Home / Poker News January 2009 / Bertrand Grospellier wins Caribbean Adventure high rollers event
Bertrand Grospellier wins Caribbean Adventure high rollers event
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-01-11 12:58
The $25,000 high rollers event at this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure played host to a select crew of EPT and WSOP champions, as well as for a bunch of “name” pros known from the online and cash game circuits.
The restrictive buy-in made it quite impossible and in the same time impractical for those without an established status in the poker world to participate. On one hand, this fact made the proceedings much more spectacular, on the other it made certain that the winner of the event would indeed be one of the best poker players in the world.
At the end of the hostilities, it was Frenchman Bertrand Grospellier, known as ‘ElkY’ who stood triumphant and walked away with the $433,500 first prize.
The first day saw everyone but the 8 final table participants eliminated. The final table bubble boy was Bill Edler whose departure left ElkY, Will Molson, Scott Seiver, Humberto Brennes, Liya Gerasimova, Daniel Alaei, Eli Elezra and Nick Schulman in the game.
Despite the hefty buy-in, the payouts were not overly impressive because of the reduced number of players. This way, Nick Schulman, who busted out after 2 hours of final table play only took down $45,700.
Daniel Alaei was the next victim of the final table attrition. He took home $57,000 for his 7th place finish, being sent to the payout line shortly after Schulman. After the first two eliminations, play ground to a crawl again.
Cash game specialist Eli Elezra finished in 6th, followed shortly by Humberto Brennes as both players just missed the dinner break.
The four remaining players returned to the table after dinner, with Bertrand Grospellier in the chip lead. Liya Gerasimova was the first to head to the rail after dinner, eliminated by Scott Seiver who moved into the chip lead this way. It was then that Grospellier decided to take over the final table. His aggressive play soon sent Scott Seiver to the payout booth in 3rd place.
That move also cemented Grospellier’s chip lead heading into the heads-up stage, lending him a huge 7:1 advantage. The former Starcraft pro didn’t hesitate to hammer that advantage home, and he only took a few hands to eject Will Molson in second.
