Elky Crowned First PokerStars ‘Pro-Gamer Challenge’ Champion

Well its old news now, but here is the posting from Pokerstars.com.
The win here, plus winning another satelite qualifier; qualifed Elky for the French Open and Vienna for the European Poker Tour (EPT) and if he wins at either of the 2 he will qualify for the grand final at Monte Carlo in Monaco from March 15-19th. Wish him luck!

Elky Crowned First PokerStars 'Pro-Gamer Challenge' Champion January 15, 2005 -
PokerStars, the second largest poker site in the world, hosted the very first PokerStars 'Pro-Gamer Challenge' on Thursday 13 January 2005, where nine of the best British and foreign professional gamers were invited to take part in a single table satellite poker tournament on PokerStars.com.

Professional gamers from Britain, Korea, Sweden and the US put their skills to the test in a live game of No Limit Texas Hold'em, with the winner receiving free entry and hotel accommodation to the 2000 euro tournament at the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Deauville, France, 15-19th February.

Each player, well known within their dedicated field, was chosen based on their achievements in the gaming world and their passion for poker. The four British contestant were invited to the HarrowLife Internet Café in Harrow where a private area was exclusively set up for the tournament. The final battle came down to a four player shoot-out between Yorkshire's 'Mangiacapra' (Marc Mangiacapra), the experienced ElkY - Bertrand Grospellier a French pro-gamer based in South Korea, Tillerman (playing from Glasgow) and Tobes (Toby Aldridge), manager of the Four Kings pro-gamer team.

All were about even on chips when ElkY picked up a pair of aces and successfully eliminated two players - Tobey and Tillerman - in one hand, leaving him with a towering chip lead over Mangiacapra, the last remaining player. The tournament came to a rapid conclusion when ElkY's pair of tens was too strong for Mangiacapra, and the Frenchman - suitably enough - won his seat to Deauville EPT event (televised on Eurosport) in France next month.

"More and more professional gamers are using their skills to become very serious poker players and the nine players in the PokerStars 'Pro-Gamer Challenge' are no exception," says PokerStars spokesperson Conrad Brunner. "These guys are already champions in their fields, and what's interesting to us is that they are able to transfer these skills - focus, speed of thought, competitiveness, coolness under pressure - to the poker table. They are pretty awesome poker players, and we're really looking forward to seeing how ElkY does in Deauville."

Results: PokerStars Pro-Gamer Challenge
1st - ElkY - Bertrand Grospellier, Korea
2nd - Mangiacapra - Marc Mangiacapra, Britain
3rd - Tobes - Toby Aldridge, Britain
4th - Tillerman - Iain Girdwood, Britain
5th - Sujoy - Sujoy Roy, Britain
6th - Fox - Magnus Olsson, Sweden
7th - Grrr… - Guillaume 'Giyom' Patry, Korea
8th - Zero4 - John Hill, America
9th - Lakerman - Oskar Ljungstrom, Sweden