Festa Domination: The ElkY Interview

By Martin Derbyshire Oct 28, 2008 | 2 months ago

Bertrand Grospellier wins WPT Season 7 Festa al Lago

Not only did Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier best 367 of the best poker players on the planet to take down the WPT Season 7 Festa al Lago crown. He broke a curse that saw each start of day chip leader before him fall, then crushed a final table that including the likes of WPT legends Nenad Medic and Nam Le.

Moments after his first WPT win, ElkY sat down with PL.com to tell us how he did it.

So ElkY, how does it feel to add a WPT title to your resume?

It feels really great actually. I think I was playing pretty well all week and things went pretty well for me.

The final table started very easy for me. I knocked out (William Mietz) and when Adam Levy shoved on my I woke up with queens and it held. Then the player to my right, Oddie, was catching a lot of cards and I made like one little bit loose call and he got the chip lead and he was getting more confident. So I had to tighten up a little bit and get spots to get my chips back and it happened and everything was going good until Nam Le doubled up twice.

If he doubled up a third time he would have had almost the same chips as me, so it would have been a much, much tougher game. So I'm really relieved that ten came on the flop.

The structure here saw the blinds escalate rather rapidly towards the end. Do you think a fast structure like this one really suits your particularly loose aggressive style?

I think it depends. Against some players I would rather have much deeper stacks. Against players like Nam Le it's not that bad because he's a really tough player and with the blinds that big it's harder for him to defend his chips so much. So I guess it depends on who you are up against, but I would rather have much deeper stacks obviously, because we were really deep stacked all week and it really suited my style. I was at or near the top of the leader board all week, so I love the structure of this tournament.

It kind of got fast at the end since yesterday we slowed down a lot and the blinds went up quite a bit, but I think I adjusted well to it.

The bully!

After you busted Joe Sebok yesterday you just seemed to put your foot on the gas and never let up. How important was that hand to this win?

I think yesterday, you said it true, I busted Joe Sebok and that was the most important hand of the tournament. Not only because it was a $4 million pot, but also I knew if I took out Joe in that hand that I would have a huge chip lead and people would be scared of making moves on me because I called him with ace-nine of hearts (Sebok had shoved with K9o). So then I could just raise all the hands at the end of the day. I won like $1.5 million in chips yesterday at the end of the day raising everything because nobody wanted to fight back, especially because of the TV bubble.

Did you think it was a good move by Sebok?

Especially because I had been raising his blind all day. People don't know the history of the shove. I raised his blind almost every time, sometimes I did have a hand, but yeah I did it almost every time because I really had no hands yesterday at that time so I had to pick up those pots where I could. But yeah small blind, big blind it was a good spot.

I think it's a good move by him because I'm going to fold most of the time, but also if I fold this time it's going to be harder for me to raise his next blind. It was very important for me to call, because I wanted to control the table nine handed. It was very important for me to get the chip lead back. If I folded I could have survived, but then I couldn't get that stack, get to the final table and bully the table yesterday. I think it was very important for me in terms of table domination to bust Joe Sebok and double up and I knew the other players would try not to bust before the final table and give me respect.

Domination on the brain.

When I call with a hand like ace-nine of hearts they can't really make a move on me without committing themselves. When they see me calling with a hand like that, they don't want to make a move against the chip leader, so it's very easy for me to play after that because I knew they wouldn't make a move on me with a medium strength hand.

Going back to Day 4 when you grabbed the chip lead for the first time, were you conscious of the fact no one had been able to hold a lead in this tournament to that point?

I heard about the curse of the chip leader, actually. My friend told me about it. On Day 3 I had like $1.1 million in chips and then I was like, I hope I'm not the chip leader. I wasn't the chip leader, but then the day after that I was the chip leader and I went from like $2 million to $1 million right away. But that was the first day (the chip leader survived) I guess.

Then yesterday the blinds were really big so I really couldn't develop my game as much as I wanted to. I had like $2 million and the blinds were $30,000/$60,000 or $40,000/$80,000. The chips were more precious and I couldn't just open a lot of pots then give up easily. Every pot was really, really important and I had to be even more careful about the spots I chose, so it was the toughest day. Then today I had a good chip lead and I was really able to put the pressure on my opponents. Even if they would have doubled up I felt I could outplay them.

I guess I made little a mistake with the deuce-ten, but I thought (Oddie) would be more scared and fold. Because Nam was so short and I didn't put him on something even as good as ace-jack. I figured I would be like 30 or 35 per cent against almost anything except a little pair. At the same time I knew he would make the re-raise with a lot of hands because he knows I'm opening a lot of hands and everyone was folding to me almost the whole final table.

I really thought he would fold his hand, so I was surprised when he called, but I got lucky. Although, even if I had lost that pot to him we would still have the same amount of chips. He was chip leader for a little bit, but he made some mistakes, so I was confident I could outplay him again.

Tough nut to crack.

So do you think Osmin "Oddie" Dardon turned out to be your toughest competition at the final table?

He was the one getting the most cards for sure. Nam would have been tough if he doubled up one more time. He was tough because you can't bust him. Nenad Medic and Adam Levy were really good, but they just never got the hands to be so dangerous. Especially if Adam Levy had won that hand, he would have had big chips and he knows how to use them. Then I would have been in trouble. So I guess Adam Levy and Nam Le were my toughest opponents.

So now that you've won a WPT and EPT title, two pieces of poker's Triple Crown, will you make an extra push for a WSOP bracelet this summer?

I tried this year also, but it didn't go so well. I had the chip lead in one event, but it didn't go so well. I will try again next year, but my style of tournament play is to either have a big stack the whole way or not even cash. I never look at the pay jump and I never look at just the cash. The only place I look for is the first one. Sometimes I make some risky moves to try and dominate the table. I'm just really happy my style worked today.

So what's next ElkY?

Flying to Budapest for the EPT there and then maybe back to Foxwoods. After that Amsterdam for the poker classic, then Warsaw, Prague and I'll be back here in December for the Five Diamond. Maybe Foxwoods if I have the time. I'm not sure yet.

 

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Grospellier's maniacal all or nothing style makes him a threat everywhere he plays and you can bet wherever it is, PL.com will be watching. This win cements the fact the Team PokerStars Pro is among the best in the world and worth keeping a close eye on.