Remembering Mike Sexton: The Irrepressible Voice Of Poker

In January 2019, myself and my Chip Race co-host Dara O’Kearney interviewed a poker player and broadcaster whose popularity had transcended the game of poker. A former gymnast, paratrooper, little league coach, ballroom dancer, WSOP bracelet winner, WPT champion and Poker Hall of Famer, Mike Sexton was everything you might expect. 

Mike regaled us with tales from on and off the felt. He told us how he felt a responsibility to be the connection between the old-school guys and modern players. He explained how he had an obligation to tell the stories about players past, players like his close and dearly departed friend Stu Ungar, because if he didn’t tell them, who would?

Mike talked openly about his money troubles, specifically how sports betting kept him broke for 25 years. He spoke about becoming a dad late in life and his adoration for his wife Karen and son Ty. He reflected on the process of writing his superb 2016 autobiography ‘Life’s A Gamble’.

Growing Poker

Mike argued that the poker boom was less about ‘The Moneymaker Effect’ and more about the consistent, high quality television coverage delivered by the WPT which lit the fuse and thrust the game into the mainstream. It was a fair take which better acknowledged the juggernaut that poker was in that period, thanks to live operators with synergetic online businesses that were exploding in popularity. 

Mike was critical of bad actors in the industry. He was scathing of the Full Tilt debacle and the people behind that scandal who left the players to carry the can. He was also stoical about the mother of all bad beat stories (when he sold his shares in partypoker for $15 million, 18 months before they would have been worth almost $500,000,000).

Mike was self-effacing when I called him ‘the consummate poker ambassador’ but there is no doubt that he was one of the game’s great builders, a person who saw a future and made it a reality. He believed that the game could capture people’s imaginations all over the globe and was bullish about the ways that poker could prosper. His enthusiasm and positivity seemed boundless and it reminded me of the first time that we met. 

Sharing The Booth

In 2015, I commentated on the Irish Poker Open for the first time. Myself and Emmet Kennedy were on the mic all weekend but there was a third chair always at the ready for guest commentators. On the Saturday, our booth had been graced by the presence of Dan Harrington and Kara Scott. On the Sunday, the stream’s producer told us that Mike would be popping into the booth for a frame. 

Needless to say, I was very excited. At the first break, we got word that Mike was on his way. My exuberance was tempered when the producer pulled me to one side, explaining that Mike would not be able to breakdown or critique the hands because it was in his contract with WPT that he was exclusive on that stuff. 

My brow furrowed and the producer told me to just ask Mike about his previous trips to Ireland. 

“Wait, hang on a minute”, I said, “I’m gonna be in the booth calling the action with the legend that is Mike Sexton and as soon as a hand gets interesting and we zoom in on it, he has to stay quiet.”

The producer nodded. 

“You do realize how bad that is going to make me look. It’s going to come across so big-headed of me not to ask someone of his caliber for an opinion.”

The producer just shrugged and off he went. 

Irrepressible 

With three minutes left on the break, Mike walked into the booth, gregariously introducing himself with a firm handshake and warm smile. The action got underway and he was brilliant of course. I barely had to tee him up and he was bantering about his friendship with Irish poker legend Padraig Parkinson, re-telling funny stories from the bar at past Irish Opens and waxing lyrical about how the tournament had grown down the years. 

Then, inevitably, an interesting hand started to brew onscreen as there was in-position 3-bet by a player with Ace-King suited and another contemplating what to do having opened his pocket tens. I felt compelled to segue us back to the action to do some hand analysis. I was obviously hating it because I could just imagine all the people listening at home thinking “wow what a dick that Lappin is for not tossing to Mike at any point”.

The player called and the two players went to a flop of small cards, two of which were the same suit as the Ace-King. The player with pocket tens checked and his opponent shoved his nut flush draw and two over-cards for three times the pot. I began rattling off some passable guff about perceived ranges when suddenly that unmistakeable booming, ebullient voice cut across me:

“Well the thing about a spot like this David, is you gotta put all your chips on the line, hoping that your opponent has exactly this kind of hand… and even when he does it’s a flip.” 

WPT contract be damned, Mike just couldn’t help himself. An irrepressible force of nature, he loved the game so much that he just had to weigh in. 

Carrying The Mantle

Mike Sexton passed away in September 2020, leaving a larger-than-life Mike Sexton sized hole in our industry. For 35 years, he used his voice to grow poker, both literally and figuratively, and that mantle is still being carried by his WPT colleagues today who have built tours which stretch all across the globe. In December, those tours will culminate, as they have done in recent years, in the Wynn Hotel for the prestigious WPT World Championship. 

The WPT Prime Championship starts on December 8th and will be the largest field of the festival as it attempts to break its record of 10,512 entries last year. There is another standout tournament starting on December 13th as the much-hyped WPTClubGold $5 million Freeroll gets underway. Flying the WPT colours, WPTClubGold is a new poker site which is adopting the sweepstakes model to bring online poker back to the USA, something about which Mike was passionate. 

There is much speculation about what kind of numbers to expect for the WPT World Championship Main Event which begins on December 14th. As a betting man, I would set the line at 3500 entrants generating a prizepool of ~$34 million, with the winner taking home $4.5 million after lifting ‘The Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup’.