World Poker Tour Champion Mark Davis Dies at 46
The Alabama native won the 2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, earned three WSOP Circuit rings and finished with more than $2.3 million in live cashes.
Mark Davis died unexpectedly on Saturday at 46. The Alabama native had more than $2.3 million in live tournament cashes, along with a resume anchored by a World Poker Tour title and three WSOP Circuit rings.
According to PokerNews, the Gulf Coast Poker community was mourning his passing. Davis was described as a mainstay and familiar face in card rooms including Choctaw in Oklahoma and Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina, and Michael Graydon wrote on Facebook that the two grew up playing poker together in an old limo shop. Graydon also said Davis “was fierce at the tables but had a huge heart and was there for people when they needed him.”
Davis’s signature result came in 2022 at the $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. He beat a field of 2,010 entries to win $1,000,300, denying Darren Elias a record-extending fifth WPT title after the final table reconvened in Las Vegas at HyperX Esports Arena inside Luxor following a six-week break.
Elias started that final table as chip leader, while Davis began second in chips. The heads-up match ran for about 100 hands, and CardPlayer said Davis eventually pulled ahead after calling a bluff with king-high before finishing the job a few hands later.
There is also a small prize note discrepancy in the reporting. PokerNews’s 2026 obituary described the win as a career-best $1,000,000 score, while its 2022 event report and CardPlayer put the top prize at $1,000,300.
Before that WPT win, Davis had $730,167 in live earnings, and his previous career best was $334,678 from winning the WSOP Circuit Cherokee Main Event at Harrah’s Cherokee. WSOP.com said that event drew 1,402 entries, generated a $2,124,030 prize pool, and earned Davis his first gold ring.
The Cherokee victory also sent him to the Tournament of Champions freeroll in Las Vegas that summer. WSOP.com said Davis started Day 2 with 123,000 chips, had to adjust because he usually preferred a bigger stack, and then beat Adam Ney in a heads-up match that lasted more than two hours.
PokerNews also reported that Davis last cashed just over a week before his death, taking 68th place for $652 in the $400 No-Limit Hold’em Mini Main Event at the Gulf Coast Poker Mid-South Mini-Series in Tunica, Mississippi. The same report said he suffered a stroke and was airlifted to the hospital, where he suffered additional strokes.
