Inside sources at World Team Poker tell Poker News Daily that Team Spain, which did not participate in the first tournament back in May, has filed its roster. The captain of the squad will be former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Carlos Mortensen, who has banded together a team that brings great skills in all aspects of poker. Joining Mortensen on the roster will be the highly underrated Raul Paez, Santiago Terrazas, Oscar Blanco, Cayetano Garcia, and Leo Margets.
Mortensen has spent the last decade at the forefront of the poker world. Since his first cash in a tournament back in 1999, Mortensen has traveled the world as a player, with results that any top pro would be proud to own. At the WSOP in 2000, Mortensen cashed in his first event and, one year later, would become (at the time) only the sixth foreign-born player to win the Main Event. He has added a second bracelet by winning a $5,000 Limit Hold’em event in 2003.
Mortensen’s success hasn’t been limited to just his 21 cashes at the WSOP. He has won three tournaments on the World Poker Tour (WPT), including the 2007 WPT Championship. This win was a significant achievement, as it made Mortensen the only man to win both the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Championship. His victory at the Hollywood Poker Open earlier this year pushed Mortensen to the top of the heap in all-time money winnings on the WPT, passing Daniel Negreanu. For his career, Mortensen has almost $10 million in earnings with his wealth of championships.
Raul Paez has battled on poker tables around the world while establishing himself as one of the most underrated players in the game. His first tournament cash was in 2003 and, since that point, he has cashed in tournaments in the United States, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, England, and the Bahamas. While he hasn’t won on the major tours, Paez has been able to garner six WSOP cashes, two cashes on the European Poker Tour (EPT), and a final table finish in 2006 on the WPT.
Santiago Tarrazas has been in the game just as long as Mortensen and Paez, with a great deal of success in his own right. Although he lacks a major title, Tarrazas has earned a cash in the WSOP Main Event in 2007 and, just last year, finished in third place at the EPT Barcelona Championship Event. Tarrazas has over $650,000 in career tournament earnings from his travels across Europe.
Oscar Blanco has been a terror on the Spanish poker circuit since coming to the felt in 2006. He was the best All-Around Player during the 2006 Campeonato de Espana and, later that year, took a title during the L.A. Poker Classic’s preliminary schedule. Most recently, Blanco was the runner-up at the Partouche Poker Tour’s stop in Madrid, earning slightly over $65,000 for that cash in July. Blanco’s career earnings pass the $400,000 mark and signify that he may be the “wild card” of the Spanish team, as opponents may not have any prior history with him.
Cayetano Garcia is the oldest player on the squad, but his years on the tables have provided him with excellent skills. Although his tournament results only date back to 2007, Garcia has made the most of his time with a championship on the Spanish Poker Tour in 2008 and a seventh place finish in 2009 at the WPT Spanish Championship. 2010 has been the best year of Cayetano’s short tournament poker career, with roughly $82,000 in cashes as a part of his $250,000-plus career earnings.
Since making her mark as the “Last Woman Standing” in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, 888 Poker’s Leo Margets has continued to impress fans and opponents with her success on the tables. She made the final table of this year’s Aussie Millions $2,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament and earned another cash in a similar tournament at the WSOP. Margets has over $476,000 in tournament earnings and continues to be in the hunt for her first major title.
In December, the latest World Team Poker event is expected to run, although a location and date have yet to be determined. Team Spain will face an uphill battle against teams from the United States, Australia, and Canada. In the inaugural World Team Poker event, Team China, led by captains Johnny Chan and David Chiu, took down the title.
