Many people thought it was a sad inevitability. Not long ago, poker professional Mike Sexton announced a diagnoses of prostate cancer. Today he passed in peace at his home, surrounded by those he loved most. Sexton, 72, was a living poker legend, a World Poker Tour commentator, and one of the game’s all-time best ambassadors. He hosted the WPT alongside Vince Van Patten for 15 years. The Indiana-born poker pro also achieved great success on the felt, having cashed for $6.7 million in live tournaments and far more in cash games. Countless members of the poker community are grieving over…

World Poker Tour Transforms Season XVII The World Poker Tour is moving all televised final matches for Season XVII to the eSports Arena at the Luxor Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas. Vegas was the original home of the WPT, and the recently completed eSports Arena will host the finals in style. At a cost of over 20 million dollars, the arena boasts a Hype Tunnel, incredible lighting, and a spectacular viewing experience. The format of the eight televised Main Tour poker events and the Tournament of Champion will be changed to allow a three to six-week hiatus between the…

Bwin.party has reached an agreement to sell the World Poker Tour  to Chinese online game developer OurGame.com for $35mm. Details of the deal were made available via a filing from OurGame. The closing date for the deal is June 25. The deal appears to include all components of WPT, including the live tour, existing episode library, all intellectual property and the subscription-based poker site ClubWPT.com. Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Global Poker Index, called the sale “a tremendous opportunity for poker and for the World Poker Tour,” noting that OurGame has the “entrepreneurial spirit and the cash to help WPT achieve…

Press of Atlantic City – After an 11-year stint in Las Vegas, a high buy-in poker tournament drawing players from as far away as South Africa and Korea has left Sin City for Atlantic City. The reason, organizers say, is the New Jersey’s budding online gambling market. The championship event of the World Poker Tour kicked off Monday at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. Running concurrently with it is the first New Jersey Championship of Online Poker, now the largest online tournament ever held in the U.S. since the legalization of online gambling. The World Poker Tour event is sponsored…