Meet WPT Commentator Mike Sexton

Now entering his 14th season, Mike Sexton is synonymous with the World Poker Tour. But if you only know Mike from his role as the lead commentator on the WPT television show, you know very little about him.

Over the course of his career, Mike has been one of the greatest ambassadors the poker world has ever known. His commitment to raising poker’s profile around the world — along with his world-class ability as a poker player — combined to get Mike inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009.

But Mike’s life has been about far more than just poker. He attended Ohio State University where he received a full four-year scholarship after winning a state championship title in gymnastics. Upon graduation, Mike joined the 82nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg as a paratrooper. Mike even taught ballroom dancing for a while.

After completing his military service, Mike stayed in North Carolina working as a salesman and playing poker at night — until he realized that he could make more money with poker than he could in sales. So Mike moved to Las Vegas to become a professional poker player.

Photo: Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten have shared the commentators’ booth for all 13 seasons of the World Poker Tour.

In 1989, Mike won a WSOP bracelet in Seven-Card Stud Split, and went on to accumulate more than $5.7 million in tournament earnings. Twice in his career he has scored seven-digit cashes — first by winning the 2006 WSOP Tournament of Champions (winning $1 million), and then by finishing ninth in the inaugural WSOP Big One for One Drop, earning more than $1.1 million. The Tournament of Champions that Mike won was based on a concept that Mike himself created in 1999, gathering tournament winners from the previous year to play a “Best of the Best” tournament.

Along the way, Mike was instrumental in the televised poker boom of the early-to-mid 2000s, primarily as a consultant and lead commentator for the brand new World Poker Tour, which turned Mike into a poker superstar, recognized by fans around the world. Mike’s long-term relationship as an ambassador for partypoker is one of the longest in online poker history.

Mike also has a charitable side to his poker career, donating half of his $1 million victory in the WSOP Tournament of Champions to charity, and then as a co-founder of PokerGives.org.

Mike is still a leading voice in the poker community, and continues to travel the world with the World Poker Tour. The best way to keep up with Mike nowadays is to follow him on Twitter —@MikeSexton_WPT.

Photo: Mike Sexton welcomes all-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Phelps to a WPT Final Table (as a spectator, not a player).