Poker player, commentator Mike Sexton dies at 72

Mike Sexton, a member of the Poker Hall of Fame and the longtime color commentator for the World Poker Tour, died Sunday. He was 72.

His death was announced on Twitter by Linda Johnson, a fellow Hall of Fame member who previously said she was authorized to speak on his behalf. The cause was cancer, she said.

Sexton helped explain poker to the masses on WPT broadcasts amid the post-Chris Moneymaker boom in the mid-2000s. He appeared on WPT broadcasts from their 2003 debut until 2017.

He later served as chairman of the online poker site partypoker.

Sexton was also an accomplished player, with more than $6.7 million in live tournament earnings, according to the Hendon Mob Poker Database. He won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 1989 and made several other final table appearances.

He also ended up on the other side of WPT cameras, winning a WPT event in Montreal in 2016.

Sexton was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009.

Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.