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Real Casinos > Poker Player Profiles > Mike Sexton
Mike Sexton
Sexton
was a gymnast and attended Ohio State where he earned a
degree in public recreation after changing majors from business. He jokes that
he majored in poker because he played very frequently in college. He also
played contract bridge a lot and taught classes on it. Sexton joined the Army
as a trooper in the 82nd Division in 1970. The division, however,
had just gotten back from Nam,
so he never saw any action. While he was in the army he taught ballroom dancing
and one of his clients convinced him to try being a salesman, which he
continued to do after his two year enlistment was up. After a while he realized
that he could make more money playing poker than being a salesman, so he took
up poker in 1977.
Although Sexton frequented tournaments, he was never able to
make it to the World Series of Poker because he coached little league baseball
teams and the schedules overlapped. In 1985 he moved to Las Vegas to pursue poker full time. As of 2006, Sexton has won
several tournaments, including one World Series of Poker bracelet, and over
$1,000,000 in total tournament winnings. He is also in the top 10 for all time
number of finishes with money at the WSOP, with 37 cashes.
However,
Sexton is more well known for his promotion of various poker events and
services. He is the main host of the World Series of Poker and spokesman for
Party Poker, the biggest online poker room. Additionally, he is a writer for
Cardplayer Magazine and the Gambling Times. He also founded the now defunct Tournament of Champions of Poker, which
only let tournament winners from the previous year compete.
For
all his work promoting poker, Sexton is often known as the "ambassador of
poker". Because of his affiliations, however, Sexton is unable to play in
some poker events. Although the number of games he plays currently is less than
before, he states that he doesn't mind so much, having played for so many
years. Sexton did finish 10th in a preliminary event at the 2005 World Series
of Poker main event and also in the final 16 of Poker Superstars II.
In
2006, Sexton was recognized as the top poker ambassador at the Card Player
Player of the Year Awards Gala.
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