Winning back-to-back championships in any sport, in any form of competition, is quite a feat, and in poker it is even harder to accomplish. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier won the European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2008, besting a field of 1,136 players to win $2 million. In 2009, he was unable to beat a field of 1,347 players to repeat as champion, but what he did last night at the Atlantis Resort solidified his greatness. One year after he won the main event at the PCA, he won the first-ever $25,000 high-roller event held at the PCA and $433,500 in prize money. He has reached a pinnacle of poker consistency in the process. Grospellier has now won $2,433,500 in prize money in the Bahamas in the last 365 days.
The $25,000 high-rollers event attracted a field packed with the top poker players in the world. Forty-eight of them began the tournament, and making the final table could be marked as an achievement after wading through a field that featured Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, and Gus Hansen, former world champions Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, and Chris Ferguson, and Internet young guns Shaun Deeb, Sorel Mizzi, and Isaac Baron (all three of which were seated at the same table at one point). The final eight eventually emerged, and they began play today after 2 p.m. as the EPT Live cameras caught every hand. Here were the chip counts at the beginning of the final table:
Seat 1: Humberto Brenes — 423,500
Seat 2: Scott Seiver — 449,500
Seat 3: Nick Schulman — 99,500
Seat 4: Liya Gerasimova — 259,000
Seat 5: Daniel Alaei — 209,500
Seat 6: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier — 358,000
Seat 7: Will Molson — 270,500
Seat 8: Eli Elezra — 355,500
Grospellier soon took the chip lead when he rivered trip tens to win a pot against Eli Elezra, where he poured on the aggression on every street against the veteran Vegas professional. ElkY eliminated his first victim at the final table when he held pocket tens against the A
J of Nick Schulman about an hour into the final table. The board delivered a lineup of blanks, and Schulman was eliminated in eighth place ($45,700).
Liya Gersimova (the girlfriend of Ivan Demidov) put the test to Daniel Alaei after that. First by doubling up through Alaei when she made aces up with A-8 in the hole against Alaei’s pocket kings, and second when she defeated Alaei’s cowboys in the hole for a second straight time. This time she held A-J and the board ran out Q-8-4-10-A to knock Alaei out of the tournament in seventh place ($57,000).
The largest hand of the final table came next, when the two Team PokerStars pros at the table decided to duel for most of their marbles. Grospellier and Humberto Brenes saw a flop of Q
10 2
, and Brenes bet 25,000. ElkY called, and the turn fell 4. Brenes bet 60,000, and ElkY raised to 188,000. Brenes paused for a bit and then announced that he was all in. Grospellier called and turned up pocket tens, while Brenes showed down pocket twos. The river brought the 8, and Brenes was crippled. ElkY was the first millionaire in the tournament when no one held even half of that amount.
Elezra was on a short-stack when he was forced to push all in with pocket fives a while later. Gersimov woke up with pocket queens behind him, and she faded a third 5 to knock Elezra out in sixth place ($68,500) and claim her second knockout at the final table. Brenes fell next in fifth after hanging on for a time after the devastating hand where he lost to ElkY. His final stand came with K 4
, but he was dominated by the K 10 of Scott Seiver. The board flopped 4 3 2 to give Brenes hope, but it finished with runner-runner hearts (7 3) to knock The Shark out of play in fifth place ($70,800).
The final four players then went to dinner for an hour and returned at 8 p.m. for the final march to a champion. Will Molson doubled up to kick off the post-dinner action, but Seiver scored his second elimination next to steal the Canadian’s momentum. Seiver woke up with pocket aces when Gerasimova tried to make an all-in move holding 8 6. The board brought no help to the young Russian, and she was eliminated in fourth place ($91,300). ElkY grabbed the momentum once again, though, and after he won a large pot off of Seiver to slow him down, he finished the job by knocking him out of the tournament. Seiver open-shoved with 10-9 on his final hand, and ElkY called him down with A-8. The turn brought an ace and sealed Seiver’s fate, a third-place finish worth $137,000.
The heads-up match began with Molson holding 331,000 to ElkY’s 2 million, and things were finished quickly. On the first hand between the final two, Molson open-shoved with K 10 and Grospellier called him down with A J. The board rolled out Q 6 2 A 6, and Molson was eliminated in second place ($228,000). Grospellier was the last player standing, and he began 2009 the same way he did 2008 — by winning a major poker tournament title. He added $433,500 to his bankroll, and he now holds $4,681,839 in career tournament winnings.
Final results:
1: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier – Team PokerStars Pro (France) — $433,500
2: Will Molson (Canada) — $228,000
3: Scott Seiver (USA) — $137,000
4: Liya Gerasimova (Russia) — $91,300
5: Humberto Brenes – Team PokerStars Pro (Costa Rica) — $70,800
6: Eli Elezra (USA) – $68,500
7: Daniel Alaei (USA) — $57,000
8: Nick Schulman (USA) — $45,700
