Elky takes down WSOPE Colossus in Rozvadov

The French professional outlasted a field of 2,738 to take home the bracelet and the €190,375 coming with it.

"I was two cards away from busting in fifth, and now I am first."

The final festival has been crowned at the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe in the King’s Casino, Rozvadov. The player, who outlasted the massive field is none other than, long-time French poker pro, Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier.

The Frenchman added €190,375 to his all-time tournament earnings, which now stand at $13,953,497.

The €550 buy-in event offered nine starting flights, which attracted 2,738 entrants who created a prize pool of €1,300,550. All of the 313 players, who advanced to Day 2 walked away with a prize, but the final 11 participants, who managed to hang in there and made the final day took home the biggest share of the prize pool.

It was the WSOP POY specialist, Shaun Deeb, who busted in 11th place, which earned him €12,453 this time. Similarly to Deeb Pasquale Braco from Italy also received €12,453 for his 10th place.

Just like many times before, Shaun had a shot at becoming the Player of the Year, but he eventually fell short in that competition. “I was a huge underdog throughout the whole series, and today was the first day I was a legit favorite, and it fucked with my head.”

The official final table of nine saw Italy’s Francesco Candelari falling first. He walked away with €15,984 right into his pocket. Francesco was followed by fellow Italian, Alessandro Pezzoli, who added €20,703 to his bankroll, while Ukraine’s Sergii Karpov busted in 7th, for €27,057.

They were followed by a couple of Germans, Christoph Peper, and Dieter Becker, who picked up €35,674 and €47,452 respectively.

During the five-handed play, Elky was rolling low, but he made a successful comeback and never looked back. "It was quite tough because I lost a lot of pots early, the blinds go up pretty quick, and it is not forgiving. I shoved jack-ten for eight blinds, and the small blind had ace-king. I won that hand, and after that, I won ace-king against king-jack of the same guy."

Even though he had planned to play a small ball style, he couldn’t execute the plan, because "some of the guys were sizing their raises quite big, and it was tough to play against them. They have a lot of chips and are not afraid to get it in. Once I won the two all-ins, it put me into the lead, and I had a good run after that, and I am really happy with the result."

However, the seasoned pro managed to outlast everyone, including Denmark’s Mick Heder (4th; €63,670), and Marian Kubis from Slovakia (3rd; €86,172) and started the heads-up against Israeli Avraham Dayan.

Dayan started the duel as the underdog, and couldn’t get things going, so he eventually had to settle for second, and the €117,630 prize.

Results Final Day Event #15 €550 Colossus