Hoyt Corkins was born in Glenwood, Alabama and is a professional poker player who is sometimes called by his nickname “The Cowboy”. Hoyt got the nickname “The Cowboy” due to his apparel that he would always be seen wearing at the poker table including a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. Hoyt didn’t start learning how to play poker under he was nineteen years old and he learned the game from his father.
Over Hoyt’s poker career he has won two WSOP bracelets and one WPT title along with nineteen money finishes on the WSOP circuit and another ten on the WPT circuit. Corkins won his first WSOP bracelet over a decade ago in 1992 when he won the $5000 PL Omaha tournament. In 2005 Hoyt almost won the freeroll set-up by the WSOP for tournament champions, but he finished second place only losing heads-up against Mike Matusow. Hoyt’s second WSOP bracelet didn’t come until 2007 when he won the $2500 NL Holdem 6 handed event. His most recent WSOP tournament action was in 2008 where he finished in 162nd place in the WOSP Main Event taking down just over $40,000 for his efforts.
Hoyt, who now represents PokerStars.com won the 2003 WPT World Poker Finals where he won over $1 million which at the time was the biggest prize pool in poker history for a single event. In 2004 he made a couple final table appearances on the PokerStars.com Download Caribbean Adventure and the USA Poker Championship. Corkins also made the final table in several events throughout 2008 which goes to show you that Corkins has yet to finish his career. Hoyt has been seen on a couple poker shows over the past couple years, but he definitely doesn’t get as much television time as most of the pros do.
When Hoyt isn’t playing poker online, he spends time living in his home in Alabama where he has sixty cattle that he takes care of. He also has a home in Las Vegas and lives in that home when he is playing poker. With sixty cattle to take care of Hoyt’s poker time is limited compared to other poker pros, but his resume is still as good as players who have played in way more tournaments then him. This goes to show you that you don’t need to play a ton of tournaments in order to become one of the best poker players in the world, you just need to make the most of the events you do enter.
A little fact that most people don’t know about Corkins is that he left poker from 1992-2003 which is just over a decade. The reason he needed to leave poker was because of a divorce he went through and he just didn’t have the money or mentality to play poker. After the long absence he was persuaded to start playing poker again by his fiancée and what a good decision it was. Since coming back Hoyt has played better poker then he has ever played before and has made millions in the process. Hoyt has earned just under $5 million from live tournament action in his career.