ElkY touts GGPoker’s software
A day after teasing the signing of a new brand ambassador, online poker room GGPoker announced that Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier has joined the team.
Grospellier made the jump from partypoker. On April 11, just five days before his GGPoker announcement, he publicly welcomed actor/comedian Kevin Hart to the partypoker team. In a three-minute video, Grospellier expressed his excitement for his new site, particularly when it comes to the software.
“GGPoker is the only online poker site which has all the features you can find when you play live poker,” he explained.
You can stake players and sell pieces of yourself, or buy pieces of your favorite players…”
Grospellier added: “My favorite feature, I think the best one, is that you can stake players directly on the software, on the GGPoker client. You can stake players and sell pieces of yourself, or buy pieces of your favorite players…”
He went on to say that while he will, of course, be spending lots of time playing on GGPoker, he will also be “focusing on Twitch and interacting with the fans.”
From eSports to poker
The 39-year-old is one of the most accomplished live poker tournament players in the world. He has $14.7 million in recorded live tournament earnings, putting him 45th on the all-time list and listing him at the first all-time in France. He is one of the few people to earn the “triple crown”: a World Poker Tour title, a European Poker Tour crown, and a World Series of Poker bracelet (twice).
ElkY was the first online poker player to earn both Supernova and Supernova Elite statuses on PokerStars, doing so more than a decade ago. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Grospellier was a top-ranked StarCraft player, winning the Euro Cyber Games in 2003.
Grospellier joins Daniel Negreanu
The signing of ElkY is another in a series of recent moves that has elevated GGPoker’s status in the online poker world. It comes five months after the site shocked the poker community by nabbing Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu, who left PokerStars earlier in 2019 after a 12-year run.
Grospellier was with PokerStars for about the same length of time, breaking with the site in January 2018.
Negreanu posted a short video on Twitter welcoming his friend to GGPoker, saying, “We’ve been teammates in the past and I’m super excited to be teammates again.” He added:
He’s a great guy, even better player, and I know he’s going to help the site continue to grow.”
Speaking exclusively to VSO News, the new Director of Live Events, Ambassadors & Sponsorships John Scanlon had this to say: “Everything about bringing ElkY into the GGPoker family made sense. His energy and passion for the industry is on another level. ElkY, as with all our ambassadors, brings something a little bit different to the team. Everyone at GGPoker is super excited to be working with the newest addition to our ever growing team.”
This week, GGPoker also announced that it will be the host site for the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series. Running for three weeks in May, the series will feature hundreds of tournaments, including 18 gold ring events.