RIP Mike Sexton (1947-2020)

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Mike Sexton who many of you might know from his role as WPT host sadly passed away yesterday on Sunday 6th September, a huge loss to the Poker world, Mike who was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame back in 2009 for being a great promotor of the game, his timeless commentary and pure love for Poker helped many new players fall in love with the game through watching the WPT final tables.

Early Years and Poker Life

In his early life Mike spent his college years as a gymnast in Ohio State and joked that he actually majored in Poker because of how much time he spent with the game in those years. Mike later joined the US Army as a paratrooper but luckily avoided any hairy situations as he was never put into action. Years later he decided that sales jobs just weren’t cutting it and he took on Poker full time in 1977.

These were the days when the card rooms were full of rich whales just making moves and the grinders like Chip Reese, Amarillo Slim, Stu Ungar and many other legends.  Sexton had his share of success, but things really came together for him in 1989 when he won $104,400 taking down the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Split event.


This was the only WSOP bracelet that Mike would win, but he amassed a near $1M in earnings from the WSOP over the years with 46 cashes in total. The generous man that he was, he donated half of his 2006 victory in the Tournament of Champions to 5 charities.

Mike managed to beat some of the best pros of the day out of the tournament, concluding with a gruelling heads up matchup against Daniel Negreanu which Mike toppled the young gun of the time and held his own, if only he was still here maybe he could give Doug Polk some advice on how to crush DNegs.


There was a tribute to Mike held by the Poker world on the Mouthpiece podcast that is hosted by Mike Matusow and with all the people he touched in the community jumping on for just a couple of minutes each the whole thing took over four hours, a true testimony to how many players loved this wonderful human.

Stu Ungar

Mike was very close friends with Stu Ungar, both would regularly back each other in games and when Stu was near the end of his life Mike bought his daughters new school clothes when he had no money.

Mike shared many memories about Stu through the years, known for this captive story telling, this is one story about Stu’s first time golfing that just shows the level of gambler that he was…

Farewell Mike

He was one of the best Poker names in the world, helped grow the scene greatly and will be remembered for his catch phrase “May all of your cards be live and may all of your pots be monsters.” Well hopefully there is an afterlife and Mike is continuing to check raise the pants off anyone that steps into his games, we will miss you Mike. RIP.