Mike Sexton Appointed Chairman of Partypoker

Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton was there for the inception of both partypoker and the World Poker Tour. Now, after 15 years he leaves his position as a commentator for the latter, the WPT to fill the role of the chairman at partypoker.

Partypoker announced the news in a blog post [3] on their website. The same post quotes Sexton:

“This is an emotional time for me because I have decided to leave the World Poker Tour to focus on this new role. I was at partypoker from the start, before there was even a name or a single virtual card was dealt. I experienced the crazy times of the poker boom when we became the number one site in the world, I remember people sleeping on the office floor when we were all working 24-7 get the software launched and I remember the first partypoker Million on a cruise ship which overlaid $500K. It was devastating for me to see the decline of partypoker when we were forced to pull out of the US and then watch from the side lines as our competitors remained and benefited from our customer base. I am really looking forward to working with people that love the game like I do. We are not aiming for second place. We are all in. Shuffle up and deal!”

[4]

It's understandable that Sexton feels emotional about leaving WPT since - just like with partypoker - he was there from the very beginning, season 1 back in 2002 as a commentator. He will be replaced by Tony Dunst who filled in for him in the booth a couple times before when Sexton himself was busy collecting chips at a WPT table.

The WSOP bracelet winner poker pro has been a partypoker ambassador for years but now he transitions to a more demanding role, the chairman. 

This is not the only change around partypoker these days, they have recently introduced their new loyalty program [5] which can give their players up to 40% rakeback!