Juan Carlos Mortensen would have been justified in feeling confident going into the 2001 WSOP, having just won his previous two tournaments and 611 eliminations later, he was heads-up against Dewey Tomko. Both men were betting aggressively and the pot stood at $200,000 before the flop of 3♣10♣J♦ came. Mortensen bet another $100,000 but Tomko came straight back at him, raising $400,000. With a wave of his hand, Mortensen called ‘All in,’ but if he thought he was going to bully Tomko, he was mistaken and the other man called him for the showdown. Tomko remained seated and calmly turned over his pocket cards, A♠A♥. Carlos, standing, muttered to himself and shook his head, the shade from his fishing hat hiding what must have been disappointment in his eyes. He turned over a K♣Q♣. His wife, Cecilia Reyes-Mortensen, handed him a water bottle and stood at his side. Carlos gulped from the bottle and looked at the drawn turn card, a 3♦. Statistically, that reduced Mortensen’s odds of winning the hand but he was still on a flush draw. The area around the table was crowded with people out of their seats, straining to see the river card. It wasn’t a club but it was a 9♦ giving Carlos a straight and the title.
Juan Carlos was born in Ecuador to a Spanish mother and a Danish diplomat father. He and his five siblings grew up there until the family moved to Madrid in 1987. A few years later, while he was at university studying physics and mathematics, he married Cecilia Reyes and they bought a house together. Money was tight for them both at the time and they had to take on several jobs. Things changed two days after his twenty-fifth birthday when Mortensen was invited to join a poker game that was taking place at the club where he worked. He promptly lost his $100 stake. This riled him so much that he stayed awake all night trying to work out a strategy that wouldn’t fail him. He returned the following night and started on a winning streak that lasted several months and allowed him to give up his job. Unfortunately, gambling was illegal in Spain at that time and when his opponents’ coffers dried up, he was left with nobody to play against. Moving to America was his solution to this problem and in October 1997 he touched down in Atlantic City with a three-month visitor’s visa. Always one to turn the tables on a disadvantage, he claims that his woeful command of the English language actually helped him by honing his ability at reading players by their facial expressions and he returned from the trip modestly richer. Back in Spain, he found a new group of poker players to win money from and these players, recognising his talent, banded together and paid for him to have a stab at the 1999 WSOP. Mortensen didn’t manage to finish in the money at the tournament but he did make an overall profit for his friends by playing cash games in Los Angeles. He returned to the WSOP the following year having funded himself this time and his seventh place finish in one of the smaller Hold’em events was the encouragement he needed to make the United States his permanent home. The following year he was world champion.
Juan Carlos’s style is aggressive and loose but his numerous final table finishes in major tournaments over the years have meant he spends a lot of time waiting for the perfect moment to take his opponents down. He has a unique way of avoiding boredom in the hands that he is sitting out of by building intricate structures from his chip stack. Until they divorced in 2006, he also had the opportunity to practice at home with his wife who is also a professional poker player. In 2007, he financially eclipsed his $1.5million win at the WSOP when he beat Kirk Morrison in the WPT World Championship. It shot him into the record books as the first player to win a WPT and WSOP championship. The WPT victory pocketed him almost $4million but it’s wasn’t just about the money as for Juan Carlos winning is everything. ‘Anything else than first place was going to be devastating for me,’ he admitted afterwards. With this drive and desire, don’t expect to see him exiting the ring any time soon.
Carlos Mortensen WSOP Tournaments & Top Ten Finishes
Event*
Date
Position
Winnings
38th Annual WSOP
Event 55 – WSOP Championship
Jul 17th 2007
217th
$51,398
WPT World Championship
WPT Event Season 5 Championship
Apr 27th 2007
1st
$3,970,415
The Johnny Chan Invitational
Sep15th 2006
1st
$139,195
37th Annual WSOP
Event 33 – WSOP Razz Seven Card
Jul 22nd 2006
2nd
$94,908
37th Annual WSOP
Event 23 – WSOP Limit Hold'em
Jul 15th 2006
17th
$7,529
37th Annual WSOP
Event 17 – WSOP
Jul 10th 2006
10th
$38,939
37th Annual WSOP
Event 6 – WSOP
Jul 1st 2006
9th
$73,344
37th Annual WSOP
Event 2 – WSOP
Jun 27th 2006
9th
$71,617
World Heads Up Championship
Poker Pages Ranking Heads Up
May 28th 2006
10th
$6,553
Caesars Las Vegas Poker Event 7
WSOP Circuit
May 2nd 2006
5th
$17,500
Grand Casino Tunica Poker Tournament
Event 21 – WSOP Circuit Limit H.O.R.S.E
Jan 22nd 2006
1st
$53,105
Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic
WPT Event Season 4 Event 9
Dec 7th 2005
5th
$31,330
Barcelona Open
EPT/Pokerstars Season 2 Final Table Heads Up
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