Sexton wins TOC

The Tournament of Champions, a curtainraiser for this year’s World Series of Poker has drawn to a close in Las Vegas, with a somewhat unlikely winner.

Mike Sexton took down the $1 million first place prize after an epic heads-up battle with Daniel Negreanu.

Sexton is well known for his media work co-hosting World Poker Tour TV broadcasts, but less well known these days as a player, but he has pedigree, and has been playing in the big games for years.

Not only that he helped inaugurate the Tournament of Champions in 1998.

The tournament, which was won by Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow last year featured a very select field.

There were only 27 runners, made up of players who made the final table in the this tournament last year, the 12 winners of WSOP Circuit Events and six Harrahs’ sponsors exceptions.

This invitational event was effectively a freeroll, which a substantial prize pool and poker reputations at stake.

Interestingly on a final table table of ten players, only nine places were paid and it was Gus ‘The Great Dane’ Hansen who exited on the bubble after only ten hands.

The heads-up battle between Daniel Negreanu and Mike Sexton lasted a staggering 300 hands and six hours, with play going on till 6am. The players met with similar stacks and the battle was an absorbing one.

It was intense stuff, so much so that Negreanu cancelled his participation in the first open tournament of the WSOP which followed the Tournament of Champions.

Fittingly Sexton won the tournament with Pocket Rockets which made a full house and annihilated Negreanu’s Q-J

“I am so happy to win,” Sexton said in a post-victory interview. “To win the million-dollar prize and this title means everything to me. To come back again all these years later and win this tournament really makes me proud. It is very special to me as I was the founder.”

“I thought I had as good a chance as anyone because of the structure and I got more confident as I built my chip stack up,” said Sexton.

Sexton now stands among the top 10 for all-time number of finishes in the money at the WSOP with 37 cashes. He has nearly $2.7 million in total tournament winnings.

“Because I’ve been doing commentary on the WPT for the past five years,” said Sexton. “I am a much better player than I was before. Poker is a game of skill and there’s a big advantage in having seen every hand. I see what players are doing and I’m adapting my game.”

Sexton was humbled and proud to announce the charities that he would be gifting with half of his winnings, a pledge he has made over the past few years and one that he says he will continue. The recipients included The Special Olympics, The Buoniconti Fund to help cure paralysis, The Paralyzed Veterans of America, The Wounded Warrior Project, which helps families of those wounded or killed in battle, and Children Incorporated, which helps provide food and school supplies for underprivileged children around the world. Children Incorporated is the primary recipient of donated monies from fellow poker player Barry Greenstein, known as the “Robin Hood of Poker.”

Sexton said: “Barry is a pioneer. Poker can do good things for underprivileged people.”

Final results:

1. Mike Sexton, $1,000,000
2. Daniel Negreanu, $325,000
3. Mike Matusow, $250,000
4. Chris Reslock, $150,000
5. Andrew Black, $100,000
6. Darrell Dicken, $75,000
7. Chris Ferguson, $50,000
8. Thang "Kido" Pham, $25,000
9. Daniel Bergsdorf, $25,000
10. Gus Hansen