Commentary to Crushing: Mike Sexton’s WPT Journey

For almost any poker player, winning a World Poker Tour title is the culmination of a dream.

In that way, Mike Sexton’s victory at partypoker WPT Montreal was like any other WPT winner’s story. Like many players who finally climb the WPT mountain after years of grinding, Sexton had fired countless WPT tournaments over the years. He finally defeated a field of 648 players to claim $317,817 in prize money and his quotes wouldn’t look out of place coming from any other WPT winner.

“I just can’t say how thrilling it is for me to have won a World Poker Tour title, to get my name on the Champion’s Cup with all the great players,” he said. “[If you’re a poker player], one of your dreams in life is to win a big-time WPT event; there’s no question about it. It should be if poker’s your passion. Fortunately, that finally took place for me.”

However, Sexton’s story of WPT glory isn’t merely one of grinding away until variance lined up for him and he finally shipped one. Sexton has long served as commentator of the WPT from day one, helping lay the foundation for a show that brought poker to mainstream America and playing a major role in the poker room. His tireless work promoting the game has had a dramatic impact on its popularity today, making him something of a poker celebrity.

Yes, Sexton has worn many hats for the WPT. He shared with PokerNews how he helped take the WPT from a mere idea hatched by a friend to a name almost synonymous with tournament poker itself. It all start with a different “role” — that of poker punching bag.

“I Just Made Poker My Life”

Sexton began playing poker when he was 13 years old. Occasionally, there is the tale of a poker player who is so immensely talented — and perhaps so fortunate to be learning against other weak players — that he or she is a winner right away and forever thereafter. That is not how Sexton’s story begins.

Like most poker neophytes, Sexton was initially a losing player. Young Sexton had a damn good excuse though. His poker tutor was none other than Danny Robison, an eventual World Series of Poker bracelet winner who would one day be known as perhaps the top seven-card stud player in the world.

The 15-year-old Robison taught his young friend in Dayton, Ohio, and Sexton paid well for the lessons.

“When I was young and got started and he kept me broke all the time, who knew how good he was?” Sexton said. “When I got away from Danny, when I got to college, I started winning.”

At Ohio State University, Sexton engaged in gin rummy, hearts, bridge and poker games with other students and quickly realized that although he may have been the fish in his games with Robison, he was the shark in these games. He played bridge or poker “almost every day” and, looking back, considers his real major to have been cards.

After college, he joined the Army, eventually making his home in North Carolina. There, he found home games where he thrived and eventually made a decision.

“I just made poker my life,” he said.

In the mean time, his old friend Robison had migrated Las Vegas and begun the process of becoming a legend. As the tale goes, Robison and Chip Reese arrived in Sin City in 1973 and began crushing the seven-card stud cash scene. Legend has it they turned an $800 bankroll into over $2 million, earning the moniker of “Golddust Twins” in the process.

Sexton began making regular trips to Las Vegas in the 1970s, staying with the Twins. Through them, he met all of the big names in the burgeoning scene: Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, Stu Ungar and the like. The legendary Ungar — Sexton calls him “one of a kind” — even staked Sexton for a time.

In 1984, Sexton had his breakthrough year. He enjoyed a big summer at the WSOP, making his first two WSOP final tables. He finished fifth in a pot-limit Omaha event and sixth in a stud hi-low event for a little over $13,000. Along with his continued success in cash games, it was enough to convince Sexton to make the jump and move to Las Vegas the following year.

Established as a pro, Sexton continued to grind for the next decade or so until he met a man who would eventually change the course of his poker career.

A New Role

Sexton’s initial poker media appearance came, unsurprisingly, as the subject of the camera rather than the voice behind it. He was competing in the WSOP every year and had claimed his first bracelet and over $100,000 in a 1989 stud hi-low event. He had also won a number of smaller tournaments across the nation and was something of an established name in poker.

So, when Steve Lipscomb shot a documentary about the WSOP in the 1990s, he …

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