“El Matador” Juan Carlos Mortensen won his third World Poker Tour event at the Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana Wednesday night, tying Gus Hansen for the most WPT titles.
In addition to tying Hansen’s record, Mortensen’s $393,820 prize puts him ahead of Daniel Negreanu for WPT all-time money earner.
The $10,000 buy-in event attracted a field of 144 players, generating a prize pool of just over $1.3 million.
Mortensen had a comparable chip stack with his opponent, online pro Mike Mustafa, going into heads-up play.
A decisive hand took place when Mortensen moved all-in after flopping a straight on a 10-9-6 board. Mustafa called with top two pair. The straight held, crippling Mustafa.
The final hand of the night saw Mortensen outflopping Mustafa’s pocket pair of 6’s with K-10.
Mortensen is the only player to have won both a World Series of Poker Main Event and a WPT Championship Event and was the winner of the 2001 WSOP Main Event, where he collected $1,500,000 in a 631-field event.