WPT Championship | Champions of Poker

Gus Hansen was born in 1974 in Denmark and is known as one of the best No Limit Holdem players alive. He started his gambling career as a backgammon player and actually tried to make a go at being a backgammon player, but the action was not big enough for Hansen and he moved onto poker. His aggressive and wildly aggressive style always keeps his opponents guessing. He is known to play almost any two cards and is regularly paid off when he has a hand or when his garbage connects. When someone is playing really wild and crazy at the table, they are usually referred to as another Gus Hansen.

Hansen is one of the most successful players in the history of the World Poker Tour. In the WPT’s very first season, Hansen won two WPT titles. His very first title came at the World Poker Classic in 2002. The final table included John Juanda, Freddy Deeb, John Hennigan, and Scotty Nguyen. He would outlast John Juanda heads up to win his first title and $556,460. He would then win the 2003 L.A. Poker classic for his 2nd title and $532,490.

Later in the year, he would also take down the Bad Boys of Poker event that WPT put on specifically for TV. He outlasted Paul Darden heads-up for the win. Hansen’s third WPT title came at the 2004 PokerStars.com Caribbean Adventure. Daniel Negreanu, Hoyt Corkins, and John D’Agostino all made the final table. Corkins and Hansen would play heads up and in the end, Hansen walked away with the $455,780 top prize.

Besides his three WPT titles, he has four other WPT final table finishes. His most noted came at the 2008 WPT Championship. Hansen made the final table of the event with David Chiu, and Jeff King. In the end, Hansen and Chiu would battle heads up. Hansen would fall short of his fourth WPT title, finishing in 2nd place. Second still paid a hefty $1.71 Million. In total, Hansen has won over $4 Million on the World Poker Tour.

Outside of the WPT, Hansen’s only other major title came in 2007 when he took down the Main Event of Aussie Millions. He won over $1.19 Million after outlasting both Jimmy Fricke and Andy Black at the final table. Hansen has not had much success at the World Series of Poker to date. He finished in the money in the 2004, 2007, and 2008 Main Event, with his best finish being 61st in the 2007 WSOP. He did come up just short of the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event, finishing in 10th place.

For his career, Hansen has won over $7.29 Million in live tournaments. This ranks him 18th on the all-time money list and 5th on the WPT all-time money list. At only 34 years of age, Hansen still has many years left in him to terrorize players at the poker table. With his ever changing style, he should be able to take down several more titles in his career and make a run at the all-time money lead before his career is complete.

Juan Carlos Mortensen was born in 1972 in Ecuador. He started off as a chess player in school and discovered poker while in a chess club. After high school, he started playing in underground poker games since poker in Spain was illegal. As the games started to dry up in Spain, he and his wife moved from Spain to the United States. At first he did not experience much success but after he started learning English, his game improved. He started playing tournaments in 2000 and it was soon after that he started having major success in tournaments.

The 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event was the largest live poker tournament ever played to that point. 613 entrants came together to take a shot at the $1.5 Million top prize and the gold championship bracelet. Mortensen made the final table that included Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Phil Gordon, Phil Hellmuth, and Dewey Tomko. Mortensen and Tomko wound up heads-up for the title. The final hand saw Mortensen’s K-Q outdraw Tomko’s pocket aces and Mortensen became the last professional player to win the Main Event. His is the first, and so far only Hispanic winner of the Main Event.

Mortensen would win a 2nd bracelet in 2003 when he took home the $5,000 Limit Holdem bracelet and $251,680. Since then he has had several WSOP final tables, including a runner up finish in the 2006 Razz event. He also cashed in the 2007 Main Event.

Mortensen has also had tremendous success in the World Poker Tour as well. In 2004 he won the Doyle Brunson North American Championship where he took home $1 Million for first. 2007 saw Mortensen’s largest score in poker when he took down the $25,000 WPT Championship at the Five Star World Poker Classic. He defeated Kirk Morrison heads-up for the victory and $3.97 Million in prize money. Mortensen is the only player in poker history to win both the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Championship.

Mortensen has had success all over the country and the world. He holds numerous titles throughout the US. He also took down the Johnny Chan TCI Invitational in 2006 for $139,195. While he is skilled at most games, No Limit Holdem does tend to be his bread and butter.

So far in his career, Mortensen has over $8.5 Million in tournament wins and ranks 12th all-time on the career money list. At 36, Mortensen is still a huge threat in any tournament he plays in. Mortensen has a highly loose and aggressive style that keeps his opponents off balance. Sometimes his style of play is considered too loose and potentially disastrous, but his track record seems to back up his style.

Carlos Mortensen is a player that came to the US with the promise of finding success in poker. So far, Mortensen has been able to stand up to and defeat the greatest players in the game. At just 36, “El Matador” still has many years left in him. His accomplishment has already put him in a class by himself. It will be interesting to see where he finishes among the all-time greats.