Another big poker win for Grospellier

01/10/2009

Online and live tournament poker ace Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier lit up the High Roller event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas this week with a convincing win over 47 other big names competing in the $25 000 buy-in game.

To claim his $433 500 winner's prize, Grospellier had to survive a field that included names like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Eric Seidel, Gus Hansen, Greg Raymer, Justin Bonomo, Chris Ferguson, Ivan Demidov, Dario Minieri, Joe Hachem and a slew of other top international players.

It took 15 hours to reach a final table that comprised cash game whiz Eli Elezra, WSOP bracelet holders Humberto Brenes, Daniel Alaei and Scott Seiver and WPT champ Nick Schulman, Liya Gerasimova, Will Molson and of course Grospellier himself. Another two hours were to pass before the first final table exit, which proved to be Nick Schulman. He was followed by Alaei, Ezra and Brenes before the dinner break.

Resuming play after dinner, Grospellier held the chip lead and saw the departure of Gerasimova and then Seiver in third place, clearing the way for a heads between Grospellier and Molson, with Grospellier holding a hard-to-beat 7 to 1 chip lead which he quickly exploited to the full to send Molson home in short order. Molson collected a check for $228 000 for his time and trouble, with third placed Scott Seiver still in six-figure territory with his take-home of $137 000.