Mike Sexton -- Finding Poker Success In The Booth And On The FeltThe World Poker Tour Commentator Discusses Being A Player And Keeping Up With The Game |
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It is not uncommon for former superstars in sports such as basketball, baseball and football to bring their years of experience as players to bear as commentators once they retire. Poker might be one of the only games where, due to the lack of a season, players are able to be full-time commentators and still be able to compete, often at the highest levels.
Longtime host of the popular cash game show High Stakes Poker Gabe Kaplan is perhaps best known to the public as an actor and former star of Welcome Back, Kotter, but he also had decades of experience as a high-stakes cash game player himself, and has garnered more than $1.1 million in career tournament earnings.
World Series of Poker color commentator Norman Chad often makes light of his skills, but made a WSOP final table in a $2,500 buy-in Omaha/seven-card stud eight-or-better in 2012.
The trend of commentators stepping out of the booth and finding success continued earlier this month when Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton, who has been the voice of the World Poker Tour since its inception in 2002, made his second WPT final table at the Venice Grand Prix, finishing third. Sexton is perhaps best known to the younger generation of players for his role as an ambassador for the game and his commentating, but as a gold-bracelet winner with 20 career titles and more than $4.7 million in tournament earnings, clearly has demonstrated that he has the chops to both talk the talk and walk the walk.
We caught up with Sexton shortly after his recent deep run to discuss being both a player and a broadcaster, as well as how it has helped him stay in touch with the modern game.
Erik Fast: In poker we are able to have players, with so much experience, in the booth calling the action. Can you tell me about what its like to be a person who has been around the game so long, first primarily as a player, but now as both a commentator and someone who still finds success at the tables?
Mike Sexton: Part of the reason that I’ve been so successful, not only as a commentator but just in how other players perceive me, is because they know that I used to be a player just like them. For 25 years I didn’t have a paycheck, I literally was just playing. So, I was definitely a poker guy that went into the TV business.
I think that’s why players have a respect for me, because I’ve been in their shoes. I’ve actually played the circuit and know how tough it is, I understand the stress of it all, of going from tournament to tournament, the ups-and-downs, the frustration of getting knocked out all of the time. I really admire all of the people who play on the tour, and anyone who can make a living out there doing it, I salute them.
EF: In the early years of the WPT, you and fellow commentator Vince Van Patten were not allowed to compete in WPT events. That rule has since changed, and you have tried your hand in a number events. Can you tell me more about that situation?
MS: It is fun to get to play once in a while now. Steve Lipscombe, who owned the WPT at that time, was afraid that it might look like it was fixed if we were to make it through to the final table and he didn’t want to take any chances of it appearing that way. I understood, but then the WPT took a new tact, and wanted to increase its presence throughout the duration of the tournament, starting with us being there on day 1.
They knew that we would be at the venue for the entire week, they decided to allow us to play if we wanted to because they realized that the fans would understand that we had gotten there without any monkey business. In fact, they realized that it would be good for the show, so we started to play maybe four or so events a year over the past few years.
EF: So your recent third-place finish in Venice was the second time you made a WPT final table. Can you tell me a bit more about what that was like?
MS: Yea, I also made the final table of the Bay 101 Shooting Star a couple seasons ago, and that was exciting. Anytime you make the final table of a televised event is incredibly fun, and for me the best part might have been the thrill and excitement of the staff and crew of the WPT, who were all pulling for me so hard to make it to the final table.
EF: In the past decade the no-limit tournament world has changed a bit. Young, online players have shifted the style or play with increased aggression. Has your job as a commentator allowed you to keep your hand on the pulse of this game, and in way evolve with the game?
MS: I don’t think there is any question that that is true. I have sat at every final table for all 11 seasons of the World Poker Tour, and I see who is winning and why they are winning. I see how aggressive play has taken over and just dominated the tour. All of the superstars, or guys we thought were superstars, don’t seem to fairing nearly as well after all of these internet guys got old enough to play in these tournaments.
Most of the guys out there in their young twenties probably picked up the game by watching shows like the WPT, and then went on to play millions of hands online. The intelligence level of the player today is far superior to the player of yesteryear, so these players are very bright and talented. There are just so many more tough players out there today, it just makes it tough to play out there on the circuit.
EF: With these increase in complexity in the no-limit hold’em game, do you think it’s a prerequisite for poker show hosts or commentators to have been players?
MS: You have to have a very intimate knowledge of this game in order to commentate on it, and you can only get that by having played yourself. You can sneak by as a broadcaster in another sport without having been a player, but I don’t think its possible in poker. You need to have been or be a player in order to commentate on the high-level play we often see from these young guys. It’s not unlike any other sport, you see the broadcasters in football are often former quarterbacks, and it’s the same thing in other sports. So in the future I think we will continue to see that top players will be the ones who commentate on poker shows.
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