Poker operator partypoker announced on Monday that poker veteran Mike Sexton will join its ranks as its new Chairman. Sexton is assuming his new role after spending the past 15 years as a WPT commentator.
With more than three-decades of poker involvement, Sexton has given a lot to the game and has contributed significantly to its development over the years. He was among the partypoker founders back in 2001. Since then he has combined his partypoker ambassador role with the one as a WPT commentator.
Speaking of the World Poker Tour, Sexton has been with the popular live tournament brand since its inception back in 2002 and has spent the past 15 seasons covering live events taking place in different parts of the US and the rest of the world. The WPT announced on Monday that fellow poker player and WPT Raw Deal host Tony Dunst will take Sexton’s commentator role, sitting alongside Vince Van Patten in the commentators’ booth.
Dunst has been the face of the WPT Raw Deal poker analytics show for the past seven years. He will take Sexton’s seat as a commentator during the upcoming WPT Choctaw, with the event slated to be the first televised one on WPT’s Season XVI schedule.
As for Sexton himself, joining the partypoker team as a Chairman, he will have to build upon what the brand has accomplished so far and establish it as the leader in the provision of both online and live poker offering.
Commenting on his appointment, the new partypoker Chairman said that leaving the WPT was an emotional decision, but he will now focus his full attention on bringing the online poker room to its former glory.
Sexton reminisced about partypoker’s early years and the poker boom when the brand enjoyed worldwide popularity as the top poker operator. The prominent poker personality pointed out that it pained him to see how partypoker left the US after the UIGEA implementation, while its rivals stayed in the market and capitalized on its own players.
Partypoker Managing Director Tom Waters pointed out that with Sexton on board, they will be able to turn partypoker into a site for the players.
Mike Sexton may be better known for his WPT commentator role, but he has also built quite a successful poker career over the years. He is a one-time WPT Champion, winning the title last fall during the WPT Montreal festival. In 1989, he won a WSOP gold bracelet for topping the field of a $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Split tournament. Sexton was a close friend of the late Stu Ungar, the latter being regarded as the world’s greatest Texas Hold’em player.
