For those of you who don't know, the fight will consist of five, three-minute rounds. You can only win the fight if you knock out your opponent or earn a technical knockout. You can also win if the other person simply gives up. If both fighters are still standing after the gruelling five rounds, the match will be considered a draw and all bets washed. Here are a few other interesting rules, which Veldhuis wrote about in a recent blog post on his website.

- Kicks allowed to every part of the body, except for the groin area
- No elbows allowed
- Knees to the face and rest of the body are allowed
- No "clinch knees" allowed (holding a fighter's head and repeatedly striking with knee)
- Three countdowns in one round equals a loss
- Four countdowns in the match equals a loss
- No headbutts or punching to the back of the head
- Spin-kicks, punches and sweeps are allowed

Here's how the two fighters shape up:

Grospellier has maybe gotten himself in over his head when he made an even money bet against Veldhuis that he could beat him in this fight. Veldhuis seems far more athletic and had taken up boxing for a short time in his teenage years. ElkY was traditionally non-athletic and had virtually no fighting experience. When the bet was made, ElkY was in the midst of a training bet with another professional poker player, Sorel Mizzi. According to Veldhuis in his blog, ElkY "was convinced he was a powernerd."

However, ElkY has never once shown regret in making the wager. Instead, he has used the bet as motivation to turn his rather unhealthy lifestyle into one of drive and focus, which has drawn increased attention to their upcoming bout. ElkY is giving up about three inches in height, which should play to Veldhuis' advantage by giving him a longer reach in both his arms and legs.

Veldhuis also seems to be the more naturally athletic of the two Team PokerStars Pros. ElkY looked to combat this by seeking out the training of Lincon "Bad Boy" Rodrigues in order to work him into fight shape physically, technically and mentally.

Veldhuis, on the other hand, hasn't been able to train as hard as his counterpart. According to Veldhuis, after the bet was made, he didn't think about it until the following March -- just a few months before the fight was originally scheduled to take place. He was crippled by injuries almost immediately and forced to postpone the fight until the 2011World Series of Poker, but another year brought another problem. Proper government licensing proved to be difficult to attain and when Black Friday stunned the poker world, they scratched plans for a summer brawl all together.

Now, over two years after the initial wager was made, the two will finally square off in Marbella, Spain, in front of cameras for all to see. Veldhuis has recovered from his injuries and Grospellier is fresh off a three-week training hiatus in Thailand. They will compete in the five, three-minute rounds, which should give them ample time to tear each other's heads off if they so wish (editor's note - I hope they don't). There will be no winner by decision and neither will be wearing head gear so the pressure will be on immediately to seal the deal and end the fight.

Will it be the French up-and-comer or the athletic Dutchman taking home the money and the respect? You, me, and the rest of the poker world will soon find out.

Born in 1981 as Bertrand Grospellier, the man who would eventually be known as ElkY fell right into the digital generation. He would know no analog world. By the time he was 20 years old, he had so deeply immersed himself in the Starcraft gamers' world that he was winning world championships. He moved to Korea where he became the equivalent of a rock star. He was known by one name, and there were fewer greater heroes in the game.

Though profitable and a pedestal on which he could sit for as long as he wanted, the gamer life lacked something for ElkY. He needed something more. He'd been turned on to online poker. It was digital. It had the potential to make him millions. It was a place where he could be a rock star. Just as ElkY was discovering poker, PokerStars was discovering ElkY. Before long, the one-time Starcraft champion was popping up at 2005 EPT events and becoming a legend for non-stop playing online. The following year would change everything.

In 2006, PokerStars introduced the VIP Club, and within a few weeks, ElkY became the first Supernova. That summer, ElkY signed on with Team Pro and set the stage for what in five short years would become the stuff of poker lore.

By 2007, PokerStars had discovered its Supernova level ceiling was too low for its top players. It created the Supernova Elite status level in January. In less than four months, ElkY became the first person to reach the 1 million VIP Player Points required for entry into poker's most exclusive club.

On year later, in 2008, ElkY--trim and fit after winning a weight loss bet--headed to Paradise Island for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. By then, the PCA had become an event on the European Poker Tour, one of three points on poker's Triple Crown. He wasn't far removed from taking second place in an EPT event.

"When you get second, people forget about you really quickly," he said at the time. "I was devastated."

ElkY made sure it wouldn't happen again. He wanted that big tournament victory to seal his place among the greats. And so he won. Two million bucks and a place in poker history.

"If there was one tournament other than the World Series main event that was the most important," he said, "this was it."

That same year, ElkY won a WPT title to check another box on the road to the Triple Crown. In the meantime, as he continued his hunt for the elusive WCOP bracelet and his fitting for the Crown, ElkY began to find new ways to make himself a legend of the game.

In 2009, ElkY traveled to the EPT Grand FInal in Monte Carlo where he took on the challenge of playing the most Sit and Go tournaments in an hour with a positive return on his investment. He did it, playing 62 of them in an hour with an ROI of 6%.

That, however, wasn't enough. ElkY wasn't content to be a one-time champion or sideshow attraction. He wanted more bling. So, in 2009, he won not one, but two World Championship of Online Poker bracelets. He won the first in a $530 NLHE rebuy event, then won another in a $215 NLHE tourney.

That seemed to leave only one thing left undone for ElkY. He had achieved an EPT title. He had won a WPT title, grabbed two WCOOP bracelets, and earned a Guinness World Record. What was left? Indeed, a WSOP bracelet. That came this year, 2011, when he won a WSOP Seven Card Stud title, $330,000, and his place among poker's Triple Crown winners.

In all, ElkY has won more than $8.5 million in live tournaments since 2005. Add that to the untold amount of cash he's won online, and it's fairly clear just how important ElkY has become in the game. Though he's only been on Team PokerStars for five years, he is firmly-cemented ElkY in PokerStars ten-year legacy.

* * * *

We are publishing these daily review articles throughout November as PokerStars gears up to celebrate its 10th Anniversary.

Previous reviews:

Going live at the PCA
It's a bling thing
Online wizards cast their spell
The EPT circus
Sporting greats
Making world champions
Party treats

ElkY had never won a World Series of Poker bracelet. That changed just a few hours ago as he strapped the gold around his wrist for the first time. Having never before played a live 7-card Stud tournament, ElkY entered this year's $10,000 championship with little more in his arsenal than his alien ability to play any game better than most people do anything.

In the end took mountain a massive final table comeback and four-hour heads up battle, but ElkY earned his gold bracelet and more than $330,000.

"So sick," he wrote to the world before heading off to bed. "Finally did it after five years of the WSOP! Thanks so much everyone for the support and best wishes!"

If you're reading this blog, you likely already know poker's triple crown includes wins on the game's three biggest stages (EPT, WPT, and WSOP). In 2008, ElkY won a WPT title for $1.4 million. That was the same year he won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (the first year it was an official EPT event) for $2 million. His new WSOP bracelet puts him in an elite crowd of Triple Crown winners that includes the likes of Gavin Griffin, Roland de Wolfe, and Jake Cody.

ElkY's WSOP also pulled the spotlight away from an impressive effort by Team PokerStars Pro in the 7-card stud event. Jason Mercier, Ville Wahlbeck, and Chad Brown all finished in the money.

Now, ElkY is having himself a nap. When he wakes, he'll head to his bracelet ceremony and start planning for the best place to have a party. I'd suggest you finagle yourself an invite, as ElkY has been working to get this monkey off his back for half a decade. He'll be ready to throw down.

Congratulations, ElkY, on another amazing performance.

Photo courtesy WSOP.com

I have only missed the very first EPT Grand Final to play, yet the only result I had was a runner-up finish in last year heads up event. I love playing high-roller events because the smaller fields usually mean we have much more experience with each other, and mind games as well as meta-game are a much bigger part of the game as usual.

My first table draw was just what was needed for some fireworks: Viktor Blom sitting on my left, not to mention Kevin Stani, Leo Fernandez, and Ville Walbeck. I quickly got up to a big stack just to lose it on some pretty sick hand vs Viktor and finally end the day with barely less than I started with. Day 2 was such a roller coaster, too. After hitting my first royal flush ever all-in with [As][Qs] versus pair of eights, a rush of cards saw me take over the chip lead, only to lose few to a flip and get kinda owned by Galen Hall on my immediate left.

When I was short-stacked with 12 players left, I had a really bad deja-vu feeling. Two years ago in Monte Carlo, I finished eleventh with eight paying. Last year, I finished 14th when they paid eleven.

This year, I never gave up, and few lucky breaks later, I made the final table (alas, as pretty short stack). It was a very tough one, and I had now a chance to make history as being the first player ever to win two EPT High Roller events. So did my friend and fellow Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso.

It was definitely a weird one, as my friend Benny Spindler took care of most of the opposition while I was able to find key double-ups in the right spots. Then Juha Helppi was all in for the first time of the day, and I picked up queens in the big blind just after Benny busted Doc Sands in fourth We were heads up!

After some hands without much action, i managed to double up with jacks vs KT on a T749 board in a re-raised pot, where I made a big check-raise all-in on the turn. From there i just had the feeling it was all over, and cards were definitely going my way. I was able to keep the pressure and the lead until a bit cooler of a final hand saw my full house overtake his trip nines.

Even though it has been almost three weeks now, I still cherish this victory, because my last live victory this big was the PCA 2009 High Roller Event, and in those 2 years I gave my best and realized even more so than the beautiful game of poker we all love is invariably full of disappointments and swings. Variance being king, we just have to accept it, as it makes the rare victories priceless!

Follow Elky on Twitter

The PCA really is a unique stop in the poker calendar, one that is becoming impossible to miss for any serious poker player. It is simply the second biggest tournament in the world behind the World Series in Las Vegas!

Indeed, the field is growing amazingly each year, and it's the one where the play is the most similar to what you'll find on PokerStars. So it's a perfect mix of live play vs. mostly internet players, a great experience to improve your game.

And this year, with 47 events scheduled, everyone will have plenty of opportunities to
battle with the best and improve. I'm especially looking forward to the Super High Roller event, a real first in the poker world. It has a $100,000 buy-in! But everyone will have events to look forward to with heads-up, Omaha, mixed games, bounty etc.

So if you want to start up the year fresh with the best series of poker tournaments, don't hesitate and join us in Paradise Island in the Bahamas. For more info, go to the official PCA site.

Best regards and good luck.

Since I joined Team PokerStars Pro in June 2006, I've been to many places and everywhere was a great adventure. However, if you ask me my favorite place to play poker in the world, I'd still say PokerStars. Why? Because it gives me the freedom to play from wherever I want, in the most comfortable settings, with definitely the best software, and a structure that's very unique for online tournaments.

And also we find all our favorite tournaments back every year. There are always new ones, and that also makes for a lot of fun.

In WCOOP 2009 I was able to win two bracelets in three days and those memories
will remain with me for ever. Those are the moments why all of us play the beautiful game of poker, and i wish you all to experience it at least once in your life. The adrenaline rush you get for being deep in a tournament is a very special feeling, and it really helped me to stay focused to be able to win those two titles (I believe they lasted 16 and 18 hours).

However, no matter how excited you can be, sheer willpower can only help you that much, so you should plan your schedule accordingly and get really prepared because playing your best game for 18 hours isn't the easiest thing to do! Sleeping well, eating well and having a light workout before the start is the best way i found to do prepare.

But enough talk about the past, now WCOOP 2010 is coming very soon and my excitement about it is quite unreal. It's my favorite time of the year for sure. The schedule looks wonderful and there will be tons and tons of opportunity for everyone to test their poker skills with all the top players in the world without having to leave the house.

So get ready and join me for the PokerStars WCOOP 2010 and your own shot at making poker history!

There is one man, however, who has done it and won more than half a million bucks for the trouble. That man is known in the real world as Steve Jacobs. If you've played on PokerStars at any point in the past several years, you probably know him better as stevesbets.

That's your man right there when he sat down for an interview with the PokerStars video blog team. He looks nice enough, but he managed to keep one of the toughest heads-up opponents in the world from snagging a WCOOP bracelet last year.

The event was the WCOOP $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship. In 2004, Jacobs had placed third in the 2004 WCOOP Heads-Up event, and despite his obvious skill, a lot of people would have put their money on ElkY. After all, it was ElkY.

But, by now, we all know that Jacobs beat ElkY and scored himself a place in WCOOP history. If you don't know the whole story, you can read our report from last year: Stevesbets defeats ElkY for bracelet.

Now, nearly one year later, we've had the chance to sit down and talk to Jacobs about the experience.

Watch WCOOP Champion: Steven 'stevesbets' Jacobs on PokerStars.tv

If we haven't said it enough by now, WCOOP starts in just a couple of weeks. You can plan most of your September by going over to WCOOP.com Also, if you'd like to take part in some qualifiers with really good value, check out the WCOOP Extreme Satellites.

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier knows about getting in shape. Five years ago he was a lot more relaxed about his physical condition. He didn't work out much, ate what he wanted, and was, if we're all being honest, a little bit doughy.

A couple of years back, ElkY got involved in a high-stakes weight loss bet and trimmed down to the point that some people didn't even recognize the svelte French stranger.

Not satisfied with merely losing weight, ElkY has taken it one step further. Actually, he's taken it so far that he is currently existing in a world most people would consider torturous.

How so?

Check out the video blog report below.

Strategy for Step SNGs on PokerStars

by ElkY

Steps have become a very popular way to qualify for events of PokerStars. In this article, I will give you a few strategy pointers to manage your play in Steps tournamets.

For the sake of this article, we will assume that you are playing a Step 2 with the following structure:

Even though they are Sit and Go tournaments, Steps are very similar to satellites. The bubble factor becomes a crucial concept to play steps optimally, and you should always keep it in mind. Indeed, if you don't reach at least fourth place, you will lose all the work you've done to reach the current step. Obviously, you should really try to avoid such situations.

For the above reason, I suggest that you play a very tight style until you reach six-handed play. Until then, you should try to avoid big confrontations that could potentially hurt your stack a lot, including big coin flips. My suggestion is to pick on small stacks as much as possible. Always use position to keep the initiative so that you can force your opponents to make difficult decisions.

Again, you need to always keep in mind the importance of the bubble factor. For example, when you cover your opponent in a hand and you're holding a medium pair in position, don't hesitate to put you opponent all-in pre-flop. You will often force him to lay down big hands like ace-king. Like is always the case in SNGs, one of the best strategies is to abuse the short stacks whenever the spot is right and until you reach the next pay jump.

To sum up, play tight until you reach six-handed play, and use your position to abuse short stacks by capitalizing on the bubble factor. Furthermore, your greatest weapon will be your ability to constantly adapt to the situation, therefore allowing you to pick your spots in an optimal manner. You will need to be able to distinguish those opponents who are aware of the bubble factor from the others in order to implement your strategy efficiently.

Good luck at the Step tables!

According to the fine reporting from the World Poker Tour bloggers, ElkY not only managed to take third place in the $25,000 WPT Championship, but also secured WPT Player of the Year honors.

ElkY needed a fourth or better finish last night to grab the title. He managed one better, placing third for more than $775,000. He might just have had a chance to win if not for a bad beat in his ultimate hand. The three-way all-in had ElkY holding ace-jack up against ace-eight and ace-seven. A seven hit the flop and ElkY went out in third.

Sure, it was a tough beat, but there is some significant financial comfort. The win, as we mentioned earlier in the week, puts ElkY above the $5 million career live winnings mark. In fact, he now can claim $5,724,291 on the all-time live tournament rankings. This week's achievement makes him one of the winningest players on the circuit. He has now won more live tournament cash in five years than Doyle Brunson, Humberto Brenes, and Howard Lederer have won in their careers.

Congratulations to ElkY for yet another fine performance. We'd like to think he'll give us a rest now, but we know the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo kicks off in a couple of days. ElkY is bound to make some sort of news.

That's just what he does.

Writing a blog that follows Team PokerStars is a busy job, to be sure. With more than 30 members who tend to tear up tournaments on a regular basis, we find it hard to write about much else. When ElkY gets involved, it just gets silly.

Take this statistic, for instance. In 2005, we reported on ElkY's first ever live tournament cash. He earned $2,621 at the French Open in the first season of the European Poker Tour. Since then, he has massed $4,948,046 in live tournament earnings alone. Don't even get us started on his online poker performance. We'd be here all day.

Going into this week, ElkY was a little more than $50,000 short of earning $5 million in live tournaments in less than five years. By the end of this weekend, he will have crossed that mark.

The former gamer turned poker pro is at it again. After five days at the World Poker Tour $25,000 Championship, ElkY is still alive. He is among the final ten players who will play down to the televised final table this afternoon.

Already guaranteed $98,000, ElkY is sure to pass the $5 million in career live earnings mark. First, though, he has to bust out of the tournament.

While we're sure ElkY will be happy to collect on whatever he makes, we're just going to assume he won't be itching to get out of the event. He's a little short on chips right now, but we've seen him come back from bigger deficits before. What's more, with a first prize of more than $2 million, we know ElkY wouldn't mind shooting for another big win.

And then, this time next week, we'll be talking about how ElkY is about to cross the $7 million in career earnings mark.

Come on, ElkY, give us a rest (and good luck and all that).

by Betrand "ElkY" Grospellier

I decided to arrive in Vegas about two weeks before the start of this event so I could really be in perfect shape and condition to play it. Considering it was a six-day event, the amazing structure would make way for a lot of poker to be played. I wanted to be ready to exploit any weakness from my opponents.

My plan worked well and i managed to hang around the top of the field for the first 4 days, before taking the chip lead in Day 5 and going to the final table as a huge chip leader.

During this week I played a hand that im very proud of, probably the best hand i ever played in my life. The action had folded to Joe Ebanks. He raised to 26,000 from the button. Oddie Dardon and I called from the blinds. The flop came out J-7-5. Dardon and I checked to Ebanks, who bet 44,000. Dardon folded, but I called. A queen came on the turn and I checked again. This time, Ebanks bet 90,000.

This time, I raised to 225,000 and Dardon called. The river was a deuce. I checked and Ebanks moved all-in for 300,000. I thought for just a moment before calling with my 7-6, good against K-T. That hand moved me into the chip lead.

All in all, I'm very satisified with the way the tournament went, because I was never all-in. Also I took very few coin flips, and when I took them i had a dominating chip lead against my opponents.

This victory means so much to me. I defeated 1136 players inthe Carribean for the EPT PCA earlier in the year. They were mostly players coming from the internet world, like me. This time the field was probably the toughest I had to play. Proportionally, there were many tough seasoned live players, and being able to come on top of it once again is really an achievement I'm proud of.

It was twice as important also for me to conclude this event by a victory because during all the WCOOP I felt I played great and went very deep but every time i was down to 2 or 3 tables in a 1000 or 2000+ entrants tournament, Lady Luck was playing tricks with me and I finished a bit disappointed everytime. Coming with the chip lead at the WPT when 12 players were left, i did everything I could so that wouldnt happen.

And of course, Las Vegas really is all you hear about for poker players. Winning a tournament here was definitely one of my goals, and now that its done, I'm in a good spot for the Player of the Year race.

I feel my tournament game has never been so tuned, and my confidence level never so high, so I'm ready to finish the year as well as I started it!

See you all on PokerStars or on the tournament circuit very soon.

ElkY is having a pretty good year.

Without going too far into the praise and burying the lead, we should point out right now that ElkY has just won the World Poker Tour Festa al Lago at Bellagio in Las Vegas. He pockets $1.4 million after beating out a field of 368 people.

This marks ElkY's second major title of the year. He started 2008 with a win at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $2 million. That event marked the PCA's first time on the European Poker Tour and gave ElkY his first EPT win.

In May, ElkY took fifth place at the grand Prix de Paris for more $120,000. Last month, he nearly won a WCOOP bracelet in the $25,000 head-up championship. He finished runner-up for $320,000.

ElkY's exploits at the Festa al Lago this year did not begin with the main event. Just a few days ago, we won $55,000 for a second place finish in a $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em contest.

Then came this year's Festa al Lago main event. He sat at a final table tonight with such names as Nenad Medic and Nam Le. ElkY went into the final table with the chip lead and took it all the way to the win.

At 27 years-old, ElkY has amassed more than $4 million career live tournament winnings. He's earned most of that money in the last ten months.

Indeed, the man is having a pretty good year.

Congrats, ElkY on another great performance.

by ElkY

Since I began playing poker online, WCOOP has become the most awaited series of the year, because it merges the great structure and big prize pool from the live tournaments, and the fast-paced action typical of the online world.

For someone like me, it's always disappointing not to win. Looking back at it, with the exception of the Triple Shootout final table where I didn't play my best due to staying awake longer than 40 hours, I don't regret any of the plays I made, especially not deep in the events.

The more I played poker lately, and the more heads-up is becoming my favorite game. It's a combination of really fast action, the fact that you can play all those hands that are trash in ring games, and that you get yourself and your opponents in marginal situations all the time. More importantly, one of my favorite aspect of the game, adaptability, is even more important in heads-up.

So when I heard about that new WCOOP event, the 25k$ heads-up, I was eager to compete. The structure was really wonderful and it brings so much depth to the game itself.

I had the toughest game of my tournament against IluvAntonius, a really strong player, but good cards at the key times brought me my 2nd win of the event. I actually felt he was outplaying me and had the edge early on, but winning key flips put me back on track and let me win the game.

Most of the games I played I started at a chip disadvantage early on, but the structure really let room for lots of play, and it allowed me to come back many times. I was fortunate enough to have a big rush of cards against Gavin Griffin in semi-finals, and while playing them very aggressively, it helped me secure a win.

As for the final heads up, after a slow start, my opponent really went on a big rush of cards and I believed I was able to lose very little against those, and even to get the chip lead back, but I believe I made a crucial
mistake when I made a call way too loose against his full house, that gave him the lead back, and I never really got the cards to get up from it.

Congratulations to all this years winners, as it takes not only skill but a lot of dedication and stamina to beat the toughest and biggest online fields ever.

I'm thrilled that the WCOOP this year was such a tremendous success, and I'm now definitely looking forward to the next edition to do even better. I have one year to improve, and even if the offline circuit keeps me busy, I'll try my best to keep playing the big PokerStars tournaments, because that's really where you learn the most.

In the world of professional gaming it pays to look a little edgy. The millions of fans who tune in to the Star League in South Korea like their World Cyber Games to put on a show, a space-aged one at that, and back in the day when man of the time Bertrand ‘ElkY Grospellier came second in the World Cyber Games, he delivered.

This is what came to mind when I saw him this morning. The Team PokerStars Pro has taken the days off between his last event and now to pamper up and today sports spiked peroxide blond hair and what I think are new sunglasses. Gone is the hoodie with the gold trim and the large sunglasses, in are a sleek jacket and open neck dress shirt and elegant shades. It’s back to space age for the Frenchman. He could easily be on the cover of a marvel comic.

ElkY keeps a neat stack, constantly adjusting it for elegance, symmetry and colour co-ordination. As any book will tell you to do he waits until the action reaches him before checking his cards and when he folds he gets back to his housekeeping. Occasionally he switches the playlist on his headphones.

These are crucial levels for everyone playing in the World Series but especially so in terms of ElkY’s game plan. I spoke to him earlier this week about his World Series this summer and asked if there was any reason for his lack of cashes. There was no concern, it all seemed acceptable.

“I either go out really fast or I go deep” he said, before promptly spinning up a short stack into a battle stack and turning it into a 16th place finish the next day. If he’s still here in 12 hours time we should have a firm indication of how much we’ll be seeing him this week.

It’s an eclectic table for sure, a mixture of the various poker breeds, old and young, large and small, that includes a player in a ten gallon hat with an owl’s foot for luck, PokerStars qualifier Matthew Clark and of course Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari, who in contrast to ElkY wears a Brazil zip up with the poker player uniform of shades, hat and headphones.

You never can tell early on what mood some players are in, often these early hands are a sounding stage for future clashes as players get the lay of the land. But not here, everyone’s had a piece of something, although ElkY’s has been more a donation.

A raise form the seat seven player cost ElkY a few thousand after he’d re-raised; bidding his cards farewell when bet at on a 6-4-A flop. Then it was Matthew Clark’s turn, getting an early start and showing Kings in a pot he raised all the way. On their own they were no good, but with one a club to match the four on the board he was up several grand.

Then ElkY and the busy seat seven player again; a board of 9d8d2c6s, a big bet at ElkY (called) and an ace on the river bet at and called. The Ad7d was good. Something less for the Team PokerStars Pro who mucked for a second time as the victor thumped the table.

It’s early though and like he said, if it goes according to plan it’ll be either a short week or a long week - nothing in between.