After the excitement of Vivek Rajkumar's victory in the Borgata tournament, the attention of the 2009 WPT turned back to the Bellagio and Las Vegas.

The Bellagio had already been the site for the first televised event of the season, and this tournament looked to be even bigger.

WPT 2009 in Retrospect: The Festa Al Lago

Just as with the earlier Bellagio event, the Festa Al Lago distinguished itself by being a tournament with a $15,000 entry fee, half again as much as the $10,000 fee for most World Poker Tour events. As before, this was little deterrent, and perhaps even an incentive, as 368 pros and hopefuls managed to come up with the entry fee. This created a staggering prize pool of over five million dollars, and a first place prize worthy of any pro, at over 1.4 million.

Poker Stars at the Festa Al Lago

And turn up those pros did, led by former video game pro and current Internet and live poker phenom Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. ElkY came into this tournament an intimidating presence, his aggressive style having racked up millions of dollars both in online and live tournaments. However, seasoned pro Nenad Medic was not going to give up the bracelet without a fight. Nor were pros Nam Le, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, or the short stacks, Osmin Dardon and William Mietz.

ElkY Shows His Skills

ElkY showed he was more than just a chip pusher in an incredible hand in which he knocked out William Mietz. ElkY had raised pre-flop and Mietz called to see a flop of 9 7 4 with two spades. Both players checked and another 9 came on the turn. Mietz checked, and ElkY, holding AT, bet out. Mietz raised all-in. Although ElkY had chips to spare, he would have looked rather foolish if Mietz had had any kind of hand. Amazingly though, ElkY's read was perfect. He made the call and Mietz was forced to reveal his bluff with KT. The river brought no king and Mietz was gone.

ElkY then went on a tear, amassing chip after chip with aggressive play, until finally only Nam Le stood between him and the championship. The heads up chip stacks, which left "ElkY" with a greater than 15-to-1 advantage, gave Nam Le little chance, and indeed, ElkY eventually went on to hoist the championship trophy.