Bertrand Grospellier, better known (or known at least as well) to poker players by his online handle “ElkY,” is on the short list to be the 2022 Poker Hall of Fame admitted.
Grospellier is an ex-pro-StarCraft player and current-pro-Hearthstone player. In between those forms of professional gaming, he also took up poker for a while, becoming the best-known tournament players from poker's halcyon decade. In that cozy period from PokerStars.com launching in 2001 to its sudden replacement with the DOJ logo in 2011, ElkY was the archetypical dangerous Euro that worries the Yanks each year when WSOP time comes around.
Among his many achievements as a poker player, Grospellier was the first person to reach Supernova Elite on PokerStars back and he holds the Guinness World Record for most sit'n'goes played in an hour. The number was sixty-two, and he even managed to turn a small profit while he was at it.
Away from the keyboard and mouse pad, Grospellier is one of the few players to have won poker's triple crown. He has on his trophy shelf: a WPT main event title, an EPT main event title, and a WSOP bracelet (in fact, two bracelets). He also has $14.8 million in live cashes making him the highest-ranked French player on the Hendon Mob and the 56th in the world.
In 2020, Grospellier signed with GGPoker, adding himself to a growing but controversial team of sponsored pros and further cementing his place as someone who continues to push to grow the game.
Hall of Fame nomination
In recognition of all this, Grospellier finds himself on the Poker Hall of Fame shortlist along with nine competitors. This is ElkY's second time on the PHOF shortlist, appearing for the first time last year.
In order to win this year, he will have to garner the most votes from the 32 living members of the PHOF. Each member has ten votes to cast and can distribute them between the ten candidates however they see fit.
It's not a perfect system, but it's the one ElkY will have to beat if he is to have his name enshrined in the hall, along with the other 59 members.
Featured image source: WPT, used under CC license.
