Updated on 22 Feb 26 by
Barry Carter
Poker Expert

The poker world pays tribute to Mike Sexton

The entire poker community has come together to pay tribute to one of the pioneers of both televised poker and the online game.

This week the poker community received the sad news that poker legend Mike Sexton was in a hospice and did not have much time left. 

Mike Sexton's influence on the game is second to none and what followed was perhaps one of the most positive and unified outpouring of respect to Mike from the poker community. One of the real benefits of which has been Mike has been having many of them read to him. 

We will feature many of them at the bottom of this article, but perhaps the most impressive tribute so far has been from Mike Matusow, who last night hosted an almost five hour stream in tribute to Sexton. The guests included Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman and Erik Seidel, all of whom shared their favourite stories of Mike. 

Mike Sexton's influence on the game is not to be understated and he was a pivotal figure at both partypoker and the World Poker Tour during the poker boom. While the Chris Moneymaker WSOP victory was clearly the biggest single moment in the growth of poker, the World Poker Tour TV show was already airing and this writer would wager that more people picked up the basics of the game from that show than did from the WSOP. partypoker were also the first huge online poker site during that time. 

What is striking from the tributes being shared is that, although his resume is something to behold, it was his kindness that resonated with everyone. It seems like Mike had time for everyone in the poker world and was a brilliant storyteller. 

This writer has only had a few personal dealings with Mike, but all of them were tremendously positive. If it wasn't for early poker media pioneers like Mike, somebody like myself might not have been able to have a career in this industry.

He is also responsible for one of the greatest catchphrases in the game:

May all your cards be live and may all your pots be monsters!

Mike Sexton
Mike Sexton winning WPT Montreal after hosting the World Poker Tour since 2002
Barry Carter
Poker Expert

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO. In 2025, he won the Global Poker Awards for Best Book and Twitter Personality of the Year.