Bertrand Grospellier Takes Down 2008 Festa al Lago (WPT)

Published on October 27th, 2008 3:57 am EST

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier took down the second major tournament of his career on Sunday, besting Nam Le in heads-up play to take down the 2008 Festa al Lago main event. Grospellier took down $1.41 million dollars and the WPT title for finishing in first place. With his win on Sunday, "ElkY" became just the third person to ever win both a WPT and EPT title (along with Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin).

Grospellier entered the final table with a commanding chip lead, but he would have to navigate through a stacked final table that included the likes of Nam Le, Nenad Medic and Adam "Roothlus" Levy to capture his first WPT title.

"ElkY" sliced through the competition when the final table got underway, eliminating William Mietz, Adam Levy and Nenad Medic in rapid succession. With three players left in the tournament, "ElkY" held well over 60% of the chips that were left in play. It wasn't going to be that easy for "ElkY" though, as the remaining players, Oddie Dardon and Nam Le, both managed to double up and cut into Grospellier's lead.

"ElkY" regained his composure though and soon sent Oddie Dardon to the rail. Dardon's elimination hand came when "ElkY" tried to bluff Dardon out of a pot holding just 10-2. Dardon called with A-J, but was sent to the rail when "ElkY" caught a 2 and Dardon couldn't catch up.

This left Grospellier heads-up against Nam Le for the title. "ElkY" held a MASSIVE chip lead - 15 million plus to 925k when heads-up play began. Le doubled up a couple of times which surely made Grospellier a bit nervous. Le has a ton of experience and giving him any chips was the last thing that "ElkY" wanted to do.

The final hand of the tournament came when the two players got their chips in the middle in a classic race situation. Grospellier held pocket tens while Le held A-Q offsuit. The flop came 10-7-6, giving "ElkY" a set and leaving Le drawing very thin. The turn gave Le the possibility of a chop, but the river bricked out and "ElkY" took down his first WPT title.

Le received $943k for finishing in second place.

As mentioned, this is the second major title of Grospellier's young poker career. "Elky" also took down the 2008 PCA for $2 million dollars. In 2007, "ElkY" was just one card away from taking down the EPT Copenhagen event, but eventually ended up finishing in second place for $400k. With this victory, Grospellier now has well over $4 million dollars in lifetime "live" tournament cashes.

Grospellier, a Team Pokerstars Pro, will likely also receive a very nice bonus from Pokerstars for taking down this tournament.

This victory further adds to what has been a stellar year for Grospellier. In addition to winning the 2008 PCA and Festa Al Lago tournaments, "ElkY" also final tabled the Grand Prix de Paris main event and did extremely well in the 2008 WCOOP.

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Filed Under: Tournament Results