This week, the World Poker Tour officially released its schedule for the sixth season of its programming. The WPT will debut in style on GSN, The Network for Games, with 19 regular tournaments in casinos across the globe. Several other special tournaments, such as “Poker by the Book” and “Bad Boys of Poker,” will be announced in the future. The sixth season calls for several brand new stops, including The Players’ Club at Club Med in the Turks & Caicos Islands, Casino Barcelona in Spain, and Biloxi’s Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino. All told, these stops represent significant change for the WPT as it enters its new broadcasting agreement with GSN. PocketFives.com sat down with Rich Cronin, President and CEO of GSN, to discuss the WPT’s new schedule.

Coming on the heels of Carlos “The Matador” Mortensen’s come from behind win at the WPT Championship last month, the WPT is set to visit Mortensen’s stomping grounds in Barcelona, Spain for the WPT Spanish Championship on October 12-16. Cronin comments on the new international event: “We’re kicking off a new season and it’s great to have some new locations, particularly Barcelona. Carlos Mortensen is now the WPT champion and we’re going to Spain. It was just luck that the WPT planned Barcelona.” Also new is The Players’ Club at Club Med in the Turks and Caicos Islands on September 25-30. The poker room at The Players’ Club spreads all levels of a variety of games each day, so this Caribbean destination is ideal for the WPT. According to Cronin, “These are some of the best casinos in the world.”

GSN was just informed of the WPT schedule and Cronin was elated to see some of the new stops: “It was a very pleasant surprise. We met with WPT officials last week in Los Angeles and they told us about the new schedule and I thought it was perfect.” Cronin just returned from the National Cable Television Association convention in Las Vegas and received extremely positive feedback about his network’s acquisition of WPT programming: “They were thrilled. The feedback was that the WPT made more sense on GSN than on The Travel Channel. They were aware we were doing well with High Stakes Poker and the World Series of Blackjack.”

In several markets, GSN is only available as part of an expanded cable service. This was also the case when The Travel Channel originally aired WPT programming several years ago and demand for expansion of the network onto basic cable increased dramatically: “We think that, as we get closer to the launch of the WPT on GSN, poker players who don’t have our channel on basic cable will call. Cable operators are very responsive to what their subscribers want. I would encourage all poker fans to call in and request GSN programming if you don’t already have it on basic cable.”

News Source: PocketFives

Full Tilt Poker pro Carlos "The Matador" Mortensen, rallied through three hours of grueling heads-up play against Kirk Morrison to win the 2007 WPT Five Star World Poker Classic. The $3.9 million victory makes him the first player to ever win both a WPT World Championship and a WSOP* Main Event.

Mortensen started heads-up play as a two-thirds underdog, with 12.8 million in chips to Morrison's 19.45 million, and within 15 minutes lost even more ground by losing more than six million in one hand.

Down but not out, Mortensen built up his chip stack over then next hour until he rivered a straight and took the lead. Unfortunately, it wouldn't last. Just 10 minutes later, Morrison doubled up, and Mortensen had to dig himself out of another big hole.

The chip lead would switch sides three more times during the night. Finally, the pivotal moment came when Morrison moved all in pre-flop with A-4, and Mortensen called with K-J suited. The flop fell 7-4-3 giving Morrison a big advantage with a pair. But a Jack on the turn and a 3 on the river meant Mortensen had a higher two pair and the victory.

Mortensen's latest $3.9 million win moves him into the top-10, all-time money list and is a crowning achievement in an already impressive career. Besides winning the 2001 Main Event, Mortensen owns another World Series of Poker* bracelet and a second WPT title.

"Carlos Mortensen has always been one of the most dangerous players on the circuit," said fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Howard Lederer. "With this win he solidifies his legacy as one of the most successful major championship event competitors in poker history."

Mortensen represents one of the fastest growing online poker sites, www.FullTiltPoker.com, and spends several hours a week online helping amateur players learn the game by sharing his poker knowledge through real-time chats at the virtual tables. Along with Mortensen, 66 other top poker professionals play at www.FullTiltPoker.com, where they have helped to create the best possible atmosphere for players who want to improve their games.

Full Tilt Poker's 67 professional players own a total of 70 WSOP* bracelets between them. "Team Full Tilt," is a select group of the world's finest professional poker players, including Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, Clonie Gowen, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, and Allen Cunningham. Full Tilt Poker offers players the unique opportunity to Learn, Chat and Play poker with the best poker pros in the game.

News Source: Casino City Times

On Friday night, April 27, the World Poker Tour crowned its new Season Five champion - Carlos Mortensen, at the Bellagio in Las Vegas He is the first person to win both the World Series of Poker Main Event (in 2001) and the WPT’s championship event.

In the final moments of the 5th Annual 5 Star World Poker Classic (WPT Championship) Carlos Mortensen raised from the button to $6,500,000 and his only oppenent left (Kirk Morrison) moved all in. Carlos easily made the call with KJ while Kirk revealed A4.

The flop showed 7-4-3 and Kirk had the lead. Then, the turn brought a Jack and gave Carlos the lead with top-pair. The river revealed a 3 and sealed the deal for Carlos Mortensen. Kirk Morrison was eliminated in second place and earned $2,011,135.

Carlos Mortensen wins the $25,000 WPT Championship and earns $3,970,415.

Also for the history books is Mortensen’s $3.97 million cash prize, the largest in the tour’s history. The pay is also the fourth-largest first place cash in poker history with only the previous three WSOP Main Event champions, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Jamie Gold, having won more for their titles.

After battling through the 639-player field and coming back from just a million in chips when down to four players, the 35-year-old poker pro who moved from Spain to Las Vegas in the 1990s found himself going into heads-up play against past WSOP bracelet winner Kirk Morrison with a slight chip disadvantage. It was an epic heads-up battle between the two, but in the end Mortensen showed why he is considered one of the best heads-up players in the world by walking away with the title.

The win puts his career tournament winnings at almost $8.5 million that translates to seventh on the All-Time Money List and second on the WPT All-Time list, just barely behind Canadian Daniel Negreanu.

Here are the final places and payouts:

1. 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

In October of this year, the World Poker Tour will head to Mortensen’s home country of Spain for the first time. The event is being held at Casino Barcelona as part of the sixth season of the show and Bodog is offering players a unique opportunity to be part of this momentous occasion.

The "Player’s Choice" qualifiers will give winner’s the opportunity to choose to use their prize packages to participate in a WPT or WSOP tournament, as well as other events that become available. Satellites are going on daily in the Bodog online poker room for as little as a dollar, so head over to Bodog.com and get in on the action.

News Source: Bodog Poker