Mike Sexton's Moment Is Now Poker's Moment

Moments like Mike Sexton’s victory last November are the kind of headlines which can melt the heart of even the most jaded poker players and fans.

“Living legend” is a big phrase, but Sexton has the personality and pedigree to merit its usage. The man is a Poker Hall of Famer, a title which represents a long career of poker success. It was a career that included nearly $6 million in career tournament earnings and the universal respect of his peers, but up until last year, it was missing something.

“Winning a WPT had to be his number-one priority, even more than the WSOP Main Event,” Sexton’s co-worker and fellow WPT Champions Club member Tony Dunst said.

For a long time, Sexton couldn’t even attempt to win a WPT title. While Steve Lipscomb was in charge of the company, there was a policy in place that talent were not allowed to play in WPT events. Around Season IX, the company relaxed the rules and Sexton was allowed to take a seat in the events he knew inside and out from years of calling the action.

A year after he started playing events, Sexton made the TV final table at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, exiting in sixth place. Two years later, he made another TV final table at the Gioco Digitale WPT Venice Grand Prix in Italy, finishing third. Then, this past November, he was back in front of the TV cameras with another shot at a title.

When Sexton made the partypoker.net WPT Montreal final table at Playground Poker in November, it was as exciting as it was the first two times he played his way to the final six. When he got heads-up, social media was buzzing. But when he got extremely short on chips, the WPT staff and TV crew filming the event were crushed at seeing him get so close to the Champions Cup only to apparently come up short.

But then Sexton slowly but surely rallied back in a David and Goliath-esque match with Benny Chen in which the so-called old timer beat the local pro with an impressive resume of his own.

He did not just rally back, he won. He won a spot on the Cup and over CAD $425,000.

“Knowing history and the anticipation that went into it, I was happy to see it pay off,” Dunst explained. He did get to see it pay off from one of the best seats in the house, as he filled in alongside Vince Van Patten calling the action for the television show.

Few would disagree Sexton’s victory is going to make great television, but one player has a particularly bold prediction.

“I think it is going to be the most watched WPT final table ever. Everyone is going to want to watch Mike play and win,” says Season XIII Hublot WPT Player of the Year Anthony Zinno.

Now there is a chance he wins even more, as he is nominated for two American Poker Awards for his performance. Modest Mike is grateful for the recognition, but admitted he would vote for Jason Mercier himself.

Plenty of other people, young and old, think Sexton is deserving of the prize. The older generation, his peers like Doyle Brunson and Erik Sediel, respect him as a competitor and a friend. The younger generation respect him as fans.

“He has been the face of the WPT for 15 years,” Dunst says, acknowledging that for himself and others his age, Sexton was their introduction to the game, the face behind the poker boom.

Hence why Zinno is so positive Sexton’s television episodes will draw big numbers. In addition to the draw of history being made, it was a “good for poker” lineup with younger pros like Chen and Jake Schwartz, female player Ema Zajmovic, but let’s be honest, all eyes are going to be on Sexton.

Zinno’s prediction makes sense. The generation of players who thought of Sexton as the voice and face of their poker dreams as young beginners are now playing with him throughout the season. They have gone from admiring him as a face on TV to getting to know him and how much this title meant to him.

“I know that it was one of his dreams,” Zinno says, echoing Dunst’s remarks about how important it was to him. Dunst puts the win in a perspective of how it felt compared to seeing other friends and pros take down titles.

“A lot of people, when they win, you are part happy and part resentful,” he explains, acknowledging the competitive nature of the game which always has you wishing, at least a little bit, that it was you instead. “With Mike though, I was all happy.”

Sexton wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to his love of poker. That is what the appeal is. That is why, when you bring up the man to WPT players, one word gets invoked more than any other:

Ambassador.

He is a fan, a player, a host, an icon, a leader, a legend, the face of the dream. Few poker players comprise so many aspects of the game, so it is no wonder his moment in the spotlight has been singled out as a poker moment of the year, because it brings his poker journey, one which sparked so many other poker careers, full circle.