Mike Sexton leaves World Poker Tour, becomes chairman of PartyPoker

Mike Sexton, after 15 years with company, is leaving the World Poker Tour (WPT) behind after getting a job offer from partypoker he just couldn't refuse.

Sexton was just officially appointed as Chairman of PartyPoker, a poker room that he originally helped to found in 2001.

Mike commented: "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."

According to partypoker's blog, Mike’s role as Chairman will be to represent the global poker community and guide partypoker to:

Invest in software development to deliver an industry leading player experience
Improve customer services and strive to resolve player issues in the same day
Reward the loyalty of players who start games and keep the action going
Look after smaller bankroll players with value added promotions
Fight against the use of third party software that gives an unfair advantage
Invest marketing budgets within the poker community
Develop partypoker Live to become the largest live poker tour in the world
Support partners and have their backs
Only appoint management who get poker, who are trusted, and who actually care
Hold hands up to the poker community when mistakes are made

Good news, pretty sure Mike has history doing well in these scenarios.

Seeing whats happening to PokerStars, their games and their VIP system lately, it might be PartyPokers time to shine again. Well I like the direction it is currently going

how does being an announcer make you qualified for running a company

"Invest in software development to deliver an industry leading player experience"

Oh yes, please. The only reason I haven't switched over to Party yet is this.