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ElkY Wins Second Bracelet at WSOP Europe – Negreanu Wins WSOP Player of the Year

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Bertrand Grospellier WSOP Europe

The 2019 World Series of Poker Europe is officially in the books and it took until the final day to determine WSOP Player of the Year. In the final event, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was able to secure his second career WSOP bracelet after defeating the largest field of the series.

Shaun Deeb came into the final day looking to leapfrog over Daniel Negreanu for Player of the Year. However, he fell short of the final table and ended up finishing in 11th. As a result, Negreanu won POY for the third time.

Shaun Deeb “Chokes” His Way to 11th Place Finish

The final day of the €550 Colossus Event kicked off on Monday with 11 players looking to take down the final bracelet of the year. Among those remaining was Shaun Deeb who started the day third in chips.

Soon after the start of play, Alessandro Pezzoli doubled through Deeb after Deeb made an ill-timed shove with K-9. Pezzoli had A-5 and flopped trips to double. Shortly after, Deeb got tangled up in a hand with Bertrand Grospellier.

At the turn, the board was Qc-10c-9s-10d and Deeb checked. ElkY bet 1.77 million and Deeb decided to shove. ElkY snap-called and turned over Jd-8d for a flopped straight. Deeb had Jh-9d for two pair and a draw to a chop. A river ace sent Deeb to the rail in 11th place.

Deeb needed to place fifth or better in this event to leapfrog Daniel Negreanu for WSOP Player of the Year. His 11th place finish means that Daniel Negreanu is the first player to win three WSOP Player of the Year titles.

It also means that Negreanu is the first POY winner to do so without winning a bracelet in the year he won POY. Interestingly enough, there are now some people calling for the POY to give more weight to bracelet winners.

ElkY Wins Somewhat Lackluster Final Table

After the elimination of Shaun Deeb, the only big name left in the field was Bertrand Grospellier. ElkY amazingly just has one WSOP bracelet to his resume prior to this event, but that was soon to change. After starting about the middle of the pack at the start of the final table, ElkY found a key double through Dieter Becker with five players left.

Becker shoved with K-J pre-flop and Grospellier woke up with A-K. The board ran out low and Grospellier doubled into the chip lead and left Becker with one big blind. Becker was eliminated shortly thereafter.

From this point, it was “all ElkY, all the time” as he was nearly a 2 to 1 chip leader against Avraham Dayan as the start of heads-up play. Dayan made a game of it and nearly pulled even a couple of times, but ElkY was able to pull away.

In the final hand, a raising war saw ElkY shove with pocket tens and Dayan call with Ac-10c. Dayan failed to catch an ace and had to settle for second place.

Bertrand Grospellier finally won his second career bracelet in this event. He won his first bracelet back in 2011 after winning the $10k Seven Card Stud Championship. It took eight years to win his second title, but he is now no longer a one-hit-wonder. In addition to winning the bracelet, ElkY won €190,375 in prize money.

With ElkY’s win, the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe comes to a close. Most of the poker world will turn their attention to the Poker Masters that will kick off on Tuesday. By the end of the year, we will likely know the dates for the 2020 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, so in a few months, we will start the bracelet madness all over again.

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