An exceptional tournament organized by ElkY and PokerStars attracted more than 3,000 players for peace through sport

Monaco, 23 November, 2012 - poker’s undoubted popularity was further upheld on Wednesday, 21 November when a tournament organized by poker star and Champion for Peace, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier in partnership with PokerStars.fr to benefit “Peace and Sport, L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport” met with enormous success.

In total, 3 138 players from all over France took part in this online tournament which lasted nearly five hours and raised over € 3,000 for Peace and Sport. These funds will be used to finance some of the organization’s field projects for underprivileged young people in Burundi, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti, Israel - Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and East Timor.

After the tournament, ElkY said: "Beyond its international popularity and ability to raise money, poker is also an activity that can help young people. Control, self-discipline and concentration are key elements in playing poker that can have a major positive influence on their educational development as well as in the process of personal reconstruction after trauma. Through this initiative, poker is helping a cause that is dear to me. I’m delighted to have launched this tournament although I was far from winning it!”

Among the thousands of people who played in the tournament, two well-known sports personalities took up  ElkY’s challenge: racing driver and Champion for Peace Maro Engel, and professional French poker player Julien Brécard.