WPT Names Champions Cup Trophy After Poker Hall Of Famer Mike SextonSexton Served As Lead Commentator For First 15 Seasons, Won WPT Title Himself In Montreal In 2016 |
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The World Poker Tour renamed its main tour trophy, the WPT Champions Cup, after long-time voice of the tour Mike Sexton.
The trophy, which has the names of every WPT main tour winner inscribed on the base, will now be referred to as the “Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.”
It’s the latest achievement for one of poker’s most successful careers. As a player, Sexton won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 1989, took down WPT Montreal in 2016, was a fixture in the high-stakes poker world, and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009.
The Ohio State graduate did most of this while serving as the lead commentator for WPT and was the voice of poker for an entire generation of poker fans. Sexton and his co-host Vince Van Patten were on the mic for nearly every WPT event from 2002 until his departure from the booth in May 2017. He has served as the Chairman of partypoker ever since.
“I was most proud of being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame,” said Sexton. “I didn’t think anything could ever top that, but in my mind, this does. To me, there is no greater honor in poker than having the WPT rename the Champions Cup the ‘Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.’ It’s special because I created the original Tournament of Champions of poker back in the ‘90s, won the WSOP Tournament of Champions, was a commentator on the WPT the first 15 season, and then got my name on the cup by winning in Montreal. I love the WPT, how they changed poker forever, and I’ll be eternally grateful to them for this incredible honor.”
Sexton becomes just the second poker pro to have a major title named in his honor. Sexton joins the late David “Chip” Reese, who had the $50,000 Poker Players Championship trophy named after him in 2008. Reese won the inaugural $50,000 HORSE in 2006.
“Chip was my idol,” said Sexton. “We’re both from Dayton area and I would always stay and Chip and Danny Robinson’s house when I came to Vegas. He was the greatest all-around player ever, always played in the highest stakes game in the room, and set the standard as to how you should behave on and off the table… Just being mentioned with Chip in any contest is an honor.”
Over the course of his more than 30-year poker career, Sexton racked up more than $6 million in career tournament earnings.
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