Juan Carlos Mortensen Makes History, Wins WPT Championship

One of the poker world’s most familiar final table faces, Carlos Mortensen, made history last week by winning the $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio.  With the win, he became the first person ever to win both the WPT and World Series of Poker Championships.  Mortensen also won the largest WPT prize of all time, $3,970,415. 

Mortensen began the final television table in second place out of six, with $6.5 million in chips, significantly behind Paul Lee, who had $11.8 million.  Nobody else had more than $4.6 million.  With the big blind at $120,000 there was not a ton of room to maneuver for most of the players, but it wasn’t necessarily “all-in or fold” territory at the outset like it is at many WPT final tables.  It took an hour for the first player to be eliminated.  Having seen his stack go from almost $3 million to under $1 million, Mike Wattel moved all-in pre-flop after a Kirk Morrison raise.  Morrison had Wattel dominated, K-J versus J-9.  Neither player’s hand improved and Wattel was out in 6^th place. 

The next to go was Tim Phan.  He had actually had as many as $2.5 million chips just before Wattel was knocked out, but the blinds and antes had eaten away at his stack over the next forty minutes or so and he was down to $1.7 million.  All-in from the button, he saw Morrison go all-in over the top from the small blind.  Phan had a good hand, 9-9, but Morrison had him dead to rights with A-A.  The best hand ended up winning, sending Phan to the rail in 5^th. 

At the two and a half hour mark, it looked like Mortensen was in deep trouble.  After heavy raising pre-flop, both he and Morrison moved all-in after a flop of Q-J-9.  Mortensen held A-Q for top pair, but he was way behind Morrison’s set of Jacks.  Morrison’s hand held up and he doubled up to more than $16 million.  Mortensen was down to around $1.2 million, only 4 big blinds. 

He kept fighting, however, risking all his chips a few times in the next several hands, picking up the large blinds and antes.  After the fourth hour of play began, he got some chips back from Morrison, doubling to over $3 million. 

A few hands later, Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil was eliminated by Morrison in a true race, Laliberte’s A-J versus Morrison’s 2-2.

Right after that, Mortensen once again doubled through Morrison, getting himself right back into the championship chase.  Not twenty minutes later, he did it again, this time through Paul Lee, virtually crippling him.  Morrison eliminated Lee on the very next hand. 

Going into heads-up play, Morrison had the chip lead over Mortensen, $18.8 million to $13.8 million.   

Heads-up was a marathon match by WPT standards, taking as many hands as the rest of the final table.  A few hands in, Mortensen saw his stack halved when Morrison made a bold call on a board of 10-8-3-10-10, only holding A-J.  Mortensen was bluffing with K-2. 

The two took turns muscling each other out of pots for the next 20 minutes before Mortensen doubled-up with A-10 versus K-6.  Morrison had a gut-shot draw by the river, but wasn’t able to bring it home. 

At the start of the fifth hour of play, Mortensen took a huge lead, doubling-up to over $27 million.  The chips were all in the middle pre-flop, Mortensen with A-K, Morrison with 10-10.  Mortensen turned an Ace to send Morrison plummeting to $5 million in chips. 

A few hands later, Morrison stayed alive when they again got all the chips in pre-flop, this time Mortensen with K-10 and Morrison with 8-7 of diamonds.  Morrison made his flush when a 10 of diamonds spiked on the river.  

The very next hand, Morrison re-doubled to regain the chip lead at $20 million. 

Over the course of the final half hour, Mortensen won enough pots to regain the lead, albeit not by much.  After all the back and forth of an epic championship match, Mortensen raised to $6.5 million with K-J suited just before midnight.  Morrison went all-in with A-4 and Mortensen called.   A Jack on the turn gave Mortensen the best hand and the tournament. 

For second place, Morrison won just over $2 million. 

Final Table Results 

1. Juan Carlos Mortensen -- $3,970,415
2. Kirk Morrison -- $2,011,135
3. Paul Lee -- $1,082,920
4. Guy Laliberte -- $696,220
5. Tim Phan -- $464,110
6. Mike Wattel -- $309,405

Originally published 2:03 PM Thursday, May 03, 2007