinding them down. I was trying to be somewhat conservative and not go crazy with the all-ins. I really wanted to protect my stack. I was actually never all-in except for the hand where I turned a set against Brenes. I think that was very important. In the long run I felt like I could just win the majority of the small pots and eventually come out on top.

What's harder, winning the PCA Main Event or the PCA High Rollers Event?

Well of course getting through a field of 1,100 players is pretty crazy. This one was very tough too and it's really great to be able to win another PokerStars event here after my success here last year. It really means a lot to me.

 

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Grospellier is quickly becoming one of the most dominant forces on the tournament circuit. He now leads David Benyamine by a wide margin as the all-time French moneymaker. There's no reason to expect anything less from Grospellier in the coming months so be on the lookout for the French raising machine known as ElkY.