Hoyt Corkins: The Alabama Cowboy Sits Atop the Poker World

In late January, Hoyt Corkins came out on top of the World Poker Tour Southern Poker Championship, besting a tough field of 208 players for the top prize of $739,486. The end result wasn’t a surprise to many in the poker world. After all, this was his second WPT win and sixth appearance at a televised final table. Throw in his two World Series of Poker bracelets and more than $5 million in career tournaments earnings, and anyone can see that Corkins is easily one of the best players in the game today.

That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment, considering the fact that Corkins walked away from the game entirely 18 years ago. It would take more than a decade for him to make his return to the poker spotlight, but when he did, he made sure that he wouldn’t soon be forgotten.

Poker in His Blood
Not many players can say that they were born to play poker, but Corkins fits that description. While growing up in Glenwood, Alabama, he learned the game from his father, who was somewhat of a poker pro himself when he wasn’t working on the family farm.

“I come from a long line of poker players,” he explained. “My father played professionally and my grandfather played in the ’30s. So, I have deep roots in poker and have been around it all my life. My father ran games when I was 8 years old. Back in those days, it was all about seven-card stud, five-card stud, and draw poker. I picked up the game from watching him play.”

Listening to Corkins talk about his family’s poker history, you begin to realize just how far the game has progressed over the last century. “My grandfather once told me about how they used to play poker back in the ’30s,” he said. “They would get together with some matches. They’d divide them up and use them like we use chips today. The only thing was, you didn’t have to pay for your matches to start with. You just had to buy them off the other players once you ran out.”

Corkins no doubt experienced the ups and downs of having a strong poker influence in his life, but he did not have to endure long stretches of his father being out on the road. “My father started off as a farmer, but he slowed down and got more into poker as the years went by. He was more of a local gambler. He used to play in two counties in southern Alabama. Back in the day, you had to know who the sheriff was in each county to avoid being arrested. It used to be that the sheriff of Crenshaw County was against the game, and the sheriff of Pike County was either for the game or didn’t care. The game just kept moving to wherever it wouldn’t be bothered.”

A Career of His Own
Although his father never objected to it, Corkins was careful to point out that he didn’t push him toward a poker career, either. The Card Player.com database has tournament results for Corkins dating back to 1989, but he says that he’s been playing professionally since 1978.

“It was all about the cash games back then,” he explained. “There weren’t really that many tournaments around. There was the World Series of Poker, and that was pretty much it. To be honest, they used to hold the tournaments back then just to get the side games to run. Winning the tournament was just icing on the cake.”

Corkins continued to reminisce about the “Middle Ages” of poker, and provided a glimpse of a time when a poker player meant more to the house. “It was a fun time. They treated you so great back in the day. I remember Jack Binion treating us to the steakhouse whenever we got around to taking a break from the cards. I understand why it’s the way it is now. It’s a business, and they have to make money. But back then, it was all about getting gamblers into the hotel. They knew that any big winners in the poker games were more than likely going to dump it back in the pit. It was a different time.”

When tournaments began to increase in popularity, Corkins really began to make a name for himself. He captured a win at the Super Bowl of Poker, and made numerous cashes at the WSOP before his big break came in May of 1992. He entered a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha tournament at Binion’s, and walked out with his first career bracelet and $96,000.

He was riding high and was on top of his game, but his personal life couldn’t withstand the highs and lows of being on the road playing poker. A few months later, he walked away from the game entirely.

A Long Break Leads to Televised Success
When asked to explain his hiatus, Corkins gave only the bare-bones details. “I quit for 11 years. I was married, and then I got a divorce. That’s pretty much the story. It just sort of knocked me off my track, and honestly, I just couldn’t get back on it for the longest time.”

Although he would make an occasional trip to Biloxi or Tunica for a cash game, he was content with his 296-acre farm in Alabama, and had no plans to return to the game — until he caught an episode of the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel.

“In the summer of 2003, I was watching the WPT on TV. That’s really what got me back into the tournament scene. I said, ‘Hey, I can do that,’ and before I knew it, I was back on tour. I cashed a few times here and there, and then a few months in, I won my first WPT title at Foxwoods.”

Although he was modest enough to shrug off the details of the win, the proof lies in the final-table footage that was televised. It was one of the most watched poker tournaments of all time, thanks to Corkins and his one-sided verbal battle with Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth. He utilized the all-in move to discourage and run over Hellmuth, who wasn’t shy about venting his frustration by berating the much calmer Corkins, who is known to wear earplugs at the table from time to time.

“Phil does what he can to try to win,” Corkins said. “It’s that simple. He tries to knock people off their game by talking to them. Some people say that he does it just for the cameras, but that’s just him. That’s just the way that he attacks a poker table. I know at the time that he wasn’t too happy with me, but I think that’s just because I beat him up pretty good in that tournament.”

Corkins banked $1,089,200 for that win, and he followed it up with a runner-up performance at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which was also a WPT event at that time. Then, he went to Atlantic City for the U.S. Poker Championship at the Trump Taj Mahal, where he made yet another televised final-table appearance, and finished third.

Six-handed, Corkins shoved on John D’Agostino’s big blind with the 8 7, and D’Agostino woke up with pocket tens and made the call. The board ran out J 7 7 7 A, giving Corkins quads, and D’Agostino was left reeling. “That was a very marginal play,” Corkins recalled. “I knew D’Agostino felt that he could outplay the others at the table, so I made my play under the assumption that he wouldn’t want to risk his entire stack without a big hand, tens being one of them. I won the hand anyway, and D’Agostino got a bit upset.”

Upset is an understatement. D’Agostino quickly realized that he had Corkins covered by just a chip, but it took the floorman several tries and several minutes to count down the stacks, despite D’Agostino’s insistence that his count was correct. Finally, D’Agostino boiled over and proceeded to knock his mountain of chips over, creating yet another televised confrontation for Corkins.

“I’ve been in this business for 32 years,” said Corkins. “I’ve seen people get upset before. I’ve seen fistfights and knives drawn. So, you know, he took a bad beat and it hurt him, but I didn’t lose any sleep over it.”

Corkins continued his magical televised tournament run at the 2005 Tournament of Champions, where he found himself at yet another high-profile final table with Mike Matusow and his nemesis Phil Hellmuth, who busted out in third place and had more choice words to say about Corkins and his play.

Corkins said, “That was a really great tournament. When we got three-handed, I don’t know how long we played. It seemed like 12 hours, but I’m sure it wasn’t but six. It was a merry-go-round. Everyone had the chip lead several times before we could bust anyone.”

Corkins was just two cards away from victory when disaster struck, but he manages to maintain a positive attitude about the whole ordeal. “I almost won that tournament,” he said. “I had Matusow all in with A-K against his A-Q for about 90 percent of the chips in play. He spiked a queen on the turn, but, you know, you get your good breaks and you get your bad breaks.”

A Positive Outlook on Life
“It’s about your shot,” he said. “It’s about your opportunity. It all evens out in the long run. You have to be able to get beat and not let it wear you down, because then it starts to affect other parts of your game and life. The players who have been around for years are the guys who let the beats just roll off them. Sure, it hurts, but you have to get back up and play the next hand.”

It’s that mindset that enabled Corkins to bounce back from a horrible ordeal: Thieves broke into his house while he was out of town in July of 2008. “They were professionals,” he recalled with a laugh. “They thought I had an alarm system, but I didn’t. That’s some of that Alabama mentality, where you leave your doors unlocked all the time. So, they went to the trouble of cutting a hole in the garage wall rather than risk setting off the alarm. I lost a WSOP bracelet and a WPT bracelet. I also lost a Harley-Davidson that I had bought just a year earlier.”

Corkins continued his story, and even found a parallel between the robbery and poker, putting it all into perspective. “Through suffering comes wisdom. It’s like anything else in poker. You get used to gambling, and taking bad beats or getting lucky for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I just happened to get unlucky in that spot. Those guys broke in, but it ended up costing me only about $50,000. I’ve had situations in poker that were a lot worse than that.”

In it for the Long Haul
With more than three decades in the business, Corkins has taken some time for himself, driving his beloved Jeep on closed trails and washed out roads, but he’s not exactly ready to go riding off into the sunset. “Now after 32 years, I’m sort of pacing myself. I don’t really beat myself up too much after a bad play, but I still work at getting better each and every day. I’m in it for the long haul. I would love to play 20 hours a week for the rest of my life, or at least until I feel that I can no longer compete. But, let me tell you, I really feel like I’m on top of my game right now. I feel like I have a big edge on the competition, so I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

Corkins went further, describing where his head is at this point in his career. “When I really get going, I can be an awesome player. Most of the time, I’d say 85 percent of the time, a player is running choppy. Maybe he’s still winning, but he’s not hitting on all cylinders. Then, you get to that 15 percent of the time, and you feel that no one can beat you. You feel that you’re going to get there every time, and escape every time you’re beat. It’s a special time, but it’s here today and gone tomorrow.”

No matter what direction poker goes in the next decade, Corkins is confident that he’ll be able to maintain and perhaps improve upon his current eight-year winning streak. “I feel like I can compete in any environment, whether it’s live or online. I’m really proud that I’ve been a consistent winner now for years, despite the fact that poker has continued to change on a year-by-year basis. No matter what comes, I’m confident that I’ll find a way to adapt and stay on top.”

What’s in a Name?
By Julio Rodriguez

Hoyt Corkins has many nicknames, including “The Alabama Cowboy” and “Nightmare,” but it was during his victory at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods that Phil Hellmuth gave him the moniker “Mr. Move All In.”

“I think he was trying to get back at me by deciding to give me that nickname. He was trying to discredit my win, implying that there was no skill involved. I really don’t care, to be honest. It’s fine with me. A lot of people don’t like the all-in move because it does handcuff the players at the table. I don’t like it when someone does it to me, so why should they like it? I use it, and I use it effectively, for the most part.”

Ironically, it’s that style of play that Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson advocate in their book Kill Phil: The Fast Track to Success in No-Limit Hold’em Poker Tournaments. The authors believe that the all-in move is the great equalizer in tournament poker, enabling players to disarm the pros and take the upper hand. “I’ve never read the book,” Corkins admitted. “The last poker book I read was in 1981 when Doyle Brunson wrote Super/System.”

Corkins truly isn’t bothered by the nickname, nor is he concerned about his reputation, but he did offer up an explanation as to why he is portrayed the way that he is. “You know, I’ve been really lucky to appear on TV so many times, and I’m grateful for those opportunities, but people need to realize that what is being shown is not the full story. People see the frequent all-in moves, but they don’t get to see the hands that led up to that point. You know, the blinds were usually high, and it just made sense to keep moving all in.

Obviously, that’s not the only part of my game, but it’s the only part that the viewers got to see for a while.”

Viewers may not be aware of it, but anybody who’s sat at the table with Corkins has seen him put on a clinic. A couple of seasons ago, the WPT decided to give final-table players more opportunity for play by not increasing the blinds, and Corkins hopes that this change will enable the public to see more facets of his game when his Southern Poker Championship victory airs later this year. Until then, he’ll just let his outstanding poker resume speak for itself.

A Look at the Numbers: Corkins’ Big Cashes Over the Years
First place 1992 WSOP pot-limit Omaha $96,000
First place 2003 WPT World Poker Finals $1,089,200
Second place 2004 WPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $290,065
Third place 2004 U.S. Poker Championship $181,390
Second place 2005 Tournament of Champions $325,000
Third place 2006 WPT Legends of Poker $381,540
First place 2007 WSOP no-limit hold’em $515,065
Second place 2008 WPT World Poker Open $458,267
Sixth place 2008 WPT Doyle Brunson Poker Classic $216,175
First place 2010 WPT Southern Poker Championship $713,986