Carlos Mortensen - Professional Poker Player

Updated 2008/2009
Carlos Mortensen, though known for his loose play and regarded a bluffer, his record shows that he isn\'t easy to beat. He won the WSOP in 2001 and also the World Poker Tour in 2004. He may not have won every game, but he has always been in the money having had more than eight million dollars in live tournament earnings. He was born in Ecuador. Carlos started playing poker when the game was illegal in Spain where his family shifted when he was fifteen. He used to go for chess games at the social club. On one such occasion he found a new game form having been brought down from the United States, Poker. Carlos lost the first game of Poker that he played with seventy dollars. After that loss, he played continuously for the next four days, racking up consistent wins.

It hit him that this was much better than working at a job and decided to play it full time. But Poker was illegal in Spain and hence he and his wife Celia, packed up and moved on to Las Vegas. Now, Carlos participates in most American and European Poker tournaments and is always in the reckoning for big prizes. He went on to play WSOP in 2001 when he was 29 and won the bracelet and a 1.5 million dollar prize as well. Since which he also won the 2004 bracelet. At the 2001 game he was heads up with Dewey Tomko.

Mortensen had K Q of clubs, while Tomko had the best possible starting hand - pocket Aces. After the flop, the table had a Jd 10c 3c, Mortensen bet, was raised, and then re-raised all in. Tomko called, and when they flipped their cards over, Mortensen had a straight draw and a flush draw. Tomko had a pair of aces, with no draw. The next card that was 3d helped no one. The final card was 9d, which gave Mortensen a straight K-9, while Tomko ended up with two pair, aces and threes.

Tomko claimed to have played as well as he could, but fate intervened and Carlos won. However it may have been, Carlos won the WSOP with the 9D on the river. That was the first major win for him where he played out 612 other players for the main prize. After that event, he has gone on to play in many other tournaments and has had good runs every year, finishing well. He won the WSOP Limit Hold ’Em tournament in 2003, and the World Poker Tour tournament in Feb. 2004. He made the three final tables in the 2006 WSOP and also finished 11th in the 2007 WSOP. He has live tournament earnings of more than eight million dollars, and counting.