Hoyt Corkins: A Pro Poker Player and Farmer

Hoyt Corkins is known as a soft-spoken professional poker player. But being soft-spoken does not make his poker skills soft as well. In fact, he is one heck of an aggressive player, having several achievements in the poker world that include two World Series of Poker bracelets.

Hoyt Corkins was born in Glenwood, Alabama. At an early age, he was already taught by his father how to play poker. By the time he was nineteen years old, he would already be seen in casinos and gambling facilities applying the poker lessons he learned from his father.

Hoyt Corkins was given several nicknames by some of his fellow professional poker players. For instance, poker professional Phil Hellmuth Jr. calls him Mr. Move All-In. Other poker professionals call him Nightmare. But the most common of all is his nickname Cowboy because he always faces his opponents at the poker tables wearing boots and a cowboy hat. This professional poker player is also known for wearing a pair of ear plugs when playing because he does not want to be disturbed by the audience and by his opponents.

Hoyt Corkins proved himself as one of the best professional poker players when he won a World Series of Poker bracelet in the tournament's US$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in 1992. His cash prize for this event amounted to US$96,000.

After such victory, Hoyt Corkins underwent a divorce. Such situation as well as his decision to focus first on his cattle farm in Alabama made him quit playing poker for eleven years. It was his fiancée Natalie who encouraged him to go back to playing poker. In 2003, Hoyt Corkins surprised many professional poker players with his comeback. What even surprised poker enthusiasts was his victory in the World Poker Finals of the World Poker Tour in the same year, in which his cash prize totaled to US$1,089,200.

This professional poker player, who also has a house in Las Vegas, Nevada, also joined the PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure in 2004 wherein he was defeated by poker professional Gus Hansen, placing only second. Nevertheless, he was able to won a cash prize of US$290,065. Hoyt Corkins was also one of the players left in the final table of the main event of the United States Poker Championship tournament that was conducted at the Taj Mahal in New Jersey in the same year.

Of course, he also had victories in 2005 and 2006 but it was in 2007 when this professional poker player once again displayed his stellar poker talent. In the US$2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event of the World Series of Poker, he defeated poker professional Terrence Chan. Aside from the cash prize of US$515,000, he also won his second World Series of Poker bracelet.

What does he do when he is not playing? This professional poker player goes back to Alabama to take care of his cattle farm.