Hevad Khan is renowned as the Team PokerStars Pro sit-and-go expert, but Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier might have just snatched the title.
Fresh off of a third-place finish at the WPT Championship earlier this week, Grospellier spent Day 1a of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour's Grand Final searching for a world record.
The French pro played an incredible 62 $6.50 PokerStars SNGs in sixty minutes, playing on four-monitors on the final table set with his every move broadcast to an enthusiastic audience.
ElkY needed to turn a profit to clinch the record, and needed to cash in the final tournament to finish in the black.
He would do better than cash, defeating player "King Sampie" in a spirited heads-up battle to claim the game and the record with a $23.67 profit.
Grospellier Hangs On for World SnG Record
"I'm tired, actually," Grospellier told PokerListings.com. "It was pretty exhausting because I was really not prepared.
"I arrived from Las Vegas yesterday and expected to have a little more time to prepare."
Grospellier began the challenge confident in his abilities, loading as many as 40 tournaments at a time before the pace began to catch up with him.
"It was out of control," he said. "Shorthanded play went so fast and I was sitting out a lot, but at the end I managed to regain momentum and got better."
He told PokerListings he was surprised to turn a profit at all.
"I thought I was down a lot, actually," he said. "I felt like I kept losing and sitting out of the early games."
Khan, who gained internet notoriety when he videotaped himself playing 26 SNGs at one time, was one of many Team PokerStars Pro pros who hung around to sweat their teammate.
RaiNKhaN told PokerListings.com he liked what he saw.
"I'm impressed, because there are two difficulties in what he was trying to do," Khan said. "It's very hard to play 62 tables and turn a profit, and it's also very hard to play that many tables without starting smaller and working your way up."
Khan pointed to Grospellier's excellent command of sit-and-go strategy as the key to his success.
"I liked his play a lot," he said. "I thought he played tight, which is good in SNGs, and he knew when to shove, which is essential if you're going to turn a profit."
"It's really nice to have the record," Grospellier said. "I'm really happy I managed to succeed without adequate preparation.
As ElkY ground his way toward the record, Day 1a of the EPT Grand Final was playing out its eight sixty-minute levels.
A total of 396 players paid the €10,600 entry fee and by day's end about 230 players were left standing.
Among those who lived to see Thursday's Day 2 were Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Dario Minieri, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Annette Obrestad.
Failing to make the cut were Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Chris Moneymaker.
Action continues in Monaco with tomorrow's Day 1b, in which ElkY will look to continue his winning streak by facing off against the likes of Christina Milian, Nico Rosberg, Nelly and former champs Glen Chorny and Gavin Griffin.
Play kicks off at noon local time (6 a.m. EST). Check out all of the day's highlights in the PokerListings.com Live Tournaments section.
The fact that pictures weren’t displayed in some of the tournaments has to do with some software glitches….
How do I know that ?? well when I do 2-4 “MULTI” tables, it often happens that my little SSB64 Fox’s picture doesn’t show in only some of them…Sometimes the “red button” on PS displays the hand history of some wrong random table also, so I guess it’s the same kind of glitch…
I think you get what I’m trying to say…
imo it’s 100% as stated.
PokinStaR
Sick life.
Your mom multi-tables at the local strip club?
Well, like the guys at the back of the club I feel like I am looking at an ass right now.
Good game knockonwoody. Keep donating your social security cheques to the poker community please.
My mom multi tables at the local strip club. Big whoop this guy can multi table online. ooooooooh. Let my mom give him a run for his money.
Hey guys,
As far as the multi-accounting question goes, the challenge was played out on the final table stage in Monte Carlo in front of an audience, with all of ElkY’s SNGs open and visible to all.
As Sean pointed out, PokerStars would have to have set up ElkY’s multi-accounting if that’s what he was doing. I’m going to say there’s a 0% chance he was multi-accounting.
About the possibility of people in the crowd cheating, the crowd wasn’t big enough that anyone could sneak in with a laptop. Anyone trying to cheat would have been immediately noticed. I’m not sure they could have played the same tournaments on the same internet connection anyway.
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Cheers,
Owen
Is this what poker is really coming to? A friggin’ sit n go count? Dude my buddy can smash multiple mountain dew cans against his forehehead, should half the world be awarded for stupidity? Your profitt was less than minable, your play was less than stellar, as you said yourself, you were sitting out half the hands in play…. In my mind just another deuchebag displaying what any imbecile with enough bankroll to run 60 plus sng’s could do… Get a grip guy, and don’t let your major tourney win go to your head, you are still soft as tissue! Enjoy the cash, cause nothing is promised.
^^^
youre an idiot. DUCY?
great effort.
what efforts were put in place so people couldn’t cheat against him from the crowd though??
gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogo!
Considering:
A) People watched him do it live
B) To have multiple accounts in this scenario, it would have to be done BY Pokerstars themselves
I’m pretty sure it’s legit. As for the pics, there can be many explanations as to why they didn’t show up.
Either way, people watched him do it live, there was only one person at the mouse and keyboard.
It sure is quite an achievement if it was all done fair. But I watched a few tables of the tour. In some of them his image displayed and in some it didn’t.
For example Tours 159411619 and 159412601 you can see his face
In tours 159420076 and 15945008 you can’t
He is meant to have his pic in all tables if he is playing from the same account. This should have nothing to do with timeout by the way, once you’re in your image should just be there.
I am not sure this was realm it seems to me like 2 accounts (or possibly more who knows) were used.
Why did this happen?
Anyone else saw this?