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Carlos Mortensen in profile - Poker Channel Exclusive

In a world where you cannot even go to the toilet without Phil Hellmuth reminding you of his poker accomplishments, thank God for Carlos Mortensen. Egos are unavoidable in poker and bragging about success is an all too familiar part of the game, but somehow the man they call ‘El Matador’ has managed to fly under the radar for years despite being one of the most successful players of all time.

Juan Carlos Mortensen moved from Spain to the United States in the late 1990s to play poker and started notching up some impressive tournament results, but he really catapulted himself onto the World stage when he won the WSOP Main Event in 2001, at a final table that included Dewey Tomko, Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow. Two years later he made three final tables at the WSOP and snagged his second bracelet when he won the $5000 no limit hold’em event.

Not only is El Matador synonymous with the WSOP, he is equally renowned for his World Poker Tour success. After making several final tables and cashes, he finally won the 2004 Doyle Brunson North American No Limit Hold'em Poker Championship, defeating a final table that included Thang Pham, David Pham, Eric Seidel and John Juanda. His poker CV after that is the envy of any serious player, with a consistent string of cashes in major EPT, WSOP and WPT events to name but a few.

But it was to be in April 2007 that would immortalise Mortensen forever (If being a WSOP Main Event champion didn’t do that already) when he won the World Poker Tour Championship Event. Not only did his heads up win over Kirk Morrison add a second WPT title to his collection as well as nearly $4 million, it meant that he became the only player in history to win the Championship event of the two biggest poker tours out there (Now it’s just Monte Carlo EPT for him to complete the Trifecta). The win made him the highest earning European of all time (Up until last week when Peter Eastgate leapfrogged him) and 13th overall in the World. He has now $8,565,639 in tournament earnings and still a relatively young man, there is surely more to come.

Known for a crazy loose aggressive style and equally for being one of the most artistic and creative chip stackers out there (He usually has a lot of them so he has had plenty of practice) – it is amazing that we often forget about El Matador, the most successful European tournament player of all time.

By Barry Carter - November 19th 2008

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