After several years of silence, Poker Face returns to Poker France Belgium.
And for this relaunch, the section changes its face — literally and figuratively. From now on, Poker Face will no longer be limited to a genre, a nationality or a generation.
Players, historical figures, current talents, French, Belgian or international personalities: from now on the journeys, the personalities and the stories will make the selection.
To launch this new format, they needed an instantly recognizable man, but above all a personality whose story far exceeds a string of results.
His first name is Bertrand. His last name, Grospellier. But in the poker world as in e‑sports, four characters have been enough for more than twenty years: ElkY.
Before amassing millions on international circuits, before the EPT, WPT and WSOP titles, even before becoming one of the most recognized faces of French poker, Bertrand Grospellier had already chosen an unlikely path: to become a professional video‑game player in South Korea.
Before poker, Korea and e-sports
Born in Melun on February 8, 1981, Bertrand Grospellier belongs to a generation for which a professional video‑game career was still almost science‑fiction.
No Twitch. No multimillion‑euro European teams. No stadiums filled to watch video‑game finals. And above all, no obvious professional trajectory to turn thousands of training hours behind a screen into a real career.
ElkY will nevertheless try the adventure to the end.
In the early 2000s, he went to South Korea, then the global epicenter of StarCraft: Brood War. Over there, e‑sports already had several attributes of professional sport: intensive training, structured teams, result pressure, televised competitions and players who became celebrities.
In 2001, at the World Cyber Games in Seoul, the Frenchman reached the StarCraft final. He finished world runner‑up behind Korean icon Lim "BoxeR" Yo‑hwan.
That first career is essential to understand the one that followed. Decision speed, concentration, discipline, the ability to absorb huge amounts of information, reading the opponent and repetition: when Grospellier seriously discovered poker, he already had part of the necessary tools.
Before becoming a French poker star, ElkY was already among the European pioneers of professional gaming.
From gamer to grinder
The shift from e‑sport to poker seems almost natural when you observe how ElkY approaches the game.
In 2003, he opened an account on PokerStars. Quickly, Grospellier applied to online poker the same logic he knew from gaming: learn fast, work enormously and multiply game situations.
He became a multitabling specialist, able to play an impressive number of tables simultaneously, and entered PokerStars history by becoming the first player to reach Supernova status and then Supernova Elite.
Thousands of hands. Decisions made in a few seconds. Again and again.
The gamer’s mechanic is still there. But ElkY will not remain only an online‑poker machine.
2008: the year ElkY changes dimension
The year 2008 will catapult Bertrand Grospellier into another category.
In the Bahamas, he won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. A major victory that earned him 2 million dollars.
A few months later, off to Las Vegas. At the Bellagio, ElkY this time won the WPT Festa al Lago ahead of 368 players and added 1 411 015 $ to his résumé.
In a few months, the former Seoul pro‑gamer was no longer just an online‑poker curiosity. He became an international live‑poker star.
EPT, WPT, WSOP: the Triple Crown
Yet an essential piece of the puzzle is still missing.
In June 2011, at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Grospellier entered the $10 000 Seven Card Stud Championship.
After a several‑hour heads‑up against Steve Landfish, ElkY won the tournament and pocketed $331 639 as well as his first WSOP bracelet.
That bracelet mainly allowed him to complete one of the most coveted poker achievements worldwide: the Triple Crown, i.e., a major win on the EPT, the WPT and the WSOP.
The feat has a particular flavor: Seven Card Stud wasn't the discipline on which the French built his reputation.
Eight years later, ElkY added a second bracelet to his résumé. In 2019, at the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, he won the WSOP Europe €550 Colossus and collected €191 172.
ElkY's look... but especially the method
Bleached hair, tinted glasses, futuristic outfits, helmets and impossible appearances not to miss: ElkY also understood very early that a player could have an identity.
In a sometimes very uniform poker universe, his look became almost as recognizable as his nickname.
Yet behind the spectacular image hides a competitor much more methodical than the character might let think.
Physical preparation, mental work, analysis, volume and adaptation: Grospellier has always thrived in environments where stopping progress quickly means being left behind.
Strategies change. Opponents become better. Analytical tools progress. New generations arrive with ever more sophisticated technical bases.
ElkY's longevity therefore also tells this: his ability not to remain a prisoner of what worked yesterday.
Two worlds that eventually converge
What makes his journey particularly interesting today is that the border between his two careers seems much less surprising than it was in the early 2000s.
Competitive gaming, streaming, live analysis, statistics, online communities, coaching, mental preparation: modern poker and e‑sport now share many codes.
ElkY had started navigating these worlds long before this convergence became evident.
He will later return to competitive gaming, notably on Hearthstone, by joining the prestigious organization Team Liquid.
He will also be among the professional poker players who understood very early the interest of Twitch: not only to play in front of an audience, but especially to explain decisions and share an experience usually invisible to the viewer.
Over 15 million dollars… and another form of victory
In autumn 2026, The Hendon Mob records $15 400 307 in live‑tournament winnings for Bertrand Grospellier.
He holds second place on the France All‑Time Money List, with a best individual result of $2 278 657.
That personal record dates back to the 2017 WSOP: ElkY finished second in the $111 111 High Roller for One Drop.
And the career didn't stop at the great PokerStars years.
In March 2024, in Taipei, Grospellier won the very tough APT Superstar Challenge against a field of 49 entries.
First prize: 11 632 810 Taiwanese dollars, about $367 800 US.
In February 2025, he also announced the end of his adventure with GGPoker, while specifying that he does not intend to disappear from the tables.
More than twenty years after his first steps in poker, ElkY is therefore not simply a name associated with a bygone era.
Because a Poker Face must tell more than a record
Poker has many players who have won enormously. Far fewer have a journey that tells something bigger than their results alone.
Bertrand Grospellier clearly belongs to this second category.
He was a professional player before e‑sport became a global industry. He participated in the golden age of online poker. He won titles on three of the planet's most prestigious circuits. He saw Twitch, solvers, new generations and successive transformations of professional poker arrive.
And he has crossed all those eras without losing what has always made him identifiable: his desire for competition and that very particular identity.
ElkY. Four characters, two worlds and more than twenty years of competition at the highest level.
For the return of Poker Face, it's hard to find a better common thread between yesterday's poker and today's.
This new version of Poker Face will be open to all personalities who keep poker alive: women or men, French, Belgian or international figures, recognized champions or actors whose journeys simply deserve to be told.
A face. A story. A personality. Welcome to the new Poker Face.
Bertrand Grospellier on the web
Social networks, streaming and career statistics.
Main sources: The Hendon Mob, World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker, Asian Poker Tour, World Cyber Games and Wikimedia Commons.
Live earnings and ranking data are those available at the time of publication in October 2026.
Historical photographs are hosted by Wikimedia Commons and reproduced in accordance with the Creative Commons licenses indicated under each image. Poker France Belgique claims no ownership rights over these photographs.
