Having just won the 2007 WPT Championship, we figured this would be a great time to write a full Carlos Mortensen Bio. Juan Carlos Mortensen a.k.a “The Matador” was born April 13th, 1972 in Ambato, Ecuador and grew up in Madrid, Spain. Mortensen’s introduction to the game of poker was a somewhat unusual one as he observed members of an illegal poker room in Madrid playing while he waited to pick up his Girlfriend. The game intrigued Carlos, who ambitiously decided to play in the underground game losing $100 his first night. The frustration of the loss saw Mortensen return for the next five consecutive nights to the club, which proved to be a good decision as he immediately started winning and continued to do so each of the nights.

Originally an avid chess player, Carlos began to appreciate the game of poker and his skills were beginning to show it, however due to the Spanish laws Mortensen realized that the future of a poker career in Madrid was slim to none. For this reason, Carlos decided to move to the United States in the late 90’s to pursue poker as a full-time job.

After aclimitizing to the American lifestyle, Carlos started getting in on the action and quickly began proving his raw talent as a poker player. His largest win to date was the recent 2007 WPT Championship which earned him $3,970,415, however his skills have placed him in the money before with a tremendous win of the 2001 World Series (after an 8 hour final table) for $1.5 Million as well as a win at the 2004 WPT Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship netting the pro an additional $1 Million. His total live winnings to date are estimated to exceed $8.35 Million.

Currently Carlos Mortensen is a sponsored pro at Full Tilt Poker, where he plays often in the high stakes cash games, as well as frequenting the major tournament circuit both in the States and abroad.