WPT Final Table Preview: WPT Commentator Mike Sexton Leads the Final Six

Photo:  Mike Sexton (left) and Vince Van Patten have been in the WPT commentating booth for all 15 seasons of the World Poker Tour. Today, Sexton’s commentating duties will be handled by WPT Raw Deal Analyst Tony Dunst, because Sexton is chipleader at the final table.

The partypoker.net WPT Montreal final table begins at 4:00 pm ET, and the chipleader is none other than WPT Commentator Mike Sexton.

It’s a televised WPT Final Table (to be aired in 2017), and there will also be a WPT Live Stream on a 30-minute delay with holecards and commentary. As always, there will be live hand-for-hand coverage right here on WPT.com.

Here are the official chip counts for the final six players, followed by the remaining prizepool and player bios:

Seat 1.  Nadir Lalji  –  1,520,000  (19 bb)
Seat 2.  Benny Chen  –  2,480,000  (31 bb)
Seat 3.  Ilan Boujenah  –  2,290,000  (29 bb)
Seat 4.  Mike Sexton  –  6,215,000  (78 bb)
Seat 5.  Ema Zajmovic  –  5,385,000  (67 bb)
Seat 6.  Jake Schwartz  –  1,550,000  (19 bb)

1st:  CAD $425,980*  (US $317,896*)
2nd:  CAD $286,110  (US $213,515)
3rd:  CAD $183,320  (US $136,806)
4th:  CAD $132,750  (US $99,067)
5th:  CAD $102,010  (US $76,127)
6th:  CAD $81,740  (US $61,000)

* First-prize amount includes a US $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com

Seat 1.  Nadir Lalji  –  1,520,000  (19 bb)

Occupation: Business
Career Live Tournament Earnings: US $85,021
Best Cash: US $25,572 (17th in US $5,000 NLHE at the 2015 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III)
WPT Career: 1st cash, 1st WPT Final Table

This is just the fourth WPT event for Lalji, and he’s already made his first WPT Final Table. If he finishes fourth or higher, he’ll more than double his career live tournament earnings.

Seat 2.  Benny Chen  –  2,480,000  (31 bb)

Occupation: Restaurant Manager
Career Live Tournament Earnings: US$1,686,245
Best Cash: US $1,199,104 (1st in 2013 WSOP US $1,500 NLHE Millionaire Maker)
WPT Career: 1st cash, 1st WPT Final Table

While this is the first WPT cash for Chen, he has an impressive resume, with 10 WSOP cashes and a WSOP bracelet. Chen’s bracelet came in the 2013 WSOP Millionaire Maker, where he outlasted a field of 6,343 entries to win nearly US $1.2 million.

More recently (this past May), Chen won the CAD $1,650 NLHE Second Chance event here at the Playground Poker Club, earning CAD $49,585.

Seat 3.  Ilan Boujenah  –  2,290,000  (29 bb)

Occupation: Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings: US $1,558,225
Best Cash: US $409,400 (4th in 2011 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event)
WPT Career: 4th cash, 2nd WPT Final Table

Born in France and raised in Israel, Boujenah is fifth on the all-time money list for Israel with more than US $1.55 million in career live tournament earnings. This is his fourth WPT cash, and Boujenah has finished 11th or higher each time. While he is still looking for his first WPT main tour title, Boujenah did win the 2013 bwin WPT National Gruissan.

Seat 4.  Mike Sexton  –  6,215,000  (78 bb)

Occupation: WPT Commentator
Career Live Tournament Earnings: US $5,893,895
Best Cash: US $1,109,333 (9th in 2012 WSOP $1 Million Big One for One Drop)
WPT Career: 9th cash, 3rd WPT Final Table

Sexton was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009, as much as an ambassador to the game as for his skill as a player. In 1999, Sexton created the Tournament of Champions of Poker, a format that has been replicated by both the WPT and the WSOP, and in 2006, Sexton won the WSOP Tournament of Champions (defeating Daniel Negreanu in a lengthy heads-up battle) to win US $1 million.

Sexton is known throughout the poker world for his fantastic stories from different eras of the game. Many of these stories are compiled in his new book, “Life’s a Gamble.”

Sexton attended Ohio State University on an athletic scholarship in gymnastics. Before he became a professional poker player, Sexton was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army and also taught ballroom dancing.

Sexton didn’t record his first WPT cash until 2010 because his original WPT contract banned him from playing in WPT events so he could fulfill his role as WPT Commentator. For Sexton’s previous two WPT Final Tables, he was replaced in the Commentating Booth by Phil Hellmuth (for the 2013 WPT Venice Poker Festival) and Tony Dunst (for the 2011 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars). Dunst will fill in for him next to Vince Van Patten for this event as well.

On his WPT bio sheet, Sexton wrote: “It’s better to be playing at the final table than commentating on the final table.”

Seat 5.  Ema Zajmovic  –  5,385,000  (67 bb)

Occupation: Public Relations
Career Live Tournament Earnings: US $24,034
Best Cash: US $15,000 (929th in 2016 WSOP Main Event)
WPT Career: 1st cash, 1st WPT Final Table

With this final table, Zajmovic has already guaranteed herself the biggest score of her live tournament career, and she’ll at least triple her career earnings.

Seat 6.  Jake Schwartz  –  1,550,000  (19 bb)

Occupation: Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings: US $1,210,904
Best Cash: US $412,187 (4th in 2015 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic)
WPT Career: 12th cash, 3rd WPT Final Table

This is Jake’s ninth WPT cash in the past two years, and his fourth straight WPT cash in the past two months. A victory here would catapult Jake into third place in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race, while a runner-up finish would still move him up to 11th place on the POY leaderboard.

Schwartz has 23 WSOP cashes in his career, including eight this past summer. On his WPT bio sheet, under Greatest Poker Accomplishment, Jake wrote: “Being called ‘semi-pro’ on The Raw Deal.”