Event #43 of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) did not have a $10 million guarantee like the Main Event. Its $215 buy-in paled in comparison to the $5,200 people shelled out for the Main Event. Event #43 did not have the guts and the glory of Event #45, but it did have two things going for it: a $1.8 million prize pool and Bertrand “ElKY” Grospellier.

The 9,220 entrants in Event #43 smashed the $1 million guarantee and ensured over a quarter million dollars for its eventual winner. As the field hit the money bubble at 1,350 players and drew closer and closer to the final table, several contenders began to appear only to bust out before the final nine were reached. Connor “blanconegro” Drinan (99th), Ronald “ronaldgrauer” Grauer (57th), Peter “Apathy123″ Jetten (39th) and PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin (22nd) all made deep runs, but with less than 100 players remaining it was another very familiar name that jumped to the top of the chip counts and stayed there until the final table—ElKY.

Fresh off a victory in Event #38, ElKY was one of the nine players to outlast the tremendous field and make the final table:

Seat 1: bundesmiro (3,872,471)
Seat 2: Profesigh (4,165,536)
Seat 3: chilipepp (5,385,642)
Seat 4: ElkY (4,918,030)
Seat 5: jm18 (11,144,998)
Seat 6: Trippple_A (1,838,006)
Seat 7: jektiss (3,831,843)
Seat 8: kezug (4,554,226)
Seat 9: KNtheKid (6,389,248)

It would be ElKY who drew first blood when a short stacked “Trippple_A” moved all-in with A Q. ElKY called with A K and the board ran out T T 9 7 8 and ElKY’s kicker played to eliminate Trippple_A.

Quite some time elapsed before the next all-in confrontation, which came when “KNTheKid’s” 8 8 squared off against “Profesigh” and their A K. An ace on the flop ensured a double up for Profesigh. Pocket eights would double up another player when “jektiss” open shoved all-in with A J and “bundesmiro” called with 8 8. The T 9 5 flop favored the eights, but the J on the turn gave jektiss the advantage. Bundesmiro’s open-ended straight flush draw whiffed with the 6 on the river to double jektiss up to 5 million.

The player called “jm18” came into the final table with an ample chip lead, but they saw their chips shipped to “chilipepp” after the two players got it all-in preflop for 14 million chips with jm18 holding T T to chilipepp’s Q Q. Both flopped sets on the K Q T flop, but jm18 failed to quad up and dropped to 3.8 million chips.

Brundesmiro would be the next player to fall when their A T failed to best Profesigh’s 7 7 and jm18 made their exit shortly thereafter in similar fashion. Jm18, who dropped from 3.8 to 1.8 million over the course of a couple of rounds, moved all-in with A T and “kezug” called with 9 9. The Q 9 4 flop favored kezug and the 4 on the turn left jm18 drawing dead and out in 7th place.

A blind versus blind confrontation between kezug and KNtheKid left kezug with just 600,000 chips after KNtheKid called kezug’s bluff down with bottom pair of threes. With the blinds at 100,000/200,000 ante 25,000, kezug needed to double up fast and moved all-in with A 7. KNtheKid called the raise with K J. The Q Q 3 kept kezug in the lead, but the T on the turn gave KNtheKid an open-ended straight draw. The 9 on the river made KNtheKid’s straight and kezug was out in 6th place.

For the first half of the final table ElKY laid low for the most part, but he lit back up during the home stretch. Profesigh raised from the button and both chilipepp and ElKY called from the big blind. The A K 5 flop resulted in ElKY and Profesigh getting it all-in with Profesigh holding K 5 for kings and fives, which were drawing slim against ElKY’s A 5 for aces up. ElKY’s hand held and he scooped the 9.5 million chip pot to trim the field to four.

Some of those chips would go to a short stacked KNtheKid when their T T held up against ElKY’s Q J, but ElKY was still in decent shape with 9 million chips. However, he dropped a big pot to chilipepp shortly after that and fell to 4th place with 4.5 million chips. He doubled through KNtheKid when his A Q held up against KNtheKid’s A J. The very next hand KNtheKid got the last of his chips in with A 7 against jektiss’ Q Q. The queens held to give jektiss 21 million chips and the chip lead.

ElKY pulled himself up to second in chips after a hand in which he raised from the button and chilipepp called from the big blind. They got it all-in after the 7 3 3 flop and ElKY showed 3 4 for trip threes, which had the best of chilipepp’s 2 7. The trips held to double ElKY up while chilipepp dropped to 9 million chips.

ElKY would claim the rest of chilipepp’s chips just a few hands later when his 8 8 spiked a lucky eight on the flop to hit a set against chilipepp’s Q Q. When no queen came on the turn or river, chilipepp was out in third and it was down to heads-up play.

The final two were virtually even in chips at the start of heads-up play, but it was not long before a big pot developed that left jektiss with just 1.8 million chips. Jektiss raised from the button, ElKY called from the big blind and both players checked the J 6 5 flop. ElKY led out after the 8 fell on the turn and jektiss called. The river brought the 9 and ElKY checked. Jektiss bet and ElKY quickly check raised him. The aggression continued back and forth until all the chips were in the middle. ElKY showed Q T for a rivered queen-high straight while jektiss turned up 7 T for a straight of his own, but the smaller one. The cooler shipped the 44 million chip pot ElKY’s way and jektiss was all but out of the tournament.

On the final hand of play ElKY moved all-in holding 8 T and jektiss called with A K. The board ran out J J 3 7 and jektiss looked poised to double up until a T on the river brought a pair for ElKY to give him the pot and the game.

Bertrand “ElKY” Grospellier won his second WCOOP bracelet in the span of five events, making him the fourth player ever to win more than one WCOOP bracelet. He also joins Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo as the second player this series to rack up multiple wins. He earned $263,323.20 for his second victory while jektiss took home $193,620 for their runner-up showing.

Here are the complete results from the final table of Event #43:

1st: Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier ($263,323.20)
2nd: jektiss ($193,620.00)
3rd: chilipepp ($137,285.80)
4th: KNtheKid ($92,200.00)
5th: Profesigh ($73,760.00)
6th: kezug ($55,320.00)
7th: jm18 ($36,880.00)
8th: bundesmiro ($20,284.00)
9th: Trippple_A ($12,908.00)