Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier on winning his second WSOP bracelet

Team partypoker’s Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier recently captured his second WSOP bracelet with victory in the WSOPE Colossus event in Rozvadov for €190,375, topping a field of 2,738 entries in the €550 buy-in event, taking his lifetime live poker tournament winnings to almost $14 million.

Here, the popular Frenchman shares his thoughts on his victory with the partypoker blog.

“The World Series of Poker Europe at King’s Resort is always a very special event for me. Not only is it, of course, the biggest European tournament series of the year, but also playing at King’s feel like a home advantage for me.

It is the third year that I’ve played this festival, and the last two have been very disappointing, results-wise, which is not surprising at all in the grand scheme of things, considering the predominant part of the variance in poker tournaments.

You need to develop skills in all areas

Poker is a wonderful game, which forces us to develop a lot of important skillsets to succeed, like mastering our emotions and accepting the part randomness plays in everything, especially in the short term. Also, detaching yourself from the result of a decision is probably the hardest and most counterintuitive one.

As a matter of fact, the tournaments you bust early are usually the ones in which you make the least mistakes, simply because they are the ones where you played the least hands. It can appear so strange for everyone else, that during the Colossus event, which I ended up fortunate enough to win for my second career gold bracelet, I made more mistakes than in any other tournament of the series, even though I constantly tried to play my best.

This win obviously felt amazing, and it is a testament to the craziness of the game we all love, as it is the one I was least likely to win considering the sheer size of the field. It also shows to everyone out there who hasn’t had the expected results lately that dedication and perseverance will eventually be rewarded in poker.

I will now enjoy a few days celebrating and resting before seeing you guys at the Caribbean Poker Party in The Bahamas!”