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wp no group of six finalists for you here today what a great way to start the season on the world poker 2. the world poker tour premiered with the wpt 5 diamond world poker classic at the bellagio the game is no limit holding it's a game that takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master mike and fellow commentator vince van patten changed the poker world forever with their patented blend of friendly banter and deep poker knowledge ryan rivers doesn't get some help here vance he's going over the falls in a barrel this unlikely partnership would grow into a deep friendship founded on respect admiration and affection in 2005 mike published his first book shuffle up and deal in 2006 mike masterfully won the wsop tournament of champions for one million dollars defeating the two-time wpt champion daniel legranu heads up true to his giving major he donated half of his 1 million dollar purse to charity including the bonacanti fund to cure paralysis a cause he continued to generously support for many years similarly along with linda johnson jan fisher and lisa tenor mike created pokergives.org a non-profit organization providing poker players a dedicated platform for philanthropy i've been interviewed many times during my career and one question a lot of times they ask is who do you think is the most respected person or who do you like most as a poker player and my answer is always the same mike sexton he is the man [Applause] [Music] in 2008 mike received the greatest gift of all his son tai mike's love for tithe brought a new and meaningful dimension to his life as a devoted father mike loved cheering tie on at baseball games and proudly shared photos at the table of tai and their treasured moments together tai was truly his world [Music] later that year mike reached a career milestone when he was inducted as the 39th member of the poker hall of fame in 2016 mike published life's a gamble a poker autobiography spanning his four decades in the defining game of his life in november of the same year mike with the ladies yes i call mike reached his third of four wpt final tables and won wpt montreal main event best in the field of 648 entries to win nearly 318 000 and making him officially a wpt champion let's hear one more time for the great mike sexton unsurprisingly he gave his championship belt to die with 15 career caches in wpt tournaments totaling nearly 1 million dollars mike has ranked 216th overall in wpt earnings and 39th in wpt final table appearances in total mike amassed more than 6.7 million dollars in live tournament winnings in 2017 after 15 landmark seasons with a world poker tour mike left to rejoin party poker as their chairman closing out a career with wpt that remains a huge part of his legacy in the industry that same year mike was named a recipient of the wpt honors i'm extremely humbled and honored to be receiving this award the wpt's highest distinction awarded to members of the poker industry in celebration and appreciation of exceptional contributions made to the world poker tour and the poker community as a whole [Music] in july the wpt renamed its iconic wpt champions cup the mike sexton wpt champions cup in honor of mike's unparalleled influence on the organization and the poker world to his friends mike was known as a humble man and a kind and generous soul [Music] never without a smile on his face and always game for a new adventure mike was never too busy to share a laugh stop take a picture with a fan or a fact to which many of his friends can attest take your money on the golf course they might only bet one dollar two dollars or lunch or beers but everybody gambles on the golf course that's the fun of it and mike was a storyteller extraordinaire there was nothing he loved more than joyfully regaling eager listeners with boisterous tales from his days coming up in poker when he was seated at the table with legends like his good friends doyle brunson amarillo slim puggy pearson chip reese and stu unger at whose funeral mike spoke and served as pallbearer a larger than life personality whose infectious energy enthusiasm and pure love of the game pulled you over when he entered the room mike leaves an outsized legacy on and profound hole in the poker world everybody who was lucky enough to know mike will always remember him fondly as a jubilant once and forever first ambassador of poker one thing that we know is this industry this wonderful thing that has brought us all together we're only going to experience it for so much time [Music] we will not be there next generation will come and the fact that we could come together and just say by the grace of god we had a moment where we all came together and we will never stop appreciating just how wonderful the together we make each other the world poker tour is brought to you by club wpt.com never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed tonight in venice italy the oldest casino in the world plays host to a truly historic event in more ways than one the wpt venice grand prix starts now only on the world poker tour [Music] well the crowd [Music] i am kimberly lansing and welcome to the world poker tour where we have returned to the beautiful casino divanezia venice italy is known for its traditional sounds whether it's classical music and operas or gondoliers singing along the canals but for the past five days the city was filled with a symphony of cards shuffling and chips riffling as an international mix of players hit the felt with the goal of making poker history and etching their name on the wpt champions cup the journey to poker greatness italian style began on day 1a friends romance and wpt champions wpt venice is really probably my favorite event actually in europe lend their ears to the sweet sounds of mike sexton opening up the action of this year's venice grand prix we want to welcome you to venice italy we want to wish all the players the best of luck in their quest to make it to the final table okay dealers that shovel up and deal and that quest had more meaning than most for wpt grand prix de perry champ matt salzburg who'd spent the bulk of the season atop the player of the year leaderboard chasing some poi points right now i'm like 150 points behind paul wolfie i've got a really sick month for poker and so try to catch up making this venice final table also held special meaning for the popular and determined kara scott one of my favorite people in the world oh that's something i'm pulling for her to get to the final table yeah no bubbling this year i'll do it yeah let's play right over with tough players everywhere fatal confrontations were inevitable as was the case when wpt champions guillaume darkour and andre patachuk tussled in the early going the russian came out on top sending the pink haired parisian packing but only for the day with a chance to re-enter on day 1b a bust out did not necessarily spell doom again tomorrow yeah why not as players continue to be eliminated wpt world champion mad marvin rettenmeier who happened to have been given his mad moniker here in venice was on a heater the german pro took out player after player after player soaring to the top of the leaderboard i got to ace this five times today a few tables over aces did not work out as well for jungle man dan cates who lost to italian pro aryan islamized quad nines and in the final level of the day romanian pro dorian rauta shoved with top pair and flush draw putting recent bay 101 tv bubble boy steve bem to a decision for almost all his children no choice steve thought he needed a club to survive but it was nice on the river that won in the hand and crowned him our day 1a chip leader the only way you can beat these guys is by being lucky god bless the wpt a surge of new players traveled far and wide to the casino de venezia in hopes of adding their own illustrious spot on the wpt champions cup flew in from istanbul about an hour before the tournament started at the last the second place is best arrested for me but the last year is magic here for me it sounds like donkey kong joining these fresh faces were a number of casualties from day one a who claimed new life by re-entering on day 1b i entered the main event yesterday and i re-entered today i like to play re-entry because when i come to play an event it's always nice to be able to play a lot of things mike sexton in a great mood after finishing off day 1a in the top three joined vince for a walk around the floor we're thrilled to see you over here bennett's a surprise surprise we got an italian cowboy here i love it huh yes yes bravo i i probably it's okay speak italian we're in italy wpt champion unfortunately for guillaume darkour luck was nowhere to be found and he busted out soon after but darkour's pink hair would not be the most colorful thing we'd set our eyes on that day in true form poker's most colorful character made one of his most spectacular arrivals to date decked out in his venetian finest it was none other than the infamously late phil hellmuth who was happily greeted by the royal flesh girls regrettably for phil his performance on the felt wasn't nearly as spectacular the poker brat busted out before the end of the day and just had to let everybody know it's just a weird hand i mean you can't see that i haven't i haven't lost the wptf like that in like five years well the costume wasn't lucky for phil it was lucky for fernando camiglia who knocked him out and ended the day with the chip lead okay [Music] players were in a cheerful mood as they ready for the long day ahead good luck once in their seats the combined 91 fortunate players to make it on to day two got right down to business including latecomer mad marvin rettenmeier who claimed to have been stuck in traffic jungle man dan cates who started the day on life support got off to a fast start well one of the first times i played i had aces that rolled up across the room another short stack from day one a was chipping up wpt player of the year contender matt salzburg surged from ten thousand to sixty thousand chips in what seemed like no time at all just call in the comments our own mike sexton was more than alive when fellow poker broadcaster kara scott joined his table which included poker italia 24 wpt commentator ariane islamay who was having a solid day himself also having a fantastic day was french pro ludovic le kaye who was seriously accumulating chips but as the blinds and antis increased so did the bust outs as the tables broke poker hall of famer mike sexton was moved to a seat next to day one eight ship leader steve bem you know what i liked when that mike sexton guy came to the table they all started speaking english but when i was here for like six hours they're all speaking italian thanks a lot and steve later got involved in a massive pot with italian pro rocco palumbo steve with the flop straight was up against rocco's top two pair rocco fired out a quick bet [Music] the italian pro never improved nearly crippling him and catapulting our former day 1a chip leader towards the top of the leaderboard 36 players would survive to play another day including all three of our poker commentators as well as wpt champions marvin rettenmeier and matt salzberg but it would be french pro ludovic le kaye who took the top honors heading into day three hopefully we'll build the same movie the same tomorrow and today after the day after i listen competition has been intense but who will survive to make the money and the world poker tour final table find out when we return with more coverage from the wpt venice grand prix season 11 of the world poker tour is brought to you by club wpt.com where vip members can win their share of 100 000 in cash and prizes every month club wpt.com have a losing time playing poker guaranteed welcome back to the world poker tour's extended coverage of the wpt venice grand prix where the remaining field would fight for the six seats at this final table take a look [Music] all right back to work 36 players unbagged their chips for the start of day three all knowing that the magic number was blackjack as only 21 players would make the money at the wpt venice grand prix long day ahead six levels let's see how it goes short stack but we'll see what happens okay let's see if we can get in the money after an excellent showing club wpt online qualifier socrates io anitas short on chips also fell short of the money i wish it lasted a little longer the royal flesh girls were busy in consoling mode as both jungle man dan cates and british crow liv berry were eliminated as well two-time wpt champion marvin rettenmeier then saw his tournament life cut short at the hands of chinese-born italian pro xialin it was sad sad day are you hungry for a pizza tonight rather had the chips but uh i guess i'd take a pizza now as well yeah competition was intense with the wpt champions cup on the line and mike sexton was well on his way holding aces to eliminate newly minted season 11 wpt champion giacomo fundaro eight spots from the money others would follow including the chip leaders from day 1a and 1b steve bem and fernando camiglia oh man the true money bubble came when the italian pirate max pescatore pushed all in and was called by player of the year contender matt salzberg holding pocket eights matt rose from his seat awaiting the flop space ada spades as for the page max pescatory bubbled and the remaining 21 were happy knowing they'd be paid yeah we're in the money this is fun with the money bubble broken the field was still dominated by italian players though three would hit the rail before the end of play the italians still had the home field advantage and monopolized the top of the leaderboard leading the way was italian pro aryan islam with kara scott and mike sexton tied in chips and right in the thick of it i thought i need two trays not too bad usually you need about this much space i usually do this [Music] with four full days behind them the 18 remaining players focused their attention on making it through the field and scoring one of six prestigious seats at the wpt final table the action came quick and dirty big hands collided when short stacks ivan gabriele and antonino zito moved all in with aces and kings against the pot committed giuseppe pasteura with king nine the jack of spades on the river gave giuseppe a miracle straight sending two italian pros packing and adding to his healthy stack alive and strong in his hunt for more wpt player of the year points season 11 champion matt salzburg continued to play the part of the oracle this time to the dismay of lowry personan sorry bro salzburg finished off the finish pro in 15th place i did it again more big names saw their tournament lives come to an end including a still-smiling kara scott i'm really happy to have made a deep run definitely and shortly after having his aces cracked by the ace king of marcelo montagne french phenom ludovic le kaye went a riva derechi in 12th place as the field continued to narrow mike sexton's good fortune was on the rise and left still there happy to be here first he eliminated wsop main event runner-up martin stasco and then mike mixed it up with his italian counterpart ariane islamei aryan bed out on a board of 864 and was raised by mike holding two pair aryan having sexton covered moved all in putting the poker hall of famer to the test for his tournament life i wish i hadn't got involved in this hand don't see i can throw it away i'm gonna a seven of diamonds on the river gave aryan a better two pair but mike's four of diamonds made a flush for the crucial double up soon after mike's ace 10 overpowered the pocket nines of georgia tobit sending the last woman standing home with twelve thousand euros and a solid ninth place finish next to fall was giuseppe pastora who bluffed away all his chips drawing dead against robbie ben yee and his flopped nut flush with only one elimination to go matt salzburg was in great shape to make his fourth wpt funnel table this season on a board of queen three deuce nine marcello montagne shoved all in with a flush and straight draw matt holding middleset was faced with his biggest decision of the tournament the king on the river completed marcelo's straight and although obviously disappointed the silver lining for matt was that with his seventh place finish he would earn 150 wpt player of the year points tying him at the top of the leaderboard with paul volpe the final six were now set mike sexton was left to carry the flag for the united states a tough chinese national and smart swiss pro were also well positioned to battle the other three players all of whom are hoping to have the home turf advantage and keep this title in italian hands and become the next player to have their name inscribed on the wpt champions cup [Music] so with mike sexton at the wpt final table the big question is who will take the seat next to vince van patten in the booth well we are lucky to have one of the world's greatest players joining vince to call the action tonight mr phil hellmuth phil thank you so much for joining us tonight tell us now you played this event are you surprised by the italians love for this game well it's it's not just they love the game it's the explosion of poker when online poker was passed here in italy which we need to have in the u.s soon ten times the number of players they were expecting to sign up signed up the italians have a lot of passion for poker as for everything else in life and events who has their work cut out for them more mike in a final table filled with italian players or you in the booth with the poker brat well you know what i think uh perhaps mike i would think phil and i go way back it's been 20 years or so but this is the first time we've ever been behind the scenes like this calling it together this is going to be a lot of fun really is now phil i have to ask you something though because you're a very theatrical player you have a lot of passion i've seen you fall to the ground after a bad beat is it real or is that just theatrics tell me the truth unfortunately that's 100 natural um i feel like john mcenroe sometimes you know where a judge misses a line called an umpire you're a tennis player and someone makes a horrible play and eliminates me and uh all i can say is i'm getting better i'm sorry to hear it uh so john mcenroe that's an interesting person you couldn't be like bjorn borg and no anyway it's working for you this is gonna be fun and tonight let's talk about better you are you are you're great and uh tonight it's all about mike sexton my buddy that's usually sitting right here has made the final table he's got three short snacks around him kimberly so maybe they'll get knocked out this could be mike's time who knows let's see what mike has to say about it right now well i feel good here i'm against all italians playing on their home court but still i like my chances i got a little above average chip so can't ask much for that we'll just feel things out and see how it goes i'm going to try to make spaghetti out of these guys i just hope they don't make pizza pie out of me well hopefully we will all be dining on spaghetti tonight will mike sexton achieve the dream of all poker players and have his name etched upon the wpt champions cup the battle for the wpt venice grand prix title continues right after this the wpt foundation is dedicated to supporting great charities around the world now you can help the wpt foundation raise money for some great global causes check out all the incredible prizes trips and vip experiences available through our online auctions at wptfoundation.org [Music] reaching the final table is a step from switzerland roberto but winning it i dreamed about this day all in all my career i'm ready for the fight well i would love to hear something like whoa this is the new wpt champion i'd certainly love to get my name engraved on the wpta champions cup mike sexton it would be nice to cap my resume off with a wpt title [Music] welcome back to wpt venice grand prix we're at the casino de venezia on vince manpaton alongside the great phil hellmuth the poker brat phil what do you think well it's very interesting because there's three guys that have no chips basically they're all short stacks and they're all in their 20s so you know they're going to be getting those chips in so you're going to see some very fast paced action they're either going to get busy living or get busy dying all right the cards are almost in the air who will get dunked into the canal first we will see let's go to the felt well look at this marcelo with 1.8 million i don't think he has the experience to get it done but sexton it could be his night vince with a million it could be as we see the first place prize 140 000 euros that's about i think 180 u.s so big stakes here mike sexton first to act look at this his first hand he's got pair of fives 55 the speed limit as he likes to say get raised he's gonna pop it with it makes it 40 000 to go a comment about the min raise i think it's a very good mathematical move because if you can make that min raise and get everybody to fold why risk more chips that's a good point now xia lynn had king queen but he's also going to release it maybe there's some fear here of mike sexton and look who's going to win hand number one mr wpt himself mike sexton yo minnie hello partner the crowd is loving this mike sexton the hall of famer my buddy take it down hand number one nicely there's some tough young italians at this table a guy on my right named rocco he won a world series of poker bracelet last summer mike saxton is a very good player i honestly hope he's for a worse player at the table and he's shocked how good and how confident it was when he was playing it it was fearless down my left in the small blind arion has the commentator's job for italian tv here like my job in the states and when he's got chips he is really tough to play against i am like mike saxton just a little more team i learned a lot about mike saxon and his thinking process well my strategy is just going to be you know just sort of playing my game and feel them out it won't be an easy walk in the park but i like my chances it's easy to underestimate mike sexton and i've done it in the past myself and he's beat me some big big pots because he is fearless and so if if they underestimate and they all have respect after playing with them for a day or two they all respect him now more than they did before well we will see back to the action a couple folds and now it's around to mike he will play this one lines are 10 and 20 and now irian islam he's got the button he's got queen seven what's that last time islam well done well yeah he is the mike sexton of tv here in italy he's gonna raise with his queen seven makes it forty thousand marcelo out now robbie benny 43 years old calling here is just fine you know a raise is a little bit more aggressive gives you a chance to win the 40 that he put out plus all the blinds and nannies race well look at this he's going to raise it he started playing poker at age 16 robbie did taught by his father now back on irian he won't play and he put a hundred thousand of his 1.2 million to work there to pick up 50 60 000 risk-free well-done the former engineer used to work with computers robbie benny taking down this hand they're the royal flush girls enjoying this week in italy with us we've been eating well having a fantastic time but the best time has to go to mike look at this his opportunity to put his name on the wpt champions cup have an engraved with all the champs here tonight all right right back on robbie ben ye hey let's have a pretty attractive ace nine of clubs phil how you pronounced that last name benny nicely done he's got a raise with his ace nine of clubs he makes it exactly 40 that was what we call a min raise and now exia lin won't play that he was originally born in china now look at this rocco palumbo on the short stack with ace queen yeah he has one move it's all in the math dictates that and he knows the math so i'm on that's it you heard it from hellmuth says he's going all in and that's what he does sexton out aryan islam italian mike sexton but thinner as he says goes out as well marcelo marcello with a 4-3 thinking about this not really goes out and now it's back on robbie he's got ace done it cuz he can afford this no he can't afford it it's 372 000 more i mean it's like a third of his chips with ace nine when he knows ace nine is the worst hand they are he's thinking about it i'm surprised he's thinking this along well these guys are dramatic they're italians you know and they like to take their time and finally does the right thing i have the italian men do seem to be very dramatic don't they don't they they like to take their time there's a lot of passion in their games we'll be right back with more from the wpt venice grand prix including tony dunst shedding some light on tonight's players in the raw deal and we'll see what the royal flush girls were up to this week in italy there's a lot going on so stay tuned this episode of the world poker tour is brought to you in part by vegas.com vegas.com new vegas right welcome back to the world poker tour brought to you by club wpt.com socrates eo anitas from nashville tennessee is the latest member of club wpt to live out his poker dreams socrates won a trip of a lifetime to italy and his seat into the wpt venice grand prix all because he's a club wpt.com vip member oh it's been the best experience ever in my hand man wpt knows how to do it in addition to playing in this world-class event socrates soaked in some italian culture with the royal flush girls at club wpt.com for a low monthly fee you too can become a vip member this means you can play in as many tournaments as you want win your share of the 100 000 in monthly cash and prizes plus you can win a seat into a live wptz tournament just like socrates did i expect it to be good but not this good so it's a it's a great great experience it's low risk with a high reward check it out for yourself on club wpt.com and never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed looks like the final table action is ready to start back up so let's check the standings and get back to the game all right six players remain here at the beautiful casino de venezia in italy and as you can see mike sexton with a million eighty five thousand but our chip leader at this point marcelo montagne and he's got one point eight to the felt we go actions on the young pro exia lin born in china now lives in ferrara italy he's going to fold that hand now it's on rocco palumbo he has a pair of force but quickly lays it down i don't mind that play at all so all right sexton also out now it's around to aryan islam got a pretty nice a6 off suit he's going all in well he has 316 000 so the shove just seems reasonable here i mean on the button especially absolutely but look at this marcelo right behind him with a legitimate pair of tans he's the chip leader he could bust this man out of here okay marcelo what's taking himself oh really what is taking so long [Laughter] that's a snap call he's not a professional player marcelo he's actually works in a hardware store he's an employee he loves poker he's been playing four years and right now taking so much time he's beginning to look like a hardware store man but a hardware store man with a dream with a dream that's right there you go makes the call robbie now my fault false is 4-3 so they are going to turn up the cards and aryan islam in a bit of trouble a6 versus a pair of tens they shake each other's hands what a moment here aryan islam from italy 27 years old hobby includes sports and astronomy here we go wow a 10 on the floor on the floor oh my goodness wow i mean it basically needs a seven nine jack to even be drawing live a flop there for my cello yes yes it would only seem fair that some kind of straight draw would come on the turn here we go with the turn oh boy it's a seven and here we go four nines will get the job done for the a6 to make a straight all the fours are out so he needs a nine marcilla says go ahead have an ace you can make an ace ariane can't look is he gonna hit his 9. here's the river he's coming down to this cart not gonna work out at six on the river so arie and islami out in sixth place the wpt world poker tour commentator for italy sitting next to mike sexton does mike sexton's role he also gets to see a lot of hold cards that's right he pushed him out into the canal it is over for him picking up 24 000 euros let's see what he has to say my action is first so i have to push in this in this kind of situation i have to take those blind so don't worry no problem ariane was forced to make that move i mean an ace on the button so he just shoved all and that's fine um i think it could move kind of quickly from here still two short stacks that are very young aggressive and believe in the math of poker they are gonna get their chips in and they're gonna get them soon yeah very exciting mike sexton one spot closer to becoming a wpt champion let's see if he can do it back down to the felt the action is on robbie here with the six eight of hearts don't let the internet kids see that you folded that hand they don't fold the six eight suited five-handed axia also out of now rocco palumbo with a king six with the buttons gonna raise makes it forty thousand mike with the nothing handfuls and here's marcelo here's the major chip leader at this point he is in the big blind he's got just a 10-7 let's see what he does with it he's going to call it it's not the worst play only 20 000 more he's going to speculate and here comes the flop jack 9-5 great flop for marcelo he flopped a straight draw here he has to do something he has to bet or check raise or check call 45 and rocco oh no anything that's 45 000. so now what's he going to do he's going to call probably but grace would be really skilled rather's got just king high and marcelo he's asking for a chip count is he thinking about it short stack as well so this would be a great time to just push rocker right out of there i mean he has 2.1 million rocco started the hand with only 458 000. oh no what he's gonna fold it that was ridiculous that was a horrible fold uh oh my goodness that uh but don't forget phil the guy you know he's not a professional player he works in a hardware store he's an employee at a hardware store he loves poker he has a dream of getting his name inscribed on the wpt's champions cup with all the great champions of the wpt and that's just not the way to get there is it phil if he keeps playing like that he'll be right back in the hardware store where we've all been by the way i know it all right back to this hand exia out rocco are you picking up the weapons of mass destruction look at this just like that pair of aces makes it 40 000 a go sexton out and marcelo now michael with a 10-8 he's got a call with it right behind him robbie 43 year old who also lives in italy he's got a queen ten of clubs not a bad place to make a squeeze because if he gets away with it he wins both 40k bets and the annie's in the middle but he's not going to squeeze he's just calling with his queen 10 lucky for him morocco sitting on two out of bombs there are pair of aces hmm what a time to get him american airlines you had great time and we are flopping and looking there's a queen seven four that gives robbie top pair of queens uh-oh and rocco to start this hand had 575 000 so hold the press look at this marcelo we've got nothing of that he's going to bet he's going to lead out marcelo bets the error ball for 126 thousands now robbie has a decision to make here i mean he's he's most likely going to raise this but then top pair oh yeah he's going to push it he's going to be at a lot of trouble he raised pretty quickly here i mean basically he's in a lot of trouble here because behind him is aces he's putting in 200 and 252 this could be a huge hand now rocco moves in well i can't believe this has folded the hand okay this just doesn't make any sense it's a queen's what does that mean i flop two pair of set or something but it's a very very tight full horrible fold okay and marcelo of of course has to go out it's pretty shocking phil that was a stunningly bad fold there well it is but especially rocco has he doesn't have a chip he's on the short stack that's a terrible play but we'll watch it here so far more to come from casino de venezia stay tuned you know sometimes you want to work on your poker game without worrying about risking any money that's why we love to play on club wpt.com where we can play as many tournaments as we want without the fear of going broke club wpt.com never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed [Music] i'm jeannie one of the royal flesh girls and i'm here in venice the casino de venezia is absolutely gorgeous and it's the world's oldest casino i love the architecture and all the intricate details it's more beautiful than i ever imagined and i'm having a great time we are back here on the world poker tour at the beautiful casino de venezia five-handed poker now they're all going after a title and right now marcelo montagne is the chip leader he's a hardware store employee not a professional player but he's making it happen here tonight actually is going to robbie benny professional player he's going to fold xia very tight hasn't played a hand yet goes out 40. and now rocco palumbo he's gonna make it 40 000 with queen 10 mike sexton get ready sir when are you going to open up your game he's still got chips though over a million he'll play this phil i like that mike i mean basically what he's picked up on us rocco's been doing a lot of opening he's been opening a lot of pots and mike is like okay he can't always have it and i don't think he has it this time and this is the time i'm gonna make a move he's made it to 100 000 back to rocco and rocco's forced to fold because mike has been playing very patiently for the last couple days five-handed poker this is pretty good it really is i mean watching mike with a shot to win his i mean i think that you know pretty much almost everybody in the crowd is rooting for him who's watching this and uh yeah i mean he's put his dues in in poker he's been around for a long time he's done a lot of great stuff for our game and i think a win by him would be universally celebrated well he is on his way playing shrewd poker this time he picks up ace jack and he will make the min raise makes it 40 000. marcelo chip leader hardware store employee goes out and now it's on robbie robbie's got a king queen now i remember mike raced earlier in the show with two fives and zia folded the king queen let's see how robbie responds i called he's going to call likes the action exia out and rocco with a nothing hand not going to play so we have two-way action mike sexton with a big opportunity here he's jack up against king queen now mike's gonna see bet almost every flop look at this fluffa mic accept that flop mike sessions flops the nuts jack jack ace if he's gonna bat he's gonna bet 40 000. i like the men bet because that's going to keep your opponent involved with a lot of garbage hands and what do you bet people expect you to see bet anyway so pretty aggressive c bet robbie's got the inside straight that's all and he's going to call mike is jumping up and down mike is going off in his head robbie's rooting for a 10 and mike's rooting for him to catch a 10 that's right not a 10 it's a six of diamonds now mike has to check yeah he has to check it i mean you just draw the trap right sure give give robbie a chance to to bet the queen 10 or whatever in this case a king queen very shrewd robbie does not bet river card oh that's not gonna help sexton anymore another ace that's an action killer from mike i mean in this case actually it could induce a call because with aces and jax on board mike could potentially have two tens and robbie that's right could call him but sexton is gonna bet and he bets a lot 225 he bet too much i mean he bet over the size of the pot here i mean uh you know i i don't like the bet there's only 205 000 in there he bet too much yeah i had to have to agree with you there i'm not sure that robbie would call that much he might call 50 or 100 000. but yeah yeah i think 100 is a good number bobby's going to lay down the hand and mike you know it's one of those things where you win the pop but you're still aggravated he didn't get enough out of it i raced with ace jack i flopped the full house i won the pot but i'm kind of pissed off right now it's time to get more in-depth analysis on tonight's play from tony dunst in this edition of the raw deal it takes a long time to be dealt pocket aces at the pace of your average live tournament you can expect to look down at aces about once every seven hours of play and if you get aces when you're one of the short stacks at a final table you would probably get your snack in so why did rocco palumbo so casually ditch his aces on the flop let's break it down the hand starts simply enough with rocco min-raising his aces in the cut-off and getting called by the blinds it's after the flop that everything goes haywire marcelo montgomery vets out nearly full pot for and twenty six thousand and with no real equity in the hand then it's on robbie benye who's flopped top pair with his queen 10 suited the play almost everyone anticipates from ravi is a call a raise with his hand here makes little sense one the bet he's facing is already so big two there's very few draws that he can be sucked out by and three he's second in chips to marcelo so if he loses a big pot against the chip leader the real money consequences are severe but robbie defies expectations and raises the minimum to 252 000 this puts rocco palumbo in a bind holding pocket aces first rocco has his own chip stack problem he's fourth in ships and well ahead of the short stacked exilin and he faces real money implications for busting this hand second rocco also believes that almost every time robbie has top hair here he would simply call marcelo's bet so rocco decides robbie must have a better hand than him and immediately folds his aces now although there should be few hands worse than aces that robbie would raise this flop with i still believe rocco makes a mistake by not getting his stack in it's a flop where hands better than top pair rarely raise especially with an opponent already leading out with a huge bet if ravi had something like a set or two pair he almost always calls the flop instead of raising and hopes that rocko comes along for the ride i get the impression that rocco realized he made a mistake as soon as robbie started stacking his chips and while i don't know italian i do know poker players so i think the conversation after the hand went hey did you have something good there because i made a really big fold oh yeah i had a set good fall well i couldn't agree with you more tony that was pretty bad out there but right now the andes are going up to 4 000 blinds at 12 and 24 the hardware store employee marcelo monteniere is the chip leader five-handed poker exilin let's see if he plays any hands tonight no not yet going to lay this one down can you believe this phil rocco's picked up the weapons of mass destruction again again let's see if he can play him right this time makes it 48 000 sexton out man marcelo the chip leader is going gonna pass and now let's see if robbie gets tangled up in this he's got an ace queen wow so look at really unlucky for rob because this is just a snap auto re-raise little does he know what he's up against crazy be careful no he's got nothing he can do rocco has 500 000 to start the hand robbie makes it 103. now look at the little acting going on here by rock a little shake of the head the grimace yeah and then he goes all in all in okay so actually robbie could get away from this hand oh boy he couldn't get away from it he's made what i think is a bad call rocco palumbo who came in as one of the short stacked with a big opportunity right now to double up here and take a dent out of robbie's chip stack cooler nelly crazy i mean uh it was queen 10 of clubs he flopped top perry was supposed to double him up that hand and here is the flop it's uh wow look at this three spades out there robbie has a spade but rocco has a higher spade that is correct yeah huddled together just a great flop there for rocco palumbo what do you think they're saying they're saying ah life is good yes that's right yup yup i'm gonna buy this pizza yeah okay turn seven of hearts not gonna change anything jack on the river everybody's smiling in this camp life is good big hand for rocco palumbo he is coming back in this thing with rocco palumbo's double up we conclude our first hour of coverage from the wpt venice grand prix but before we go phil whose play has impressed you the most thus far well i'm not surprised that rocco's play has impressed me the most at this point and then behind him would be mike sexton rocco somehow with a short stack was controlling the table for a little while and then knew one to kind of tuck his tail and then wait um he didn't got lucky with aces against ace queen but it seems like he's in control the other players are afraid of him and mike is just steady solid knows exactly what he's doing so i'm gonna go with those two as my first and second choices and vince what should we be looking out for when action continues well i love it you know we're down to five players now mike sexton hall of famer is playing like a genius you know he's dug the hole he's putting little branches and twigs over it waiting for the suckers to fall in and they will fall i believe mike sexton will take this title but we will see this is fun it is indeed thanks guys please join us next time for continuing coverage of the wpt venice grand prix until then for vince van patten phil hellmuth tony dunst the royal flush girls and the whole wpt team i'm kimberly lansing saying thanks for watching ciao i don't understand what this is for here well the great mike sexton is gone my buddy my partner with an exceptional human being you were and are what a father to thai and all your family members the world will not be the same without you we love you mike rest in peace brother mike was born september 22 1947 in shelbyville indiana a midwestern boy to his corps mike grew up in dayton ohio and attended the ohio state university where he earned a degree in public recreation competed in gymnastics and became a die-hard buckeyes fan in 1970 mike joined the us army and was assigned to the 82nd airborne division as a paratrooper while in the army mike not only served his country but also taught ballroom dancing a strong lead on the dance floor mike brought joy and energy whenever he broke out his impressive ballroom skills after his enlistment ended mike first found work as a salesman his true calling came though when he discovered how well he could do at playing poker and he took up that game professionally in 1977. in 1985 mike's love of the game inevitably brought him to las vegas just four years later in 1989 he won the coveted world series of poker bracelet in the 1500 seven card stud event in 1998 long before the poker craze that grew into today's industry mike took a page from the pga and masterminded the wsop invitation only tournament of champions featuring poker's elite one of his proudest achievements in 2001 mike became an original co-founder of party poker an enterprise that has stood the test of time and remains one of the top online poker sites in the world today a year later mike started his career with the world poker tour welcome to the debut of the world poker tour with his can-do spirit mike was more than a commentator playing a major role in convincing casinos to take a chance on the newly formed wpt we have a sensational group of six finalists for you here today what a great way to start the season on the world poker 2. the world poker tour premiered with the wpt 5 diamond world poker classic of the bellagio the game is no limit holding it's a game that takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master mike and fellow commentator vince van patten change the poker world forever with their patented blend of friendly banter and deep poker knowledge ryan rivers doesn't get some help here vance he's going over the balls in a barrel this unlikely partnership would grow into a deep friendship founded on respect admiration and affection in 2005 mike published his first book shuffle up and deal in 2006 mike masterfully won the wsop tournament of champions for 1 million dollars defeating the two-time wpt champion daniel legranu heads up true to his giving major he donated half of his 1 million dollar purse to charity including the bona conte fund to cure paralysis a cause he continued to generously support for many years similarly along with linda johnson jan fisher and lisa tenor mike created pokergives.org a non-profit organization providing poker players a dedicated platform for philanthropy i've been interviewed many times during my career and one question a lot of times they ask is who do you think is the most respected person or who do you like most as a poker player and my answer is always the same mike sexton he is the man [Applause] [Music] in 2008 mike received the greatest gift of all his son ty mike's love for tithe brought a new and meaningful dimension to his life as a devoted father mike loved cheering tie on at baseball games and proudly shared photos at the table of tai and their treasured moments together tai was truly his world [Music] later that year mike reached a career milestone when he was inducted as the 39th member of the poker hall of fame in 2016 mike published life's a gamble a poker autobiography spanning his four decades in the defining game of his life in november of the same year mike with the ladies yes i called mike reached his third of four wpt final tables and won wpt montreal main event best in a field of 648 entries to win nearly 318 000 and making him officially a wpt champion let's hear one more time for the great mike sexton unsurprisingly he gave his championship belt to die with 15 career cashes in wpt tournaments totaling nearly 1 million dollars mike is ranked 216th overall in wpt earnings and 39th in wpt final table appearances in total mike amassed more than 6.7 million dollars in live tournament winnings in 2017 after 15 landmark seasons for the world poker tour mike left to rejoin party poker as their chairman closing out a career with wpt that remains a huge part of his legacy in the industry that same year mike was named a recipient of the wpt honors i'm extremely humbled and honored to be receiving this award the wpt's highest distinction awarded to members of the poker industry in celebration and appreciation of exceptional contributions made to the world poker tour and the poker community as a whole [Music] in july the wpt renamed its iconic wpt champions cup the mike sexton wpt champions cup in honor of mike's unparalleled influence on the organization and the poker world to his friends mike was known as a humble man and a kind and generous soul [Music] never without a smile on his face and always game for a new adventure mike was never too busy to share a laugh stop take a picture with a fan or a fact to which many of his friends can attest take your money on the golf course they might only bet one dollar two dollars or blunts or beers but everybody gambles on the golf course that's the fun of it and mike was a storyteller extraordinaire there was nothing he loved more than joyfully regaling eagle listeners with boisterous tales from his days coming up in poker when he was seated at the table with the legends like his good friends doyle brunson amarillo slim puggy pearson chip reese and stu unger at whose funeral mike spoke and served as pallbearer a larger-than-life personality whose infectious energy enthusiasm and pure love of the game pulled you over when he entered the room mike leaves an outsized legacy on and profound hole in the poker world everybody who is lucky enough to know mike will always remember him fondly as a jubilant once and forever first ambassador of poker one thing that we know is this industry this wonderful thing that has brought us all together we're only going to experience it for so much time soon we'll be gone we will stop we'll get older we will not be there next generation will come and the fact that we could come together celebrate those wonderful people like mike who have made so much of a contribution that we can stop and just say by the grace of god we had a moment where we all came together and we will never stop appreciating just how wonderful the together we make each other [Music] the world poker tour is brought to you by club wpt.com never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed [Music] venice italy is rich in beautiful landmarks and tonight the biggest attraction on the grand canal is the casino de venezia where continuing coverage of the wpt venice grand prix starts now and it's only on the wpt [Music] it is the extreme miracle [Music] and welcome back to venice italy we're coming to you from the casino de venezia the oldest casino in the world now this tournament started with an international field of 173 entrants and we are down to the final five players including our very own mike sexton now we have a special treat and it's time to turn to poker hall of famer phil hellmuth who's sitting in for mike and vince van patten to give us some analysis on what we can expect to see tonight now phil what is the optimal strategy at this stage in the game i mean the optimal strategy varies on the stack size you have but let's just say that you have an average stack i'm going to be looking to continue to play super tight i'm going to be looking for some well-timed three bets and i'm going to be looking to flop a set or play a big pot with ace king or a big pair and vince this casino is such a wonderful setting now do you think it adds a distraction to the players well it is an incredible setting i mean it's a 16th century palace we are having a great time i mean it is awesome to see the beauty of this room but those guys are playing poker and they are in poker fantasyland where you just don't care where you are um so they are just dreaming about getting their name inscribed on the wpt's champions cup and becoming a wpt champion so the answer is no they are out there to play cutthroat poker thank you guys looks like the action is ready to start back up so let's take a look at the chip counts and get back to the game right now marcelo montenegro works in a hardware store non-professional is the chip leader with close to 1.9 million in chips our champion tonight's going to take down 140 000 euros blinds at 12 and 24. five-handed poker rocco palumbo and italian he just doubled up before folds the hand and now the great mike sexton with ace four of hearts is this going to be the time great 48. 48 000 just a min raise nothing wrong with that absolutely and now the chip leader marcelo picking up a pair of eights pretty solid this is where i'd like to see a re-raise of some sort vince because the re-race gives you a great chance just to win the pot right then and right there you could show the hand afterwards i'm not bluffing you know but i like the re-raise here because if you let mike have control of the hand and it comes king queen mike's gonna just bet you're gonna fold the eight so take the pot right now well that's what he's trying to do he makes it a hundred thousand to go robbie benny going to lay it down axia i waited for you to come back not surprisingly folds and mike sexton will release the hand and that's exactly what he did phil yep shows the hand shrugs and says hey i'm top dog out here right now [Music] oh man he has got to be excited marcelo our chip leader going from selling hammers at the hardware store to hammering these guys down on the world poker tour amazing only been playing four years and now he has a chance of a lifetime to get his name inscribed on the wpt champions cup the wpt hardware that's it there you go short stack at this point xia lin 26 year old pro originally out of china and now living he's literally annie off his chips yup hasn't played a hand it seems like i mean he just fold fold fold fold fold we've seen this for for two shows now action on the great mike sexton he's got queen jack and a lot of experience gonna fold that that's fine i mean you know the other option is to min raise queen jack there but i i i think i slightly performed there well marcelo here with the king ten he's starting to open up his game and he makes it 48 thousand to go the old min raise 48 000 to go robbie and xia fold their hands and now it's around to rocco palumbo doubled up nicely early on he's picking up big cards this time he has ace eight and he will call this the other play would be re-raised but he doesn't want to get too aggressive with a hand like that flop comes up three five five help to neither player and rocco will check it and i like this marcelo doing the right thing continuation bet with his king high it looks like 54 000 i like the c bet i like to see about a lot rocco though well rocco's made a nice call here because what he's thinking is on the 355 flop is that i'm not calling to hit an ace or an eight i'm calling because i think aced is the best hand and i think that my opponent will not bet on the turn six of clubs helps neither player rocco is gonna check again now if marcelo could have mustered a bet there he would have won that look at this eight on the river beautiful for rocco picks up eights top pair out there gin with the fives yeah that's right gin his best possible card really um and ace wouldn't even be great for him because marcelo could have like an ace jack or something but eight is just like so safe beautiful so nice 86 000 by the way rocco has a world series bracelet from a no limit hold'em game back in 2012 so he's got some good experience a nice title win there oh yeah when you pick up a bracelet a thousand dollar buying how many people were in that field what do you know about bracelets phil i know that they're probably now there are probably 3 000 people in that field is what i know yeah what are you up to 14 13 races thank you for asking hey uh this would be a pretty bad call here he's got king high okay and he does the right thing lays it down seems like it took him a long time to make a routine fold it certainly does but rocco palumbo now coming back former accountant he's married he has a four-year-old son and they're the royal flush girls just enjoying the week here in vinicia and rocco moves to second place and ships by the way wow yeah the player with the most experience except for sexton of course yeah hall of famer mike sexton in major contention just not picking up the hands tonight so far yeah that's right i mean he's playing a good solid strategy all right we have a couple folds around to rocco again and look at this rocco has a pair of queens he's got the ladies makes it 48 mike out come on we watched the last show rocco miss play a pair of aces yeah then he picked up the aces again and doubled up against an a squad and now he picks up queens he seems to be holding all the hands yes and this time he's getting action with his queens marcelo has called with a7 so let's see who will get lucky and it's an ace just like that on the flop beautiful for marcelo out flopping palumbo now i'm gonna tell you that i'll take the opposite attack now and say it's kind of unlucky when you pick up queens and it comes ace nine deuce especially against a blind hand cello checks and rocco bets and marcelo is going to make the okie dokie call because marcelo's defended so many times he could easily have ten nine here or oh boy seven of hearts on the turn makes aces and sevens for marcelo he's checking again what a card he's trying to trap again make rocco bet and rocco like a zombie is gonna do exactly what he wants he's betting it 85 000. i don't hate that bet jason go ahead and bet it and find out where you're at i mean that's the last chip you're going to put in this hand so you bet 85 if he has the you know if he can raise you here then you fold and that's the end of the hand you know cello is going to raise you yeah he's doing the right thing make him pay off if you want to outdraw him potentially makes it 200 000 to go no i think rocco can get away here and we're on to the next stand throw up the white flag perhaps make a nice lay down and when an amateur check raises you on fourth street there's enough information for you to let go of this hand look at marcelo looking confident and he should be but usually a player looking confident is weak generally speaking peony look at this he looks like he's getting chips in yes he is whoops he's gonna pay him off this is kind of startling i hate to hit a queen on the river i'd say it's a pretty bad call it looks like it this is great for marcelo and a king on the river okay marcelo you get maybe a 350 000 maybe 250 a lot of people would bet 250 here you might value better but he's not check check what he checked aces inside well he was worried about ace king why would you be worried about ace king rocco raced on the button he could have had anything he could have had ace 8 ace 10 ace check he could have had king queen of clubs and hit a king he may well have called 150 200 000 there that was a really bad check our second hour of coverage of the wpt venice grand prix is just getting started and we have more to come including a look back at one of the best moments of season 10 and a special tour of venice with the world flesh girls stay tuned season 11 of the world poker tour is brought to you by club wpt.com where vip members can win their share of one hundred thousand dollars in cash and prizes every month club wpt.com have a loser time playing poker guaranteed [Music] welcome back to venice and the world poker tour venice is one of the most beautiful and unique cities in the world but it also faces many challenges in preserving its wonders this week on behalf of the wpt foundation the royal flush girls visited the instituto veneto de siense le terri erti and found out about the role this historic organization plays in this magnificent city we are here at the instituto veneto to learn more about the preservation of the venetian architecture culture and art the city is hundreds of years old and it's very important to preserve this culture and history [Music] competed i've been fortunate enough to come here and experience it and hopefully generations to come will have the opportunity to also come here and experience this beautiful city what fascinating work to learn more about organizations supported by the wpt log on to wpt foundation.org the wpt foundation playing for a better world now in the meantime the game is ready to start back up so let's get back to the action all right we are back and marcelo montagne the chip leader out in front of the venice grand prix can he do it here tonight mike sexton hanging tough mike is in second chip position at this point now look at this going to the floor here xia lin going all in with an h3 finally playing a hand two shows i've been waiting for him to make him move he's finally all in right behind a rocco with a pair of sticks is gonna lay it down i don't mind that lay down 180 2 000 is like you know what 25 of his chips sexton out and now the chip leader marcelo can't play his queen high so the only one left to get by is robbie and he's got a jack eight of hearts you see the big blind easy fold they haven't heard from z in four days so they they all think he has aces you know it's so true well you get the respect and xz is gonna get his respect pick up a little something something there well i've got to tell you phil italy is well represented tonight at this final table just as it was last season here at the wpt venice grand prix where italian pros had the whole field advantage but it was a lone russian amateur savvy play that caught our attention in this edition of the best of season 10. from the very start of the final table the russian renate baghdad employed a campaign of aggression and raised in the cutoff with a 9-7 off suit the next two players folded leaving only the chip leader andrea datto in the big blind to get through but that was not to be the case as this italian pro woke up with a big hand most players as chip leaders were probably three bet right here and elected to just call the russian amateurs race club came up king 8-4 dotto first to act checked and with only nine high we're not put in the continuation bet he is doing it vince he has come to play donald thought about it before making the call both players checked the turn a queen on the river hit donald's hand and the italian fired out a bet the action was now on or not and where most people would have instamucked their hand the russian amateur digested the situation and in a bold unorthodox move put in a min raise and it worked unbelievable throughout this grueling match renate bogdanov would outplay five pros to win the venice grand prix your name is going to be inscribed on the wpt champions cup the russian amateur demonstrated that maximum results could be achieved on the heels of a minimum raise in what has become one of the best moments of season 10. there's the wpt champions cup all the champions have their name inscribed on it 11 years we've been going here on the world poker tour and that is the one thing that's eluded this man next to me phil hellmuth i'm sorry to bring it up and have been a champion maybe finalist uh saying it like it is you it's so close you've won you've lost when you lose you go to the ground you roll up in a little ball and make people feel things yeah i mean that that going in the ball was a particularly brutal situation for me it just felt so unjust to me so unfair so oh my god i played perfect for five days how could this happen to me unfair and of course i didn't handle it the best way i did shake everybody's hand but on the way off the stage i fell into the ground but it was the one i have to say it was probably the most memorable moment of the 11 years of the world poker tour and it was it's the real thing the real thing it was the real thing there was so much pain there was an ace on the river in that hand vince i had queens he had an ace jack and the river was an ace and it was for millions and ships and i was going to be like chip leader and it hurt you get yourself worked up again i'm sorry we're back here and this one is going on right now let's go to the felt rocco palumbo has raised with ace jack to 48 everybody folds around to robbie and robbie's got a king jack of spades he's gonna call it xialin looks at an ace six of diamonds he's going all in with this he's shoving why why go all in i mean you waited four days to move all in and now you're gonna do it with a six of diamonds over the top of two people at least one of which is likely to call you i'm almost rocco saying i'm all in he's going back over the top with his ace jack and he's gonna make robbie lay down his hand i squeezed him out so rocco right now in a great position to knock out exhale in wow here they call him tom juan 87 that's his nickname because he loves tom dwan and he needs to get some luck you just call him all i do is fold ace jack up against a6 can exile get lucky what a horrible flop for the a6 a 7 comes he makes a straight yes but he still loses so there's a bunch of cards that will just kill his hand where he can't win but a seven it's basically over queen it's basically over jack it's basically over yep wow here comes the fourth street for example oh that's a screen my goodness think about this if zia doesn't go crazy in his hand think about this yes rocco goes broke on this house you're right because oh my goodness robbie would have made a king high straight and busted him axia lynn he is out in fifth place gonna take home 30 000 euros the italian has to say good night so we have to say arrivederci to ex-elin who's out in fifth place we'll be right back with more coverage from the wpt venice grand prix in just a bit this episode of the world poker tour is brought to you in part by vegas.com vegas.com new vegas right [Music] wow [Music] welcome back to the world poker tour they're the beautiful royal flush girls enjoying venice italy we are having a good time here too i'm with phil hellmuth and right now our chip leader is a guy that works in a hardware store non-professional player marcelo monteniere out in front with 2.1 million four players remain into the felt we go action on that man from the hardware store marcelo his time he has an uneventful nine five folds the hand we call it the dolly parton hand that's right that is right good movie back then wasn't it yeah a long time ago don't date yourself vance i did robbie benny with a king queen gonna raise with the button makes it 50 000 to go rocco gonna lay it down our very own mike sexton now with an ace nine of clubs mike is uh you know he has two options obviously he's never folding he can raise it or call it okay he says raise he has made it a hundred and five to go mike sexton doesn't like to call hands he either likes to get out or raise i'd like to see him raise a little bit more he only raised you know fifty thousand basically fifty five thousand and i think i'd like to see him raise a little bit more well he's been called here because he wants to just win that here and now here we go with the flop a steiner club is too vulnerable but not on that flop now that's a great flop for the ace nine clubs if you had the best hand before the flop you have the best hand now go ahead and bet it and take it well that's exactly what mike's gonna do 80 000 with ace high a little tickler into robbie who got none of that and robbie's gonna lay it down the master at work mike sexton take it down this hand phil yeah patience patience patience and then when you do make a few sea bets like that people give your bets respect mike's accident at the table looks so benign you know he's just so gentlemanly there's no aggression on his face like oh don't do it because i'm going to come back all the way he puts you into that sleepy sort of phase i got him down now that's what he does that's his strength that's the mike sexton you see yes the mic section you know is different he's not going to let you run him over mine you always hope you can get to the final table when you enter a clover tournament but as we know it doesn't happen very often i'm glad to see that i'm still kicking and can hang in there with the young guys once in a while welcome to the world poker tour fortunately i've seen every final table in the history of the world poker tour for 11 seasons so i know who's winning and i see why they're winning so hopefully i can take some of what i've learned from those guys and bring it to the table today and let's see if i can get the job done like they do well he's got a big chance here tonight mike putting himself in his second chip position at this point with four players remaining as you can see the hardware store man marcelo out in front marcelo's only been playing poker for four years mike's been playing for about 400 we'll see what happens marcelo with quick fold i'm sure it's benefited mike to see all these different styles he has a you know he's a hall of famer with a ton of experience he's in a great position mike sexton will win this tournament please well right now it's on robbie he is going to raise with jack eight of diamonds with the button makes it 50 000 a go rocco palumbo came in as a short stack and now he's doing quite well with close to 1.2 million will not play that hand though the eight nine of hearts interesting lay down there not really a young person type of lay down but look the young person folded the eight nine and the old guy called with the six four of hearts he really did roll reversal nice gonna stick around and look at this bingo bango bongo like he would say he has flopped the nuts and he's gonna check it look at that flop that is just a thing of beauty he has flopped the nuts straight there's no flush draws robbie gonna check behind him ace of club's on the turn well ace is one of those cards where i i just think robbie has to bet he has to represent the ace mike could easily have a hand like you know six seven suited uh queen jack so robbie has to represent the ace and fire here to mike's delight he's got the pigeon betting and it's 55 000 now mike has to consider his options miracle against miracle robbie could have a four and in that one case a big raise makes a lot of sense or maybe he has an ace and mike thinks he'll call all right yeah it makes it a buck 80 to go too much i think he raced a little bit too much i mean robbie has nothing anyway yeah but i'd like to see him raise a little bit less than that give robby a chance to call if he had ace you know yeah well robbie's gonna release the hand mike saxon picking up that pot just flopping the nuts chopping shatter as we say mike's chopping cheddar all right we've got a good one going in venice so far and you should know that in addition to our main tour stops the wpt holds regional and national tournaments of wpt caliber with a variety of very accessible buy-ins ensuring players and high-quality experience worthy of the wpt name now since we last saw our viewers at the bay 101 shooting star the wpt has hosted a regional event at the seminole hard rock hotel and casino in tampa bay where alan pacal took home over 80 thousand dollars and across the world the wpt hosted national events at the t vegas casino in grand bay mauritius the aspers casino in london england and earlier this week in this beautiful room we are sitting in right now at the casino de venezia gabriele les pardes won 92 000 euros and after his victory he set his sights on the next level winning a wpd national is great but i want this also wpt main tour stops as well as our regional and national events are held at some of the most beautiful properties in the world all year round to find out where you can play log on to wpt.com people don't play real poker on social oversights because there's nothing to win on club wpt.com we play real poker for our share of 100 000 in real cash and prizes each month it's real poker for real players club wpt.com never lose a dime plan poker guaranteed it's something about pocket that is international casino de vanessa is an amazing place i love the italians the play poker they have a fervor about their game when somebody's all in they jump up and look at that table see what happened to the guy they high-five him he wins the pot italian loves poker he's in the dna of italian people to play it's really a fun atmosphere to play poker here in italy welcome back to the world poker tour four players remain and right now marcelo the chip leader 2.1 million mike sexton out in second chip position with 1.4 but i like mike said uh i like what he said he said oh it's just a lot of fun to play poker yeah it's always fun when you win it's so true but seriously i did have fun playing with the italian players and they have such passion for the game actions on mike a quick fold by him and i folded the six four so he just flopped a straight with that hand what's he doing that's right marcelo out and now robbie benny ace eight great great hand to have in the small blind here and you know i mean you look at the blinds are 12 and 24 000 he's sitting on you know 500 000 so basically he has uh 20 big blinds some people would move in with that hand i don't like that play but the math is close to where you're probably you know it's getting closer you're supposed to almost move in with that he didn't because right behind him rocco has picked up a king how lucky has rocco been against robbie rocco says i'm gonna go all in i'm going to push you all in yep and that the all-in race may allow robbie to get away from his hand rocco sent a message i speak texas hold him i'm sending a message i have a big hand and uh and robbie apparently speaks some texas hold them let's see if he can decipher the code yes he is he has a computer software engineer can he decipher the code the hold'em code and fold this hand cause i think i think he can fold this hand this would be a good getaway and i think he should fold this hand he looks disappointed though it's interesting you know a lot of some of the new new generation internet kids would call with the ace 8 there thinking that their opponent had any kind of ace high or a king queen or king jack well he does the right thing i'd say that's a very good lay down sure bronco a little disappointed he couldn't trap his man right there what does he want he keeps he's he had aces against his ace queen earlier wow what hands rocco is picking up plus he's playing well as well who will become the wpt champion from venice italy here tonight we will see action on marcelo this time he's got a k9 he's gonna make it 51 000 to go and now robbie takes a look at oh a couple tens pretty strong robbie considers himself a professional for the last two years and he's going to go all in with it now it's on rocco folds his hand mike out pretty standard all in here now marcelo it's you know four hundred and seven thousand more to him king nine seems like just a very very very uh easy fold here marcelo he looks sort of like an italian actor a movie star but he looks well-dressed yes he does very cosmopolitan yep but this would be just an awful call wow he's counting the chips really they look dangerously close to being in there too in the pot that would be a major mistake these chips go in this would be a terrible the canine terrible call yeah just just with king nine but he is taking a long time robbie binyi with a solid pair of tents well he might dress well but a suave player would have filled the hand a long time ago winds up doing the right thing and robbie bendy the former engineer he worked for computers for 20 years we'll take the pot very nicely as the race for this wpt title continues remember that in addition to the lion's share of the prize pool tonight's champion will also win a seat to the season 11 wpt world championship at bellagio but you should know that you too can win a seat in a live wpt tournament just check out club wpt.com if you love poker then club wpt is the place for you the new software is fun to play and is now mac compatible for a low monthly fee you can become a vip member where you can play unlimited poker win your share of 100 000 in cash and prizes every month log on to club wpt.com and never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed action is ready to resume so let's get back to the game right back at him as you can see robbie's struggling here with 561 000 in chips mike sexton 1.4 marcelo 2 million and rocco palumbo with 1.1 and here we go action on robbie our short stack and he won't play that chunk around torocco oh it's not aces again for rocco it's a nothing hands but oh look at this he's got a race makes it 48 000 with a junk hand sexton out and marcelo out so look at that that's impressive if you can get away with a lot of raising and taking down pots that's the purest that's just beautiful if one raise wins you the blinds and nannies and you can get away with that a fair amount every button it's just beautiful well you're right it is beautiful he is super aggressive here tonight his game is picking up beautifully and the only defense is to re-raise someone like that and mike is in the perfect position to do it he's watched all the video he knows what to do i'd like to see him step up his game just a little bit but this time he's not going to do it he folds his hand marcelo though with an ace six of spades in the small blind so rocco's min raced it to 48 000 here ah good move marcelo i like the re-raise here make it about 150 000 just to end this thing but no interestingly enough he makes it a total of 85. that's like the smallest re-raise i've seen from anybody all day that's like almost a min min re-raise it's crazy only 37 000 more you don't want people to call when you have the a6 spades make the big re-raise and end it well robbie has folded and rocco will of course make this call he's been induced to call 37 yet totally induced to call and so we've got a6 up against queen 10 and we are flopping and there's a 10 just like that with two sevens so rocco has outflopped marcelo marcelo checks good rock i like his check here's why i like it because if he has the best hand uh he's trapping his opponent and oh what a great trap card that is better and better it's the 10. so he has tens full also rocco if for example marcelo had the ace jack of diamonds on that flop um rocco didn't want to get raised off of it so he made a nice check well marcelo is betting a hundred thousand now marcelo only had 85 000 in this pot okay now his hundred thousand dollar bet here is fine with me he needs to find out i mean ace high is probably good and uh he needs to go ahead and make the bet oh and rocco is gonna make the nice okie dokie call show tunes going off at his head a nice performance there's a four so now basically what marcelo has is a bluff catcher he has an ace but really there is no bluff because the board is 10 10 7 7 so what he needs to do is check and probably fold here but he's not doing what you're saying phil marcello check and fold check and fold not doing it he's gonna make a bet 225 000. he's going to donate listen he only had 85 000 in there up until the board was 10 10 7 7. putting a hundred in there was like gives you all the information you need now he wants about 225 000 this is a meltdown vince back to the hardware store oh my this goodness and there comes the over the top 600 000 from rocco okay so now marcelo has the world's easiest voltage go to the next hand you lost way too much money on this hand oh my god he's called this he's just given rock all the tournament he's giving him 600 000 on the river oh boy that was a horrendous horrendous play wow oh man now that's gonna send them back to the hardware store don't look now but there's a new chip leader it's rocco unbelievable came in as a short stack former accountant pushing these guys around he's got the chips we're coming back with more action from venice in just a moment on the world poker tour texas holdem takes just a few minutes to learn and a lifetime to master that's why we created the wpt poker trainer to let you work on your game anytime you want from anywhere you want on your iphone or ipad download your copy today and the world poker tour i'm vince van patten with the great superstar poker brad phil hellmuth at my side this is a good one it is a good one and it looks to me like robbie is just you know running on fumes here i mean he's going to be all in soon for sure sexton's played very steady rocco's kind of just come out and own the tournament so far super aggressive no one's standing up to him and if no one stands up to him he's going to be holding the trophy big statement there let's go back down to the felt and see what happens there wpt champions cup who will become the champion have their name inscribed on that beautiful trophy like all the champions we will see but right now the annie's are up to 5 000 blinds 15 and 30 action on robbie benny he's on a short stack he's got queen jack that's okay uh go ahead and raise it no worries exactly what he does makes it 70 000. rocco behind him with ace queen it's unbelievable aces against ace queen i mean every ace 8 against ace king every single time that robbie has and he's playing very patiently rocco has a better hand you're right it starts to drive a man batty insane oh he's gonna poke her bratty he's gonna try to punish him makes it 155 sexton out and marcelo also folding so back around to the man that originally raised who looks absolutely disgusted who is this guy on my left get out of here your mind says you know what i have to call but your heart deep deep inside says you know what the right play is a fold he has it again it's disgusting though wow rocco palumbo has a bracelet under his belt he's married four-year-old son former accountant making things work tonight but onto this hand mike saxon quick fold and now marcelo with a jack a deuce is gonna raise making it 110 000 and robbie getting tortured here tonight has a6 could this be the shove hand blinds are 15 and 30. sitting on 420 000 here just take these guys out of the play perhaps try to pick this one up let's see what robbie does oh boy i like the fact he's taking his time thinking about it trying to decide i think the thoughts running through his head i'm a short stack i have an ace molin there you go he's got to push it robbie sorted it all out he figured it all out and he made a very nice push and the spot is over and more cello uncallable with a jack deuce you would think 305 000 more come on it doesn't make any sense although he is melting down what the heck but look at this he's counting he's wasting our time vince i would i would think so this is more or less uncallable just like earlier on the show with the king nine and and robbie had the two tens and you know we wasted our time um i think that you know marcelo some of the young poker players would like to say i'd like to have that minute of my life back very clever but you never know the young breed he's i'm really considering he's doing it he's making this call with jack deuce he just called with a jack juice off suit is there a psychiatrist in the house oh boy if you're robbie you love this you love this action this is a meltdown of magnificent proportions well he's a dog obviously but not that bad of a dog still a bad call he just gave 700 000 away drawing dead and now he's trying to give it all away drawing yeah what is this this is horrendous play you never know maybe he'll get lucky with his jack deuce let's take a look at the flop it's shake queen queen seven yeah good luck now getting robbie you're right he is sort of melting down here this is a he must realize right now what am i doing five of hearts on the turn so no help there for marcelo robbie with a big chance to double up very simple events there's three deuces and three jacks okay so 38 wins to six wins right now over six to one favorite and robbie's back oh no but no the six to one shot does not hold up the river seduce and we're going to say bye-bye to robbie unbelievable marcelo feeling it for after jack deuce makes the call of the year makes it on the river he has knocked out robbie in a shocking way on the river what you call call of the year i would call something else well we got to say good night to robbie begley going to take home 40 000 euros awful awful river court for him let's see let's see what he has to say i'm glad vince is i mean i'm glad that phil helm is in the box with you because i wouldn't be able to explain that last hand [Laughter] i play very well all the tournament and i want to reach first or runner-up that's my my least place i want a fourth is not enough for me i wanted the first place wpt you don't play wpt every day then reaching the final table it's a must with robbie ben yee out in fourth place we conclude our second hour of coverage from the wpt venice grand prix now phil are you as surprised as i am about that call yeah i'm surprised i mean the jack deuce play i thought was really really bad and um but i'll tell you something it sends shock waves to mike and rocco now that uh marcelo made that jack deuce play i think in our next show you're going to see some very interesting stuff i think that they're going to be more afraid of marcelo because now they know he's you know before he was an amateur they could run over now he's an amateur that'll call a big bet with jack deuce so they're gonna have to play more conservatively against him and vince with the wpt champions cup on the line do you foresee play tightening up uh tightening up hardly not when you have a guy named rocco palumbo a former accountant believe it or not splashing around these chips all right he is a gambler he is pushing things he doesn't care that mike saxton hall of famer is on his left he is going to push these parts he makes it very interesting he's a very talented player this is going to be a great one okay thanks guys this is proving to be quite the epic battle here in italy please join us next time when we'll add a new name to the wpt champions cup at the venice grand prix until then for vince van patten phil hellmuth tony dunst the royal flush girls and the whole wpt team i'm kimberly lansing saying thanks for watching ciao i don't understand what this is well the great mike sexton is gone my buddy my partner what an exceptional human being you were and are what a father to tai and all your family members will will not be the same without you we love you mike rest in peace brother mike was born september 22nd 1947 in shelbyville indiana a midwestern boy to his corps mike grew up in dayton ohio and attended the ohio state university where he earned a degree in public recreation competed in gymnastics and became a die-hard buckeyes fan in 1970 mike joined the us army and was assigned to the 82nd airborne division as a paratrooper while in the army mike not only served his country but also taught ballroom dancing a strong lead on the dance floor mike brought joy and energy whenever he broke out his impressive ballroom skills after his enlistment ended mike first found work as a salesman his true calling came though when he discovered how well he could do at playing poker and he took up that game professionally in 1977. in 1985 mike's love of the game inevitably brought him to las vegas just four years later in 1989 he won the coveted world series of poker bracelet in the 1500 seven card stud event in 1998 long before the poker craze that grew into today's industry mike took a page from the pga and masterminded the wsop invitation-only tournament of champions featuring poker's elite one of his proudest achievements in 2001 mike became an original co-founder of party poker an enterprise that has stood the test of time and remains one of the top online poker sites in the world today a year later mike started his career with the world poker tour welcome to the debut of the world poker tour with his can-do spirit mike was more than a commentator playing a major role in convincing casinos to take a chance on the newly formed wpt we have a sensational group of six finalists for you here today what a great way to start the season on the world poker tour the world poker tour premiered with the wpt five diamond world poker classic at the bellagio the game is no limit holder it's a game that takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master mike and fellow commentator vince van patten changed the poker world forever with their patented blend of friendly banter and deep poker knowledge ever falls ryan rivers doesn't get some help here vance he's going over the falls in a barrel this unlikely partnership would grow into a deep friendship founded on respect admiration and affection in 2005 mike published his first book shuffle up and deal in 2006 mike masterfully won the wsop tournament of champions for one million dollars defeating the two-time wpt champion daniel legranu heads up true to his giving major he donated half of his one million dollar purse to charity including the bonneconti fund to cure paralysis a cause he continued to generously support for many years similarly along with linda johnson jan fisher and lisa tenor mike created pokergives.org a non-profit organization providing poker players a dedicated platform for philanthropy i've been interviewed many times during my career and one question a lot of times they ask is who do you think is the most respected person or who do you like most as a poker player and my answer is always the same mike sixth he is the man [Applause] [Music] in 2008 mike received the greatest gift of all his son ty mike's love for tithe brought a new and meaningful dimension to his life as a devoted father mike loved cheering tie on at baseball games and proudly shared photos at the table of tai and their treasured moments together tai was truly his world [Music] later that year mike reached a career milestone when he was inducted as the 39th member of the poker hall of fame in 2016 mike published life's a gamble a poker autobiography spanning his four decades in the defining game of his life in november of the same year mike with the ladies yes i called mike reached his third of four wpt final tables and won wpt montreal main best event the field of 648 entries to win nearly 318 000 and making him officially a wpt champion let's hear one more time for the great mike sexton unsurprisingly he gave his championship belt to die with 15 career cashes in wpt tournaments totaling nearly 1 million dollars mike is ranked 216th overall in wpt earnings and 39th in wpt final table appearances in total mike amassed more than 6.7 million dollars in live tournament winnings in 2017 after 15 landmark seasons for the world poker tour mike left to rejoin party poker as their chairman closing out a career with wpt that remains a huge part of his legacy in the industry that same year mike was named a recipient of the wpt honors i'm extremely humbled and honored to be receiving this award the wpt's highest distinction awarded to members of the poker industry in celebration and appreciation of exceptional contributions made to the world poker tour and the poker community as a whole [Music] in july the wpt renamed its iconic wpt champions cup the mike sexton wpt champions cup in honor of mike's unparalleled influence on the organization and the poker world to his friends mike was known as a humble man and a kind and generous soul [Music] never without a smile on his face and always game for a new adventure mike was never too busy to share a laugh stop take a picture with a fan or a fact to which many of his friends can attest take your money on the golf course they might only bet one dollar two dollars or lunch or beers but everybody gambles on the golf course that's the fun of it and mike was a storyteller extraordinaire there was nothing he loved more than joyfully regaling evil listeners with boisterous tales from his days coming up in poker when he was seated at the table with legends like his good friends doyle brunson amarillo slim puggy pearson chip reese and stu unger at whose funeral mike spoke and served as pallbearer a larger than life personality whose infectious energy enthusiasm and pure love of the game pulled you over when he entered the room mike leaves an outsized legacy on and profound hole in the poker world everybody who is lucky enough to know mike will always remember him fondly as a jubilant once and forever first ambassador of poker one thing that we know is this industry this wonderful thing that has brought us all together we're only going to experience it for so much time soon we'll be gone we will stop we'll get older we will not be there next generation will come and the fact that we could come together celebrate those wonderful people like mike who have made so much of a contribution that we can stop and just say by the grace of god we had a moment where we all came together and we will never stop appreciating just how wonderful the together we make each other feel next time the world poker tour is brought to you by club wpt.com never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed [Music] tonight in venice italy along the banks of the grand canal we are set to crown a new wpt champion the epic conclusion of the venice grand prix starts now only on the wpt [Music] miracles [Music] hi everyone i'm kimberly lansing and you are watching the world poker tour now venice italy is truly one of the most enchanting cities in the world and nothing could be more romantic than winning a wpt title right here at the beautiful casino divanezia with three players remaining and our own mike sexton still in the running now i have to turn to one of the greatest players in the game phil hellmuth who's sitting in tonight for mike and the always charming vince van patten now phil let me ask you with so much at stake tonight how do these players maintain their focus kimberly i think from mike sexton maintaining his focus is very easy he's been on the world poker tour stage dozens of times basically sitting here so for him it's easy he knows he knows what he needs to do and he has a very good game plan marcelo it's it's tough to go from being an amateur to winning a title and you get yourself one foot in front of the other and all of a sudden you know you trip and and he's kind of tripped and it seems to me like rocco's just gonna maintain his cool if anything he could get himself in trouble by playing a little fast and vince who do you think has the best shot of adding their name to the wpt champions cup well i'm still going with my man mike sexton he's a hall of famer he'll be able to figure this out i believe it's a little bit of luck and he's a better player than both these guys i think he is sandwiched between two italians okay he's like the mozzarella in a cheese sandwich right but he could still take the big bite out of it so to speak i believe in mike i think he's going to come back i can't wait to see what happens next neither can i this should be an exciting fight to the finish all right looks like action's ready to resume so let's check the chip counts and get back to the game all right here we go chip leader rocco palumbo he's 24 years old he's catching cards he's playing well he's the chip leader with 2.2 million marcelo montagne second ship position mike sexton hall of famer down in third place with nine thirty and he's a five thousand blinds are 15 and 30. actually going to rocco he quickly folds and now mike sexton with the king queen he has raised it to 60 000 phil yeah i like his race here i like the min race here i think it's a good move marcelo's gonna call with seven five of clubs mike must know that marcelo's played a wide range of hands and here is the flop it's a jack jack sexton going to check marcelo checking behind another four on the turn now if i'm mike i bet because king high's probably good why give your man a free card look at this they've pulled out full houses the board plays jack's full and mike is making a very shrewd bet he's been 200 000. let me tell you something there's only 135 000 in the pot okay that means that if marcelo calls the most he can win is 65 000. so he has to risk 200 to win 65 000 if he's going to call for a tie has to call hoping for a split yes it's very likely it's a split but do you really want to lose beat the game that's right that's why it's such a beautiful bet by sexton yep and he's marcelo's gonna do it he's gonna call for the split pot and he gets the 65 000 back okay you risk 200 to 165. i really like mike's bet on the river there well mike's a little disappointed that his man called him but he respects it marcelo montenegro he's not a professional player what a feat he is having here tonight he's actually works in a hardware store in italy and they're the beautiful royal flush girls enjoying the moment he's the suavest dress hardware guy i've ever seen yeah great patches on his jacket it's just wonderful all right back to this hand mike sexton quickly folding and there's marcelo kind of looks like an italian actor he does he's gonna raise with his a7 makes it sixty thousand to go look at this right behind a rocco palumbo with an ace eight rocco always has the best of it it's crazy isn't it but i think that you're going to see rocco um look he's not even looking at his man he's just going to make a re-raise from a math point of view so he's used a lot of aggression just from a pure math point of view computing get it should be good i'm going to re-raise it he is good he's got a world series bracelet under his belt he's raised to 150 and marcelo is going to stick around you have ace 8 versus a7 here comes the flop it's a king jack five no help to either player now that is a very dangerous flop for ace adolf suit here but uh rocco has no fear there's 315 000 the pot and here comes the c bet yup he's going to do the continuation bet with ace high looks like 125 000 into the hardware store man and marcelo if he could use that creative aggression that he used with the jack deuce offsuit which we all piled on and hated if he could ever come up with a check raise in a spot like this would be great for him but he just has not bluffed enough well he is going to lay it down he's played an awful wide range of hands but not bluffed enough that makes the kind of guy you can just pick apart and beat up that's what rocco's doing to him this week the wpt venice grand prix has definitely shaken up the wpt player of the year standings wpt champion matt salzburg added to his point total with a seventh place showing right here at the casino divination to tie paul volpe at the top of the leaderboard now buckle up your seat belts because this race is going to be tight to the very end will matt or paul end up as the season 11 wpt player of the year or will another player finish a season strong and pass them by we'll keep you informed on any changes in the standings but for now let's get down to the game three-handed poker at the casino de venezia action going to marcelo he's going to raise with an ace queen and now rocco with an ace jack finally he's on the other side of one of these three-handed now listen this is where you look to see does this guy have something that can take him to the next level in poker does he look at marcelo and say wow he really has a strong hand this is the time to just call him so he's just a re-raising machine then yeah he's gonna raise with his ace jack makes it 200 000 to go mike sexton out it's pretty standard pretty hard not for me to re-raise but i'm always looking for that extra level that makes someone a great great player that level where they just seem to understand when ace jack is not the best hint well he raised and it's going to pay off for him because he hits the jacks on the flop two kings with a jack they both check very quickly though ada sprayed's on the turn so rocco was behind but out in front gonna check again do so hearts on the river helping you the player i actually like the check check because he may force if marcelo does have like for example a pair of sixes uh rocco is going to get paid off here on the river well finally rocco is going to bet the 275. pretty lucky for rocco though yeah beautiful flop for him this is a tough spot for marcelo i've you know given him some hassle for some stuff but if he calls here this is a call i wouldn't blame him he's gonna call it for making he's gonna call and he's gonna lose he's gonna see the bad news you hit your jack you were lucky i'm not even gonna show you i'm just gonna pay it bronco palumbo starting to roll over these guys there's a quick break in the action and we've got a big night ahead in addition to crowning a champion at the wpt venice grand prix tony duns will dish it out in the raw deal we'll get to know more about our season 11 ones to watch and spend a little quality time in venice with the royal flesh girls there's a lot going on so stay tuned season 11 of the world poker tour is brought to you by club wpt.com where vip members can win their share of 100 000 in cash and prizes every month club wpt.com never lose a guy playing poker guaranteed hi i'm danielle and i'm one of the royal flush girls being in venice italy is so amazing we got to hang out with the european poker players got to eat gelato my favorite thing about venice is the gondola ride because you get to see the little things that you can't see while you're walking around really enjoy the culture out there i would call venice very bellissima we are back here at the casino de venezia having a great time three-handed poker wpt title at stake tonight and our very own hall of famer mike sexton with a chance tonight i'm taking down his first wpt title but he's on the short stack with close to 900 000 let's go to the felt that's on mike and he's got a big hand here phil yes he does but i want to say if this were a fight they would have stopped it rocco's bludging these guys he's just killing him he's like in the ring he's like just landing jab jab jab jab jab these guys are bleeding right now but here mike has a spot to basically get himself right back into the tournament and mike has a pair of boxing gloves he can fight and he'll start sparring with you well if you don't keep hitting a 10 on him that is unbelievable rocco hitting tens out flopping sexton they both check good slowdown by mike well the impressive thing is that you know mike has checked the flop here uh with ace king seven on the turn oh boy and he went with his instincts i mean it was folded so quickly yeah it just said you know what i know he has it and so that was pretty impressive it looked like that was in your zone i don't know if it was he was exactly 100 right and it was impressive that he lost so little with ace king versus kington [Music] i really love playing poker because it's really a skill game in the long run everybody sees me as a tight guy and i do tricky things sometimes having a wpt title will be like a dream you know and i would love to go for it [Music] well he's only 24 years old a former accountant rocco palumbo just taking charge here tonight phil it's impressive i mean we we know that he's caught a few breaks and he's pushed the envelope and they're letting him push the envelope and so i was hoping that you know sexton would make a few more re-raises in some of these spots even there with deuce three off suit why not just go ahead and re-raise because i think mike knows how aggressively rocko's playing he's the one guy that knows what's going on i mean he's seen the whole cards he's seen the type so mike's best defense is three betting and i don't know he just hasn't done that enough so far rocco pushing again catches tens on the flop as a king 10 deuce lens and marcelo with a seven four nothing air ball baby he's gonna come out vet he has an air ball no pair no draw nothing nicely done by the hardware store man however he's been called and that's gotta hurt jack of hearts on the turn now he has a four flush though now he actually picked up a draw okay 80 000 to 310 is not enough to get rid of rocco he has to call 80 here i'm sure he's going to call it just seems like an easy call the jack is a little bit threatening because a straight draw which makes sense and it was in marcelo's range just hit like for example if you had jack nine you hit a jack or queen nine you hit a straight or queen jack you hit a jack but no rock was going to respect it and lay the hand down wow for 80 000 to win wow 400 000 i'm really surprised i would really like to have seen him make a call for 80. marcelo nicely done by the hardware store man takes the pot by a nice bet stay tuned we'll be right back with more world poker tour [Music] the wpt foundation is dedicated to supporting great charities around the world now you can help the wpt foundation raise money for some great global causes check out all the incredible prizes trips and vip experiences available through our online auctions at [Music] wptfoundation.org [Music] [Applause] [Music] i have a gold glass of champagne please venice is known for black magic today i'm going to bring some white magic [Music] vince who is that idiot man were you always shy as a kid and just to break out of your shell where did it happen how do you become that now you are interesting you are good for the game but thanks and by the way back to the poker rocco is putting on an incredibly dominating performance this could be a classical dominating performance it's also everything he's done has worked perfectly too so there's obviously some luck involved but he has a chance to turn this into a classic win we're here with phil hellmuth mike sexton's at the final table rocco palumbo 2.9 million marcello with 1.5 he's a non-professional that works in a hardware store great effort by him and mike saxon down to 6.85 don't worry vince i'm getting ready to make my move i'm getting ready to make my move my streak is coming let's see if mike can come back actions on macello a quick fold by him and now morocco has picked up a king 10. the former accountant is going to raise makes it 65 000 a go and mike sexton with a king eight seems interested but look at this phil that's it mike that's what i'm talking about three bet three bet three bet these guys they've watched you play tight for three days you can take advantage of that reputation how can rocco call rocco has a decent hand with a lot of chips he even suspects something's wrong what can he do come on show me the bluff one time show me the bluff one time how can i show you the bluff yeah mike sexton will never show a hand he hasn't been called i've learned that from him for 11 years being with him on the world poker tour he stays true to the word rocco said a size of bluff when you have a guy that you have a rocco is he serious like he's really he's really working he's really working his corner he's like a puncher you know i mean the guy's raised like 70 of the hands i mean uh if he micro isn't with jack hi it's not a bluff for god's sakes i mean you know i mean come on sometime i have to win a pot off you being in italy it's apparent that poker is truly a global sport as players around the world gravitate to the game the fields have become increasingly more competitive and it takes a lot to stand out but one young lady has both the poise and pedigree to make it big as we see in this edition of wants to watch [Music] [Music] my name is from toronto canada it's pretty cool being one of the ones to watch shwan i mean she is a powerful little poker player she is coming on hard man i feel like she is dangerous schwann lou is definitely one of the truly mathematically smart players out there i think a part of my strength as a poker player is the fact that i'm not that emotional at the tables i'm very good at reading people and playing up my table image my poker game has improved a lot over the years she has an incredible group of friends around here some of the best players in the world like wpt champion scott seaver and vanessa selfs all the superheroes you know i've always been very interested in poker since i was really young i was born in tianjin china and moved to toronto when i was five years old toronto is now my home but i'm very proud of my route i started playing poker with play money by myself i think i was about seven years old but didn't start playing for real money until college i went to the university of waterloo waterloo is huge waterloo has so many poker players coming out of it it's absurd the talent of waterloo that's probably the most successful city in poker in general there's got to be something in the water in waterloo i mean it's a poker hotbed the home of all the brilliant canada pokemons there's a ton of waterloo graduates that have won wpt titles like michael watts from the paul ambrose [Music] the non-medic should i enroll should i go to that college maybe i too can win a title really willing to do anything waterloo here i come it would be a dream come true to join the ranks of waterloo grads who have gone on to win wpt titles the future looks really bright [Music] very impressive phil have you played against her i have at the world series of poker in the stud eight or better tournament last year i played with her in a few other events and i got to tell you she played really well and ted forrest said this girl's a killer which is a big compliment for him all right well mike sexton on the ropes here circling the dream can he come back mike this time with a jack nine of hearts with the button and he's gonna pop it up makes it 60 000 to go real quick marcelo cannot re-raise him with an a7 and rocco cannot re-raise him with a3 they've been re-raising each other this is how much they respect mike that's why he could be doing a lot more bluffing earlier oh mike you're gonna like that flop jack 7-6 you picked up jacks but his patience is going to pay off because marcelo is not going to get away from this hand marcelo has been leaking major oil and now he's going to give all the chips to mike and mike's going to be right back in there if he has top pair in a spot where marcelo who's on mega tilt could never in a billion years fold a7 well mike's going to do the right thing he's better at 150 but cello has a piece of that pair of sevens though and he's going to call it yeah but at this point mike is now going to be all in no matter what comes off mike with a big chance here he really doesn't want to see a club right now i'm like or an ace oh man aces and sevens from marcelo and he's gonna check it into mike oh boy look at that and mike is really in his mind he's like okay the ace could not have hit him unless he was exactly a6 or a7 a club draw marcelo would have probably moved in i'm all in hey oh so mike has to move in oh boy mike's gone all in and he's been called there you go get an ace and then some aces and sevens sexy tremendous bad shape marcelo's leaking oil all over the track mike hit the oil and went smashed into the wall need a miracle he has two jacks left in the deck that's two outs um so basically he's a 20 to one underdog to hit it that's really bad um really unlucky ace for him there on the turn mike sexton's chance of becoming a wpt champion coming down to this card he gave himself such a great chance mike did i mean that's the virtue of being patient five of spades on the river mike is out now mike has been extraordinarily unlucky in the spot uh because marcelo who has an outro on rocco one time hops in there on one of the three or four that mike plays and now draws him in that hand and uh you know very unlucky spot for mike what are you gonna do mike sexton our mike sexton hall of famer out in third place in venice going to take home 54 000 euros let's go see what mike has to say well it's always frustrating when you go out at whatever position whether it's on day one day two day three or the final table if you don't win so you know only one guy can win the tournaments just wasn't in the cards for me today i guess and maybe i could have played him a little better who knows but it just wasn't my day to win but you know i came to the final table in third chip position that's where i went out so pretty standard i guess sad to see mike sexton out in third place but mike we are all so proud of you all right i'm getting word that mike is actually heading back to the booth to call the action and we'd like to thank phil hellmuth for sitting here but right now it has come down to rocco palumbo and marcelo montaniere to battle for the wpt venice grand prix title and a coveted spot on the wpg champions cup heads of action will begin shortly stay tuned pleasure i hope you didn't laugh too hard at me you should no no laughter at all all right thank you thank you thank you it wasn't much to do honestly the legendary phil hellmuth filled in for me today we appreciate that all right brother i don't have to worry about him taking my job because i know with this pay he's never going to take the job [Music] social poker sites aren't real poker because they're nothing to win they're just all in fests that's why we play real poker on clubwpt.com where we can win our share of a hundred thousand cash and prizes every month club wpt.com never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed this episode of the world poker tour is brought to you in part by vegas.com vegas.com new vegas right as is a custom on the world poker tour when we get down to heads up play we have our money presentation so show us the money that could have been mine [Music] outcome genie and danielle with the cash [Music] they are the royal flush girls they shake hands champagne for the players bring me a double please oh yes tuba delivering the champagne here in venice italy look at that vance they're toasting they just broke me we have marcelo montagne works in a hardware store non-professional going up against rocco palumbo a world series bracelet winner for the championship here tonight who will take this title heads up play at the wpt venice grand prix is about to get started between rocco palumbo and marcelo montagne during the break we caught up with rocco well i'm trying not to think that much i mean it's been a great final table and i'm running pretty good so i'm trying to think just playing and do not focus too much on the prizes and just play my best who will emerge triumphant in venice and add their name to the wpt champions cup heads of action from the casino de venezia is about to get started so let's get back to the call of the game with mike and vince i'm back with my friend mike sexton got knocked out phil hellmuth's taking his wife out for an anniversary dinner you're stuck with me for your date i'm a pounding miserable date right now vince i'll try not to behave too badly but i'm still frustrated i'm not sitting down there playing heads up for this title but i guess you can't complain when you make some money in any tournament you know you did very well we're very proud of you let's get back to this action heads up action between two italian players rocco there very aggressive tonight has three million and of course the cello he's got about two million here we go well but certainly from the eyeball test at least for my sitting at the table watching these guys play it seemed to me that rocco is the much better player well he is more aggressive that's for sure and the blinds are 15 and 30 and rocco has rage with the king deuce and marcelo with a queen ten of clubs just calling and now we're gonna see our first flop the heads up action and a queen just like that nine six queens from a cello great flop for marcelo he's gonna check it let's see if it's morocco makes the continuation of course he does 70 000 mike sit down quick call by my cello no check raise a little surprisingly check raise with top pair unorthodox here tonight and here comes the turn card oh 10 comes off top two pair now for marcelo but he checks here vince i would think rocco would check right behind him it's just too scary aboard couple straight possibilities out there all those middle cards it's the kind of hand you put a guy on who doesn't re-raise you before the flop but it's just not rocco's style to check he bets out with a gut shot straight draw yeah 130 000 because he's been doing this all night and winning and this time he's going to be on the other side of it as marcelo hardware store man he's going to race like he should makes it 260 to go and i think rocco might get the hint now i know rocco's aggressiveness certainly paid off for him tonight no doubt about it and there you see a concerned look in the eye of rocco for like the first time at this final table vince first hit he's taken in a long time at this final table but marcelo getting on the board yeah nicely done there's the wpt champions cup everybody wants their name on that rocco now will that be the turning point we will see 2.8 versus marcello's 2.3 well rocco looks down at the worst two cards you can start with in a heads-up battle a three-deuce offsuit makes a raise goes to 60 000 with that mess and marcelo with a queen 10 just calling yeah playing heads up this hand is ranked worse than a seven deuce offsuit and hold him didn't stop rocco king jack five with two clubs pretty good flop for marcelo he's got an opening straight draw but he checks it morocco with a strong three high is betting it 70 000. that's when i see all this i wish i was back down there playing again i played a lot more aggressive against this guy i can tell you quick call of course by my cello i knew he was at it but i just didn't really know now i do it's a four that actually gives rocco now an open-ended straight draw or cello also with a higher open-ended or more cello checks again and rocco this guy just doesn't know what it's like to slow down no i bet she's got the kind of hand that many players would just easily check on the turn happy to have a draw well it's 130 000. marcelo will make this call we got a nice pot going on he's not giving up take a look at the river card which one of them will get lucky how about neither some of the diamonds marcelo has the best hand he's checked it and if rocco fires at this pod he's able to win it but the guy called you raised before the flop called the bet on the flop the better on the turn can you fire yet another shell rocco knows it's the only way you can win this pot is to bet at it on the river oh boy the former accountant does so he's betting 200 000. he has fired three barrels at this pot fence with just a three high and gonna take down the pot and maybe that's why the guy's got all the chips here tonight i haven't seen his cards earlier but all i know is he better every pot seemed like that was the beast that was on your right now you see why you're pushed out of this thing i do well this is great heads-up action we got right now between two italians they're both tough they're having a good time but there was someone else that had a good time this week and that's a man named socrates he plays on club wpt.com and did he enjoy himself everybody in my room ended up with grande one this guy and some others said he's more fun than anybody here he's such fun so entertaining who cares if i weight or not and he loves club wpt.com and why wouldn't you you have a chance to make thousands but another chance to lose it so it's a great concept this guy won his entry and trip over to venice italy by playing on club wpt.com you can play all the online poker you want win your share of 100 000 in cash and prizes every month and when entries in the wpt event we're so proud of you we made it far and we had fun with you too yeah it was fun it was a lot of fun just for a small monthly fee you get all the treatment and all the fun and watch the tapes and get the magazine go to club wpt.com never lose it down plan poker guaranteed yeah all right pack the table we go well rocco about where he started this heads up battle three million to two million blinds are 15 and 30 000 and action's gonna be on marcelo this time non-professional player only been playing four years used to watch the world poker tour and learn he said what a chance of a lifetime here tonight for the 9-8 just calling rocco not going to get aggressive with a 6'5 so we are seeing a cheap flop flop is a king six seven so marcelo with an open-ended straight draw rocco with a piece of that pair of sixes rock was checked marcelo's bet in 75. well marco's got bottom pair here as you can see going to make the call with it certainly is turn card is at eight of diamonds this gives rock on opening straight draw as well but as you can see the way the cards lie marcelo now has best hand and best draw bronco checks and quickly marcelo reaching for chips 110 000. now martino who really hasn't made a lot of moves here at least it didn't appear like at this day we made a lot of calls morocco is going to make this call though well indeed he is down to the river we go and a four that gives rocco a straight incredible now look at this marcelo betting out of turn here a hundred thousand yes he certainly is he bet out of turn okay he says okay he says okay i'll take it back no stay in there right now well it depends if rocco checks that bet stands yep but if he bets out then marcelo has an opportunity to take the bet back and not put anything in the pot so obviously rock who's made it straight on the river should check here yeah yeah they're getting some free money for sure sure but he's betting 400 000 here vince this gives marcelo a chance to get out and save that hundred thousand this is kind of this is a definite bad move here by rocco he's made a major mistake here now the tournament director now says you get an opportunity to take that back because he bet grabbed those pigs pretty quickly too they sure did he's only got eights he's got two one thousand you can take your money back you feel like you got a bargain perhaps or do you want to stick it in there say what is this guy betting for if if he has something he has a five exactly right but look at this he's gonna lay it down he lays it down and rocco has played great all night long but in my view that's a mistake i would check that the guy about the hundred thousand and then raise him with my straight where you're guaranteed to make at least a hundred thousand there italian welcome back to the world poker tour we're at the casino de venezia heads up action continues as you can see the winner is going to take home 140 000 euros with mike sexton who finished third here what an effort but we're down to these two right now rocco with well over two to one chip lead now cello picking up a decent hand here king jack of clubs gonna raise it up to 80 000. yes he has been dominating all night long everyone at the table and he's going to speculate with his jack 9. he makes hands when he needs to and he steals them when he needs to so why not play every pot all right the flop comes up king eight five that's good for mocello hitting his kings great flop for marcelo nothing happening for rocco but look at what is he doing here he's leading right out into the pre-flop razor this something you don't see very often at all i'm certain marcelo feels like he's got the best hand with the two kings marcelo just gonna call him though yeah with a big flop and a very solid kicker queen on the turn rocco has a gut shot straight draw now but obviously he must catch a 10 to win this pot the only card he can win with he's continuing to bet 175 000 this time you just think the guy with a check raise with a flush draw certainly if he'd have flopped two pair but marcelo is still not raising just calling with the two kings very interesting down to the river we go the five of hearts comes off so the board pairs and a possible flush is out there and now rocco finally slowing down now marcelo finally gonna bet top pair here yep 200 thousand morocco with just jack high he's just throwing up the white flag perhaps just the look on his face says he's not gonna raise it but you think he's contemplating a call here thinking his opponent might have a straight draw i mean that's the only hand he can beat well i think he's going to lay it down he's just taking a lot of time here well why are you posture just throw it away if it got better they are italian mike they take the dramatic they take their time they're passionate they take it personally their cards he's a former couch wow he called himself he has to put him on specifically a six seven to make that call look at this semi-slow roll here as mortello throws up the king oh man rocco laughs but very puzzling must have put him on exactly a straight draw event there's no other hand he could call there in that spot very strangely played hand there bad evaluation no matter where the game is played or what language is spoken at the table one thing is certain our own tony dunst will definitely have an opinion on the play so right now let's hear what tony thinks in this edition of the raw deal there's nothing that knocks the wind out of an opponent like catching him in a bluff especially when making a miraculous hero call sure bluffing is flashy but hero calls are even flashier it feels fantastic to turn over a terrible hand you knew was good all along and while there's genuine value and joy in derailing your opponent's confidence by making a hero call there are times when it's just spewing let's break it down rocco palumbo has built a two to one chip lead over marcelo monteniere through aggressive and thoughtful play and it's with that lead that he called a min raise to 80 000 in the big blind holding jack 9 off suit the flop comes king 8 5 with a heart flush draw and rocco leads out as a bluff likely with the intention of continuing that bluff if the turn improves one of his backdoor draws marcelo naturally calls with his top hair and with the queen of spades on the turn rocco's equity in the hand improves with a gut shot straight draw so he fires a second barrel of course marcelo is going nowhere with his top pair and makes the call the river brings the five of hearts completing the flop flush draw i anticipated rocco firing the third barrel but when he checked i assumed he was giving up on the hand after all the most obvious draw got there and the board paired marcelo goes for value by betting 200 000 into 720 and when rocco went into the tank i began wondering what was taking so long when he placed the 200 000 out there to call i was stunned i mean what hand does rocco think marcelo is holding the only hands he beats are busted straight draws like 7 6 and 9 seven and most players with those hands would usually bet larger on the river because they want to fold so while i appreciate rocco's desire to make a soul-crushing hero call it was obvious this was not the hand to attempt it a true hero knows when to let one go otherwise the only thing he'll crush is his own stack well tony you're on it once again and these two guys are going after title which one will take it down 140 000 euros that's about 180 000 u.s cash not too bad and to the felt we go rocco this time with a jack eight he's gonna raise makes it 80 000 to go well that's i guess maybe one of the times to make a hero call as we say is when you got the big chip lead and you everything's going well for you but yeah that one backfired on rocco let's see if it'll cost him this time has a pair of nines wakes up with a real hand a wired pair and he's going to re-raise makes it 170 to go well rocco just got burned with a jack nine offsuit he could get burned again with a jack eight off suit here he plays this pot ninety thousand in addition and he's got three point seven so he can afford to speculate sure you wanna give away chips with this kind of hand but we'll see what happens oh an eight jack a two pair for rocco oh buckle up folks we're going to see some fireworks here marcelo's got a pair and an open end straight draw rocco as you can see is flop top and bottom pair how lucky is this guy wow my cello coming out swinging like he should 180 with the open ended with the pair rocco's definitely going to raise here vince if your opponent's got king queen or ace queen or ace king you just can't give him a free card here that is right and he does raise makes it 480 in total now if you're marcelo you've got two nines an opening straight draw do you want to ship it all and get it all in here maybe your opponent's got king queen no he's just gonna call it they'd be thinking if a baby card comes off and the guy fires again i can get away from this hand this is a very good pot well he's got over 800 000 left but let's see what happens rocco the former accountant in a good place and a four of diamonds makes it even better wow now marcelo's going all in a snap call there by rocco you're surprised if marcelo was going to make that play just wouldn't have got it all in on the flop though it wouldn't have helped any because we know how strong rocca was so they turn up the cards marcelo not dead he's got ten outs as we say he wins the pot he makes a straight a seven or a queen to give him a straight to win this tournament right here rocco palumbo one card away from becoming a wpt champion here we go to the river we're going to burn and turn let's see it it's afraid there it is rocco palumbo has done it he certainly has rocco palumbo will take home 140 000 euros he's the wpc champion mike and a deserving champion but before we talk to our champion let's talk to our runner-up marcelo montezo second pastor well we're with the venice grand prix champion rocco palumbo rocco congratulations first of all but let me ask you about your aggressiveness at the final table i was part of the terror that you reigned on this table was that your plan of attack from the get-go well not i just got chips and i mean i played the game and i always had a nuts like i was and what does it feel like to be a wpt champion and get your name engraved on the wpt champions cup with the legends of the world poker tour it's definitely an honor and i'm pretty excited about it well congratulations to you and to italy for taking down this title one more time let's hear for our champion kimberly back to you [Applause] what a remarkable performance and congratulations to rocco colombo the season 11 wpt venice grand prix champion please join us next time when we travel to the sunshine state for the wpt seminal hard rock showdown until then for mike sexton vince van patten phil hellmuth tony dunst the royal flush girls and the whole wpt team i'm kimberly lansing saying thanks for watching good night i don't understand what this is for here well the great mike sexton is gone my buddy my partner what an exceptional human being you were and are what a father to ty and all your family members the world will not be the same without you we love you mike rest in peace brother mike was born september 22 1947 in shelbyville indiana a midwestern boy to his corps mike grew up in dayton ohio and attended the ohio state university where he earned a degree in public recreation competed in gymnastics and became a die-hard buckeyes fan in 1970 mike joined the us army and was assigned to the 82nd airborne division as a paratrooper while in the army mike not only served his country but also taught ballroom dancing a strong lead on the dance floor mike brought joy and energy whenever he broke out his impressive ballroom skills after his enlistment ended mike first found work as a salesman his true calling came though when he discovered how well he could do at playing poker and he took up that game professionally in 1977. in 1985 mike's love of the game inevitably brought him to las vegas just four years later in 1989 he won the coveted world series of poker bracelet in the 1500 seven card stud event in 1998 long before the poker craze that grew into today's industry mike took a paid from the pga and masterminded the wsop invitation-only tournament of champions featuring poker's elite one of his proudest achievements in 2001 mike became an original co-founder of party poker an enterprise that has stood the test of time and remains one of the top online poker sites in the world today a year later mike started his career with the world poker tour welcome to the debut of the world poker tour with his can-do spirit mike was more than a commentator playing a major role in convincing casinos to take a chance on the newly formed wpt we have a sensational group of six finalists for you here today what a great way to start the season on the world poker 2. the world poker tour premiered with the wpt 5 diamond world poker classic of the bellagio the game is no limit holder it's a game that takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master mike and fellow commentator vince van patten change the poker world forever with their patented blend of friendly banter and deep poker knowledge ryan rivers doesn't get some help here vance he's going over the falls in a barrel this unlikely partnership would grow into a deep friendship founded on respect admiration and affection in 2005 mike published his first book shuffle up and deal in 2006 mike masterfully won the wsop tournament of champions for one million dollars defeating the two-time wpt champion daniel legranu heads up true to his giving major he donated half of his 1 million dollar purse to charity including the bonaconte fund to cure paralysis a cause he continued to generously support for many years similarly along with linda johnson jan fisher and lisa tenor mike created pokergives.org a non-profit organization providing poker players a dedicated platform for philanthropy i've been interviewed many times during my career and one question a lot of times i ask is who do you think is the most respected person or who do you like most as a poker player and my answer is always the same mike sexton he is the man in 2008 mike received the greatest gift of all his son ty mike's love for tithe brought a new and meaningful dimension to his life as a devoted father mike loved cheering tie on at baseball games and proudly shared photos at the table of tai and their treasured moments together tai was truly his world later that year mike reached a career milestone when he was inducted as the 39th member of the poker hall of fame in 2016 mike published life's a gamble a poker autobiography spanning his four decades in the defining game of his life in november of the same year mike with the ladies yes i called mike reached his third of four wpt final tables and won wpt montreal main event best in a field of 648 entries to win nearly 318 000 and making him officially a wpt champion let's hear it one more time for the great mike sexton unsurprisingly he gave his championship belt to die with 15 career cashes in wpt tournaments totaling nearly one million dollars mike is ranked 216th overall in wpt earnings and 39th in wpt final table appearances in total mike amassed more than 6.7 million dollars in live tournament winnings in 2017 after 15 landmark seasons with the world poker tour mike left to rejoin party poker as their chairman closing out a career with wpt that remains a huge part of his legacy in the industry that same year mike was named a recipient of the wpt honors i'm extremely humbled and honored to be receiving this award the wpt's highest distinction awarded to members of the poker industry in celebration and appreciation of exceptional contributions made to the world poker tour and the poker community as a whole [Music] in july the wpt renamed its iconic wpt champions cup the mike sexton wpt champions cup in honor of mike's unparalleled influence on the organization and the poker world to his friends mike was known as a humble man and a kind and generous soul [Music] never without a smile on his face and always game for a new adventure mike was never too busy to share a laugh stop take a picture with a fan or a fact to which many of his friends can attest take your money on the golf course they might only bet one dollar two dollars or lunch or beers but everybody gambles on the golf course that's the fun of it and mike was a storyteller extraordinaire there was nothing he loved more than joyfully regaling evil listeners with boisterous tales from his days coming up in poker when he was seated at the table with the legends like his good friends doyle brunson amarillo slim puggy pearson chip reese and stunger at whose funeral mike spoke and served as pallbearer a larger than life personality whose infectious energy enthusiasm and pure love of the game pulled you over when he entered the room mike leaves an outsized legacy on and profound hole in the poker world everybody who is lucky enough to know mike will always remember him fondly as a jubilant once and forever first ambassador of poker one thing that we know is this industry this wonderful thing that has brought us all together we're only going to experience it for so much time soon we'll be gone we will stop we'll get older we will not be there next generation will come and the fact that we could come together celebrate those wonderful people like mike who have made so much of the contribution that we can stop and just say by the grace of god we had a moment where we all came together and we will never stop appreciating just how wonderful the together we make each other the world poker tour is sponsored by club wpt.com never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed good evening everyone and welcome to the world poker tour i'm lynne gilmartin we're thrilled to return to canada's playground poker club where in past seasons we've seen great players fight to the finish and add their name to the champions cup for the past six days the tournament floor has been filled with contenders from all over the globe eager to make their mark on the poker scene [Music] players want to wish all of you the very best of luck in your quest to make it to the final table dealers shovel up and deal good luck players wpt montreal is always a favorite tour stop attracting heavy hitters and hopefuls in full force it's my first time in montreal everybody always talks about uh what a great stop it is casino is great it's a cool spot it's the only event on tour that we have that big belt like a championship prize fight be nice to get that but a little better to get the money montreal native and wpt champions club member eric afriate wanted to keep the belt in canada i just feel that something magic is in the air and things are going to happen with the option to enter or re-enter on any of the three starting days players could adjust their game accordingly if you've got that one bullet you need to be careful with that one bullet but if you're willing to get in there and gamble a little bit that means you can re-enter the next day if you get knocked out as the day went on new faces joined the action and even more hit the rail as play was coming to an end jeff gross who made a deep run here in season 11 was feeling good we're off to a great start and it's an amazing city here in montreal so it's nice to have a few days off if you can jeff was one of the 47 players who would survive and move on to day two leading the way was wpt champ eric afriate who not only found magic in the air he was the only player to bag over 200 000 in chips but no matter how many chips they were bagging they were all excited for two days off in montreal on day 1b the playground poker club filled up with new arrivals including last year's runner-up daryl fish obviously looking for my first wpt title still would be really sweet plus a number of busted day 1a players taking another shot wpt champ will falla brought his poker loving pal nfl champ richard seymour to one of his favorite stops but like many others will's mind was on the belt i was the guy that pushed him into picking that as the trophy so i really am emotional about that though season 12 wpt montreal champ derrick rosenbarger back for the first time since his victory already has a belt i uh wear it every day actually no i'm joking and was working his way towards a second around the room everyone was making moves trying to grow their stacks and anyone hitting the rail would have one last chance on day one c [Music] of the day's 213 entries 88 players survived and smooth runs sent a few to the top of the leaderboard just made plenty of fresh faces joined the field on the third and final starting day season nine wpt player of the year andy frankenberger would love to add the belt to his collection i try not to look at it because when you want something too bad you don't play your best but that is a very cool belt with so much at stake before long the day 1c field surpassed 200 entries and was still climbing armand king better known as the oyster king is a playground mainstay i don't have to win to play i play because i love playing even with the tables packed it was easy to spot all the canadians giving it their best shot i can tell whether a canadian person or not just because i don't know if you've seen south park but you can see there's actually like a line between their head when registration drew to a close 300 new entries were added bringing the total to 648 entries 81 players would share in a prize pool topping 2 million canadian dollars with the champion claiming over 400 000 [Music] as a full moon rose over playground poker club some players saw their time here come to a bitter end and the remaining short stacks were hoping for a lucky break as the clock ticked down and the day came to an end 139 players were still in the hunt for the wpt montreal title including many who have had their share of success on the wpt stage but it was daniel mahor who found himself on the top of the leaderboard and he knew there was still more work to do four more days to play and it's gonna be a long grueling throat ahead it was a beautiful day in montreal and all the day one survivors returned to start day two with a long battle for the belt ahead i'm pumped i have a good feeling about this room so we'll see in a three-handed pot mike sexton was all in for his tournament life holding nines but was in bad shape against jake schwartz's aces and david quang's suited ace king a nine ball in a corner after a flop with two diamonds sexton's fate was all but sealed but the nine of hearts on the river was the one outer mike needed still alive the field continued to thin with a number of players ending their run in montreal the money bubble was approaching and most players were feeling the pressure except of course those successfully growing their stacks i mean i'm quite happy about that man that's probably the best thing i've played today during hand for hand play all eyes were on akshay sutar who was all in and just needed his jacks to hold but after an ace on the flop he would fall just short of cashing at playground poker i think it's exciting just going deep i'll get there someday i guess with the remaining 81 players finally in the money chips were flying and the flurry of eliminations continued i wanted the belt i really wanted the belt but maybe next time as play wound down for the day just 50 players remained including two of last season's final tablists eyeing another deep run i have some nightmares about you know being so close to winning that illustrious belt but it's still possible so the dream is definitely still alive and with canadian emma zymovich on his tail belgian michael gaffey would lead the way into day three coming into day three the shorter stacks were prepared to take some chances i need a double up i'm feeling positive and i've got a lot of good karma coming my way so poker girls will tell short stack got to ramp it up today two hands away from 360 000 so i like my chances i'm gonna have to get it in probably the first round for sure i gotta double up right away and justin liberto was eager to take advantage i feel motivated and ready to take out my friend jake here of course andy frankenberger knows that you can't build your stack if you aren't in your seat the antes and blinds wait for no one early action proved to be fast and furious and in a three-handed part two more had their tournament life on the line our own mike sexton led the way with pocket aces justin landed a fourth diamond on the turn but mike's aces helped and he took all the chips a triple up here just like i needed the morning mystery was solved when andy frankenberger finally arrived toting bags of his favorite montreal bagels to share with the field had to get the bagels cost me a few blinds though so i hope you enjoy them just like that with so much on the line any hand could bring victory or defeat it was make or break time when bold moves were being made i could win the tournament right now let's go with varying degrees of success justin liberto got it in good bad shape but it just kept getting worse leaving justin to cheer on his roommate for this trip i'm confident jake look at him look he's good looking and he's very good more would fall before the day was over leaving 17 players to fight for the final table dakota van dyne had the shortest stack but no complaints you're doing the best i can it's my first time so pretty excited i guess second on the leaderboard for the second day in a row but samuel gagnon owned the top chip position more than a million ahead 16 to beat and it's gonna be a long day tomorrow for sure [Music] seventeen players made their way back to playground poker club to contend for a wpt title and despite the pressure day four started fairly light-hearted is it good to be late like i need to be like the main chips as you have i can't be late but things got serious pretty quickly it looked like mike sexton may be the next one headed to the payout desk not the hand i wanted to see when he was all in and called by emma zymovich but mike paired his king on the flop and to his relief it held every day have i drawn somebody to stay alive this time four days in a row emma busted out jason mann with a runner runner straight and jason would have to settle for 14th place in this tournament for the second season in a row then a surging mike sexton took alex keating's last few chips at least i get bust out by mike's sentence after a few more eliminations the remaining 10 players were at one table with just four eliminations to go dealershaven deal emma and benny chen wielded their towering stacks bringing the field down to seven samuel gagnon who started the day as chip leader shoved tens from the button and was heartbroken when mike sexton called holding pocket jacks mike's jax held sending samuel home on the tv bubble i don't regret any decision i've been like guarded like and so the final table was set with an unpredictable frenchman three tenacious canadians and two impressive americans all looking for their first world poker tour title tonight's trey magnifique final table from playground poker club starts after [Music] this [Music] i've never been on a final table of a big event like this one i'd love to have my name on that cup it would be a dream come true i'm ecstatic with the last year i've had in poker and it's just more and more important to me that i close one out if i double up i'm like right amongst contention so i should be able to push my way through [Music] i'm pretty confident going in this finally i've been a couple deep friends before it's a pretty tough table i'm gonna have to run good to be able to win this let's get lucky honestly i want the belt i want to be the first woman with the belt and i think i have a really good advantage once a wpt champion always a wpt champion i'd certainly like to add that to my resume i've got the best shot i've ever had to do it today so let's see what happens we are in for a good one tonight i am so excited for this final table with our own mike sexton leading the way so joining vince van patten in the booth tonight is tony dunst now vince how thrilling is it to see mike sexton back at a wpt final table well lynn it's very exciting the great ambassador of poker the hall of famer mike sexton has made the final table as a chip leader for years mike has been saying the chip leaders have such a big advantage they can push people around and he's right well tonight he has a chance to prove that he is higher than a hippie at woodstock very very exciting can he do it thanks vince and tony who do you think is going to be mike's toughest competition well and you gotta love mike sexton's spot here tonight but you know what emma zimovich is really not far behind him in ships i played with her on day one of the tournament and she really impressed me with how aggressive and capable she was so you know what i expect her to bring the heat here at this final table absolutely we're in for a good one thanks guys and before the players took their seats we caught up with our man of the hour mike sexton i think i have the experiences of what it takes to win you know i think i have a good clock on all the players at the table you know i want to win that championship belt because it is so cool my son saw it ty he said dad get that for me so i'd like to win it for him will mike sexton win his first wpt title or will someone else hoist up the championship belt play is about to begin so let's head down to the table let's look at the club wpt chip count mike sexton out in front with 6.2 million and the rest behind him winner will take home canadian 425 000 tony winner also gets their name on the wpt champion's cup and receives a beautiful hublot watch absolutely gorgeous the andes are ten thousand blinds forty and eighty action first on benny chen restaurant manager from canada then he broke into the poker scene by winning the millionaire maker at the world series of poker in 2014 well he has raised it ilan buzana goes out mike sexton also going out and now emma emma finds king 10 suited on the button here and looks like she's reaching for raising chips i'm a little surprised by that vince a lot of players like to call in position with suited broadway hands that emma wants to play for more jake schwartz going out now now dear he's a businessman from toronto folding back on benny benny's in a difficult spot here small pairs are awkward to begin with and especially facing re-raises out of position and he does make the fold to emma so i think that's a good discipline fold there and emma setting the tone at our final table right away emma zymovich from canada has a masters in political communication what a tough player takes down hand number one now we move on ilan bhujina from france nicknamed face first to act here he'll fold the king three mike sexton also going away lon spent the summer sleeping on the couch in our house in las vegas really got to know him a couple of years ago back then i must really know the man oh yeah used to make him breakfast jake on the button with jack 10 he's gonna limp into nadir who picks up ace jack that dear's a businessman out of canada married with three children come on he's gonna push all in the deer one of our short stacks here rips it in shoving possibly at the right time betty going out and back on jake schwartz can't take the heat that deer is gonna take this one down in congo interesting backstory furniture picked up poker while he was living in hungary biggest cash ever before this for nadir was only 25 000 and actually a friend convinced nadir to play a satellite to get this tournament he did so now he's at the final table all my friends are in the booth and two of them are running late quick by emma now jake schwartz with a queen nine all my friends are working here might as well be home court advantage for you now mike sexton always has home court advantage on the world poker tour around the horn to benny chen it's like playing away you know it's like playing at a staple center and get the clippers or something with just a 9-3 what's he up to here benny apparently thinks that mike and elon don't defend their blinds wide enough because he's raising 9-3 offseat here on the button elon goes out and now mike sexton ace four diamonds makes the call so mike sexton involved in his first pot here at the final table let's see what happens ace for mike on the flop not much here for benny and mike checks the aces benny with zip and pip is going to make the continuation bet just walking right into mike sexton then he's going to fire once you and i i assume he would shut down on later streets but mike not going to give him a chance to get there he's going to raise his flop nice interesting raise by mike but benny's forced to fold and mike's going to take that one down can't push around mike we're coming back for more at playground poker club in just a moment looking to get in the action while you're on the go yes then join me and other real players on play wpt and since you need to earn your chips it's not just coin flips and all ends at play wpt play wpt poker where skill matters [Music] welcome back to montreal the playground poker club six players competing for this title here tonight mike sexton out in front with 6.7 million in chips right behind him emma zymovich and then the next four players only separated by seven blinds in total so from third to sixth anyone's game but mike and emma way out in front right now jake schwartz from fort lauderdale tough professional folds his hand nadir lagi goes out as well now benny chen the restaurant man from canada also folding a lawn out on the button over to mike sexton with pocket fives in the small blind yeah mike picking up a little pair and he makes a raised total of 190 into emma emma jack six of spades here in position definitely going to a flop so heads up between our two chip leaders here's the flop and there's a king 4-3 all spades emma has hit the flush wow this flop is all emma and it's actually not bad for mike so he's going to make a bet here of 200 000. and emma of course not going anywhere just calling gonna string him along go into the turn nine of clubs just great for emma don't do it mike don't don't fire another bullet no oh he's doing it mike gonna fire out 350 here and now emma oh she's going to drama school put on a little performance here oh what was me what am i gonna do with my hand uh i'm gonna raise 760 to go from amazonovich mike is getting the feeling he knows now he's behind oh he's pretending like he's gonna call we know better good fold by mike there amazing take it down the pot pick it up a flush poker is really tough at first emotionally financially it can be tough i had a lot of friends were playing so i learned and then i was stubborn and i kept learning i'm not like a mad poker player i'm more alive poker player it's a social game you can talk during the hands people sometimes gave up information without knowing that i can adjust to people and i think it's my biggest advantage very impressive only 26 years old you know her lifetime earnings at poker are only 24 000 so she's just getting started yeah emma a regular here at playground poker club up in montreal nadir going out and now benny chen always aggressive has picked up a pair of fours seems like he likes his hand yeah he'll raise it to 160 but right behind him ilan has a pair of nines elan gonna eye benny's stack and benny doesn't have that many chips here so it looks like elan is gonna re-raise and try and get their stacks in the middle he makes it 4 10 total but look at this right behind him mike sexton with a big pair of kings gonna bump it up to over 1.1 million not gonna play slow i know emma's got a pair of aids but can't do it jake schwartz with a suited connector but gotta get away i fold benny goes out elon ejects his hand just immediately folds so mike with the cold four bet and pocket kings he's going to take down that pot we believe in you hold on only had about 23 or 24 blinds to start the hand mike sexton maybe didn't get the value out of those kings but he said i'll take that part i don't want anybody hitting on me let's expect too much equity not crushed enough allah now going to look at a pair of sixes back to back pairs for a lawn elon's 28 years old grew up in france they nicknamed him face well he has raised it and now mike going out emma with ace three is gonna re-raise emma is relentless with her pre-flop progression she is jake going out in a deer now goes away benny chen will look down and a queen seven can't play that don't find him elon has really dropped his poker face here usually when people start talking it's an interesting one to play this one means they're not that strong unless they put you to a decision and then they start talking but when the decision's on you and you're talking it usually means you're not that all strong and he's going to push all in milan aware of the fact that emma is really aggressive pre-flop and he shows her a sex he says don't play with me she just tried to punch against me so bad trust me there's more chickens than me in that world for sure you have more balls than me okay listen i'm not call marking and i'm not folding i will punt and bust are you yes that's why i play cards elance rail says please settle relax no i'm j i just know what you have it's quite easy you know people from france are like emma good luck and bust you on please like even people that i don't know my friends just ask me that okay we'll see if i achieve that goal you're not in good shape if you say that [Laughter] i think i might propose to emma after this welcome back to montreal and the playground poker club here at the wpt montreal the great mike sexton the hall of famer out in front with 6.7 million in chips yeah it's still the mike and emma show here a stranglehold on the chips on this table for the moment mike this time with ace seven in first position and he's gonna raise to 160. it's quite easy it's quite easy i don't know that's what he just said over to jake queen deuce not going to play now with my deer i said to my friend in israel yesterday on the phone i told him i think that girl is going to change a porsche against me tomorrow and so i was all i almost folded my hand and then i was like nah she's not smart enough to this people don't change you know people don't change they stay the same it's gonna be good a couple falls but now nadir with ace four will make this call benny chen loves to mix it up but not with an eight six so i i have one advice to give you if you wanna if you wanna like learn poker don't ask like uh ballet danso trust me that's what i'm saying you guys should only be able to talk in english just because that makes it much more entertaining to look forward to what i said is if she wanna advice about poker don't ask a dancer that's all i said three players pretty much a dancer or like and the flop is a king three deuce so the talkative man gets his kings he checks and mike sexton now with a four flush it's a little something for everyone on this board top pair for elan got shot for nadir there and mike with the nut flush draw has made a bet and elan just quickly folds wow mike sexton proving that old school can still be strong school [Applause] well they're giving mike sexton a lot of respect to this final table they don't want to mix it up with them and we move on action this time on emma she's got a nothing hand won't play it jake schwartz now jake this time with a king queen and he gets to play with a raise 160 total everybody folding behind him so far mike sexton i'll let you go this time seems a little bit tight to be folding jack 8 to a min raise i'm gonna give you one pass there not generous jake schwartz he was in a little bit of a controversy if you go back to the last final table he made how much did you start the hand with approximately 2.5 and actually it was incorrect he had about three million left he had about three million yeah that call jake was a little upset all right i guess i guess it's cool to angle at final tables for hundreds of thousands of dollars all right we're cheating these days it's cool you said something about him too we did a raw deal segment about that hand and he didn't care for that one careful let me know about it on [Music] the twitter time i made a wpd final table tony ripped me apart and called me a semi-professional poker player then there's our semi-pro jake schwartz felt like it was a shot at me personally i've been playing professionally for eight years now almost i do well i have a lot of results we had a little beef over that but my results are on par with his in a shorter period of time hopefully he doesn't rip me apart too bad on tv but yeah it's cool [Music] tony say you're sorry you're out of line gotta do my job vince oh no gotta pay those bills he's made 1.2 million total earnings not a semi-pro tony parr bro you got like 40 of my earnings i love that in a couple years digging deeper and deeper i'm happy to see jake do well and it wasn't anything personal but if you land on the raw deal you gotta understand you are in the crosshairs nobody and we move on benny looks down at a pair of eights 160. well jake schwartz can prove himself big time tonight if he should take down this title i think he'll be changing your wording after that yeah we'll see how make me eat my words well benny's raised to 160 a few folds and rounded jake there's your man gonna make the call here with ace five in the big blind so heads up between a couple of our shorter stacks and we go to a flop of nine five deuce so this could be problematic for jake yeah he's caught a piece of that pair of fives he's gonna check benny in the lead here gonna follow through with the bet jake with second pair and a backdoor wheel draw he's going to make the call then he says he wants to keep sharp at the table never eats at the table 10 of diamonds on the turn no help for schwartz he's going to check again and benny also checking down the river we go oh three of a kind of a benny didn't need it but he got it jake schwartz nice check ben he's lining up the chips of course with the set so now the question for jake is will he pay off on this river yeah he's gonna bet 3 30. he's gonna be mad if this is a set of eights he called his hand jake essentially saying i think you either have a set or a bluff this isn't an easy decision for jake he knows that his hand looks like a five and that his opponent might try and bluff him off of that don't call the guy's hand know it and then call it jake oh but that's exactly what he's doing jake is gonna pay off here against the hand that he called out a lot of pain there but jake schwartz to the light of tony dunst and betty chen gonna take that one down he called it how strong is that i'll let you off this time jake i think i call that river six players remain it's the amazing crescent here [Music] there are many reasons to sign up for a club wpt membership one hundred thousand to be exact play for a share of one hundred thousand dollars in cash and prizes every month at club wpt.com tonight's episode is sponsored by you blow the official watch of the world poker tour and by dr pepper the official soft drink of the world poker tour [Music] with all the great service and food here at playground poker club it's easy to see why people from all over the globe come here for world-class poker so while english and french are the official languages here we wanted to know what other languages are being spoken off the belt a little birdie told me that you might speak some portuguese yeah yeah good luck is a boy sort sheep that's always good for poker yeah for sure say a little something for me in punjabi okay for my vancouver montreal poker cam um can we get you to say something in german one well tell me a little bit of something in hebrew i'd love to hear it in montreal oh that sounds amazing now you tell me something in turkish garcia and hawk listen how about chokes wow understood every word thank you you speak a pretty interesting language yes i speak git sun it's a first nation language from northern bc all right can you maybe share a little of your language with us jimbarwin is welcome and uh luke alum wpt and what does that mean i love the world poker tour awesome thank you so much oh you can speak english and french here at playground poker club while on the table what about you vince speak any foreign languages yeah well actually spanish and language of bad beats but this is very international very cosmopolitan it is a great place playground poker club you should come out action on the hall of famer mike sexton he falls and now emma she has picked a big slick ace king of spades am i taking a moment here before she reaches her raising chips and she will move it up to 180 total jake schwartz with h3 gets out of the way nadir also folds benny chen restaurant man goes out and now ilan has that attractive ace ten of diamonds hello doesn't have a ton of chips here i'm a little surprised he didn't just go all in pre-flop makes the call oh look at this flop ace eight seven they both hit aces and of course emma out in front with the ace king he's in trouble now there's a bunch of draws on this flop that emma can put elan on as well so hard to imagine that she doesn't get a bunch of his chips here she only bets 140 with the ace king top pair downsizing a little bit from her pre-flop raise and elan he's gonna check raise elan making it 410 000 to go here emma getting exactly what she wanted alan really doesn't have many chips he started his hand with about 20 blinds does she put him in now just got a call yeah i like this call vince i think she can call here and then if the turn's not a club we can play for the rest but elon doesn't have a ton behind there we go it's a nine of hearts but two flush draws on the board now and he's open-ended though olin and there he goes he's all in for about a pot size bet and emma has not said call yet i'm confused the nine is kind of a scary card straights two pair she could and he thinks he's out in front elan is dead certain he has the best hand here and if you told elon what emma had here he wouldn't believe it wow oh my goodness she's laying this down my goodness well it's the rivalry between them the french trash talking something weird and psychological just happened there vince because i don't understand why i'm folded do you enjoy it with yours back i just enjoy when people give me chips and try to just like let the ego play but that's you know what's funny is that you look the exact way you play you look like a woman one a bully man and you play exactly that way be unpredictable that's my advice for today i'm not sure whose ego is in play here vince but i don't think it's emma's welcome to the final table guys this experience is amazing this experience is amazing with it well put some friends in canada moving on a couple folds and you see emma taking a hand off there i think usually she would raise the button with eight seven but sometimes you play a hand that leaves you asking questions and you decide to take one off jake very short and small blind he's going to go all in uh oh dear with ace king he will call immediately and jake is at risk jake hasn't had many cards tonight at all his third time at a final table on the world polka tour he had a shove there he's up against the deer's ace king let's go to the flop ace king jack on the flop and zona dear hits top two pair jake now looking for a jack or running broadway for a chop but he is in bad shape here dire straits going to the turn could jake get extremely lucky deuce of diamonds not gonna be there for jake jake looking for one of the two remaining jacks in the deck otherwise he is our sixth place finisher he's going for the two outer will he get it nope check ten that's gonna do it for jake so the first one to go is jake schwartz here in montreal at the playground poker club he'll take home 81 000 a big effort by the man that's made three final tables on the wpt let's go talk to him i'm disappointed but i've been more disappointed after busting other wbts so i'll live with this one so jake schwartz is the first to fall here at playground poker club with five formidable players left this is far from over we'll be right back with more action from wpt montreal [Music] seeing this album actually here i am playing a burgata that was a really fun stop and playing at clubwpt.com is just such a great practice for your poker game i love playing on club wp i know it's so much fun here i am at seminole hard rock i'm sitting in my bikini how much better can it be you know yeah you can play on the go it really does help you learn this is the most recent stuff i just did in jacksonville i ran really deep i ran like the deepest i've ever run i think of my whole entire like poker life i've really improved my game a lot by playing on club wpt.com that's like my secret i feel like tuba took her game to the next level and you can too sign up at clubwpt.com today and never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed the great mike sexton out in front with close to 6.5 million in chips yeah our blinds are up to fifty thousand one hundred thousand with a 15k ante mike sexton is putting some distance between himself and the rest of the field 425 000 canadian for the winner who will take it down trying to get that sweet sweet maple money all right emma here with eight of spades going up to 225 and a deer right behind her as king 10 suited he's gonna call [Music] and now benny chen the restaurant guy from canada doesn't play it elon going out mike sexton wants no part of it we're gonna see the flop jack eight versus king ten and the flop is a king five deuce great for the deer yeah nice flop for nadir but it's also one that will make emma bet and she's gonna go really small here just 125. a little tickler i like her choice in sizing though i think the deer is a guy who probably won't float very much on the flop he's gonna be pretty fitter fold and this time he wants to raise it up with his top pair so emma finds out where she's at very cheap the deer will take down this pot yeah very happy he's a businessman out of toronto got this tournament through a satellite a friend of us said why don't you try it now he's gotta love it regardless what happens today nadir will be the one with the best parlay getting in on a satellite full by elon sexton the chip leader also won't play over to emma with 10 8 on the button she gets involved with a lot of hands and once again she's going to make a 200 000 with just a junk hand 10-8 but nadir with a pair of sevens smoothly calls now with benny in the big blind he might want to speculate after there's money in there he's in the big blind with just a jack three of spades does so so three-handed poker here's the flop it's a seven nine deuce all diamonds but three of a kind from the deer set for the deer on the flop open-ended draw for emma nothing for benny and emma gonna make another one of her patented small bets a lot of the players have a diamond in their hands the deer makes the smooth call again benny gets out of the way going to the turn boom another diamond now that'll slow everyone down yeah the deer's gotta hate that but emma hates it more she's gonna check they both check river card is a deuce filling up the deer yeah that's the one he was looking for but he's not going to get any more money 10 high for emma and there's a bet 325 emma can't compete lays down the hand so the non-professional nadir la ji 57 years old the businessman out of toronto taking down that pot he's having a ball and with that hand we say au revoir from wpt montreal and playground poker club for vimspan patton tony dunst and everyone at the world poker tour i'm lynne gilmartin see you next time on the wpt [Music] well the great mike sexton is gone my buddy my partner what an exceptional human being you were and are what a father to ty and all your family members the world will not be the same without you we love you mike rest in peace brother [Music] mike was born september 22 1947 in shelbyville indiana a midwestern boy to his core mike grew up in dayton ohio and attended the ohio state university where he earned a degree in public recreation competed in gymnastics and became a die-hard buckeyes fan in 1970 mike joined the us army and was assigned to the 82nd airborne division as a paratrooper while in the army mike not only served his country but also taught ballroom dancing a strong lead on the dance floor mike brought joy and energy whenever he broke out his impressive ballroom skills after his enlistment ended mike first found work as a salesman his true calling came though when he discovered how well he could do at playing poker and he took up that game professionally in 1977. in 1985 mike's love of the game inevitably brought him to las vegas just four years later in 1989 he won the coveted world series of poker bracelet in the fifteen hundred dollar seven card stud event in 1998 long before the poker craze that grew into today's industry mike took a page from the pga and masterminded the wsop invitation only tournament of champions featuring poker's elite one of his proudest achievements in 2001 mike became an original co-founder of party poker an enterprise that has stood the test of time and remains one of the top online poker sites in the world today a year later mike started his career with the world poker tour welcome to the debut of the world poker tour with his can-do spirit mike was more than a commentator playing a major role in convincing casinos to take a chance on the newly formed wpt we have a sensational group of six finalists for you here today what a great way to start the season on the world poker 2. the world poker tour premiered with the wpt5 diamond world poker classic at the bellagio the game is no limit holding it's a game that takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master mike and fellow commentator vince van patten changed the poker world forever with their patented blend of friendly banter and deep poker knowledge ryan rivers doesn't get some help here vance he's going over the balls in a barrel this unlikely partnership would grow into a deep friendship founded on respect admiration and affection in 2005 mike published his first book shuffle up and deal in 2006 mike masterfully won the wsop tournament of champions for one million dollars defeating the two-time wpt champion daniel legranu heads up true to his giving major he donated half of his one million dollar purse to charity including the bonacanti fund to cure paralysis a cause he continued to generously support for many years similarly along with linda johnson jan fisher and lisa tenor mike created pokergives.org a non-profit organization providing poker players a dedicated platform for philanthropy i've been interviewed many times during my career and one question a lot of times they ask is who do you think is the most respected person or who do you like most as a poker player and my answer is always the same mike sexton he is the man [Music] in 2008 mike received the greatest gift of all his son ty mike's love for tithe brought a new and meaningful dimension to his life as a devoted father mike loved cheering tie on at baseball games and proudly shared photos at the table of tai and their treasured moments together tai was truly his world later that year mike reached a career milestone when he was inducted as the 39th member of the poker hall of fame in 2016 mike published life's a gamble a poker autobiography spanning his four decades in the defining game of his life in november of the same year mike with the ladies yes i called mike reached his third of four wpt final tables and one wpt montreal main event best in a field of 648 entries to win nearly 318 thousand dollars and making him officially a wpt champion let's hear one more time for the great fight sexton unsurprisingly he gave his championship belt to die with 15 career cashes in wpt tournaments totaling nearly 1 million mike has ranked 216th overall in wpt earnings and 39th in wpt final table appearances in total mike amassed more than 6.7 million dollars in live tournament winnings in 2017 after 15 landmark seasons with the world poker tour mike left to rejoin party poker as their chairman closing out a career with wpt that remains a huge part of his legacy in the industry that same year mike was named a recipient of the wpt honors i'm extremely humbled and honored to be receiving this award the wpt's highest distinction awarded to members of the poker industry in celebration and appreciation of exceptional contributions made to the world poker tour and the poker community as a whole [Music] in july the wpt renamed its iconic wpt champions cup the mike sexton wpt champions cup in honor of mike's unparalleled influence on the organization and the poker world to his friends mike was known as a humble man and a kind and generous soul [Music] never without a smile on his face and always game for a new adventure mike was never too busy to share a laugh stop take a picture with a fan or a fact to which many of his friends can attest take your money on the golf course they might only bet one dollar two dollars or lunch or beers but everybody gambles on the golf course that's the fun of it and mike was a storyteller extraordinaire there was nothing he loved more than joyfully regaling eager listeners with boisterous tales from his days coming up in poker when he was seated at the table with legends like his good friends doyle brunson amarillo slim puggy pearson chip reese and stunger at whose funeral mike spoke and served as pallbearer a larger than life personality whose infectious energy enthusiasm and pure love of the game pulled you over when he entered the room mike leaves an outsized legacy on and profound hole in the poker world everybody who is lucky enough to know mike will always remember him fondly as a jubilant once and forever first ambassador of poker one thing that we know is this industry this wonderful thing that has brought us all together we're only going to experience it for so much time soon we'll be gone we will stop we'll get older we will not be there next generation will come and the fact that we could come together celebrate those wonderful people like mike who have made so much of a contribution that we can stop and just say by the grace of god we had a moment where we all came together and we will never stop appreciating just how wonderful the together we made each other the world poker tour is sponsored by club wpt.com never lose a dime playing poker guaranteed [Music] once war everyone i'm lynn gilmartin and this is the world poker tour wpt montreal here at the playground poker club tends to attract some of the best poker players on the planet and season 15 is no exception with mike sexton at the final table i turn to my colleagues vince van patten and tony dunst for more analysis well len i'll tell you something our very own the great mike sexton is the chip leader at this point he is playing aggressive he is very stoic great poker face but you know what amazonovich she's tough and she's the only one that's pushing mike around yeah you know she is playing really tough here tonight vince but the only player to get the best of her is elan boujounai they got tangled in a big pot before the break olin and elana actually got her to lay down the best hand i just enjoy when people give me chips and try to just like let the ego play i don't want to discount him either very experienced player could be making some moves at this final table thanks guys there's a stunning belt a huge cash prize membership in the coveted wpt champions club and much more on the line so let's get back to the game that's right five players competing as you can see from the club wpt chip count mike sexton out in front with 6.2 million and there's what they're playing for the winner will take home 425 000 canadian currency and on top of that they'll receive a beautiful hublot watch plus an entry into our fifteen thousand dollar tournament of champions at seminole hard rock at the end of the season the annie's are fifteen thousand blinds are fifty and a hundred action goes to the chip leader mike sexton he's got ace queen raising it up 225 emma goes out the deer the local non-professional also folding benny chen restaurant manager also folding as well milan going to make the call with 10-7 born in france ilan 28 years old and he mostly plays in europe and the flop is well eight five four is a lot better for alan than mike neither of them really connects here but elon has a gut shot they go check check mike's surprisingly checking that turd cart a9 yeah i like that check from mike there he really doesn't have much here not many cards would be good for him to fire a second barrel on that uh texture connects pretty well with elon's big blind range so not surprised to see mike check back and now elon with an open-ended straight draw he's going to make a pretty big bet here he fires 415 000 out there i don't really see how mike can continue this is mike's third final table on the world poker tour championship has eluded him but he's going to make the fold here it's a well-played hand i know that alon was technically behind but there's not a lot mike can do with just ace high on such a coordinated board i should have moved in on the flop i guess again there is no way i'm holding that hand at no point okay well that's my kind of flop you should notice should have moved in on the flop mike instead you guys are giggling and you lost moving on to benny chen the restaurant manager from prince edward island he's got a bracelet to his name and he's got a pair of aces that always feels good not only having pocket aces but having them on a short stack when you so badly need the double up he says he never eats at the poker table while he's playing he wants to stay sharp must be hungry elan going out mike going out and we move around to emma she's got ace king not a good situation for emma here big cooler and and benny is so short i i don't know how she can get away from this hand oh she's going to raise 6 25 she's made it back on benny who has the nuts at this point of course yeah benny all in insta call by emma just an unfortunate cooler for her well the only good news for her is that she will not go broke if she loses the hand she has about twice as much as benny she also won only though and she still has a chance five cards to come benny a big favorite at this point he loves it see sort of a resigned smile from emma knows there wasn't anything she could do there and here comes the flop queen three deuce on the flop not much help for emma here she could go 4-5 for a chop jack ten for a win going to the turn it is a king okay well a king on the turn will give her two outs for the win she could put a horrific beat on benny with running kings here otherwise he's gonna double up well the lady needs some lady luck on the river let's take a peek no seven of clubs on the river no help and benny chen gets the crucial double up the top spot in this season's hublot wpt player of the year race has been dominated by benjamin zamani who with three final table showings has racked up 2500 points tonight's champion will receive 1 000 points and every cash counts towards the players total so we'll have to see who emerges to give ben some competition this season action continues now so let's get down to the table five-way action mike sexton out in front with about 6.2 million at this time short stack at this point is emma with about 1.9 back down to it's on mike looks down at an 8-7 releases that over to emma with king jack just took a bad hit on the last hand but this time trying to come back makes it 225 to go nadir with a pair of knives right behind her and the deer calls on the button i see little of his inexperience taking effect there most players would re-raise pocket nines especially against someone as aggressive as emma the deer opts to just call wants to reduce the risk here and go to a flop first two-way action flop is a king 5-3 so emma finally hit the kings seen her vet really small in these kind of situations before 130. and she does the same so balancing very well nadir gonna make the call with his pocket nines so emma in the lead going to the turn fourth street four spades and wow i don't like to slow down a little surprised that she's checking now it is hard for nadir to catch up if he's behind 180 i like this bet from the deer he just believes he has the best hand he's trying to protect it a little bit thinks he's in front after that check but she's gonna call kings with the jack kicker going down to the river that's 10 means nothing she's gonna play a pretty conservative checks it check check and so emma's going to take this one down suffered a setback from the previous hand and race king ran into aces but here she gets some of it back emma zimovich 26 years old lives in quebec city born in sarajevo and learned poker from friends her biggest cash before this was only 15 000 so big moment for her she is gonna crush that today and i said try to bluff me just wanna make sure you have a king that's why i checked the river nice and action right back on emma let's take a peek at her cards ace four so you're opening ace four here first to act i'm a very aggressive player over to benny he's got king 10 on the button and he's aware of the fact that emma likes to open so many pots so he's giving her a assessment here and reaching for chips he wants to three bet light make it 550 000 to go but oh right behind him milan has a pair of queens wow what a time to get him he's about to punish these two elon business hitting the queens 28 years old out of france and how to play him well he is going to race makes it a total of 9.75 and they are falling behind emma wants no part of it back to benny now three point one behind i mean sorry one point six fifty seven 750 760 150 oh sorry about to see these things now this is a really tiny raise but when someone does this for a third of their stack out of position it's usually a cue that they have a really strong hand so well played by benny unfortunately for him elon wakes up with a real hand behind him takes down that pot the club savers guide program saves vip members big money at places they already shop and visit save big win big at club wpt.com [Music] i think i understand the basic math odds as good as anybody but i tell everybody i'm really not a mathematician

Channel: World Poker Tour

Views: 42,957

Rating: 4.8032789 out of 5

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Id: skUS-50uJ2o

Length: 228min 24sec (13704 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020