Carlos Mortensen has been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame

An honor only know 52 players in the history of poker. The Poker Hall of Fame recognizes players who have made a remarkable contribution to the popularization and success of this game, are respected by their peers and have achieved positive and notable results on a regular basis over time.

On October 26th, a ceremony was held at the Binion’s Hotel in Las Vegas for the admission ceremony of two new members at the Poker Hall of Fame: Todd Brunson, son of the legendary Doyle Brunson, and the first Spaniard to receive this honor, Carlos Mortensen. For now left out other nominees who have also had a major role in the history of poker, such as American Chris Moneymaker, first player to win the main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) after having the Ranking in an online poker tournament for just a few dollars.

To have taken the most important tournament of the series of the WSOP is one of the merits of Carlos Mortensen, although not the only one. This professional playing cards n e was born in Ecuador 44 years ago but grew up in Alicante and has Spanish nationality. In the late nineties left Spain to move to the United States and to thus develop his passion for poker. Soon after living there, he won the WSOP prize, where hundreds of the world’s best professionals participate every year; In the next edition, took the big prize.

Mortensen won the main event of the WSOP in 2001 and won a prize of one and a half million dollars. Until in 2013 a very young Adrian Mateos won a title at the WSOP Europe , the Alicante was the only Spanish to have one of these precious “bracelets”. Basque Andoni Larrabe came close to qualifying for the final table in 2014 , but today Mortensen is the only player not only of Spanish nationality but also the Latin American poker that has won the “Main Event” or main event of the WSOP.

However, his successes did not stop there and he continued to win prizes from his residence in Las Vegas, especially on the World Poker Tour Championship (WPT). Mortensen is the only player in history to win the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Championship. In total it has accumulated more than eleven million dollars in profits. His biggest achievement in terms of the amount he earned was in 2007 when he won the 5th Annual Five Star World Poker Classic and won an incredible $ 3,970,415.

His inclusion in the Poker Hall of Fame is a moral achievement, the recognition of an excellent career of a discrete player but with a very aggressive style at the tables that was not usual in his early years as a professional but has been generalized in the new generations. Carlos Mortensen becomes the member number 51 of the Hall of Fame Poker, an institution that opened in 1979 with some pioneering players like cowboy Wild Bill Hickok, Wild Bill, and welcomes other mythical names World of cards such as Doyle Brunson, Preston’s ‘Yellow Slim’, Stu Ungar or current legends such as Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu.