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Hoyt Corkins Wins the 2010 WPT Southern Poker Championship

Hoyt Corkins outwitted Jonathan Kantor in the heads-up showdown to win the 2010 world poker tour (WPT) Southern Poker Championship on January 28th, 2010 at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Corkins won a total of $739,486 for his win along with a World Poker Tour bracelet and a $25,500 entry to the WPT World Championship in May at the Bellagio Casino.

This is Corkins' second World Poker Tour title. The $10,000 buy-in event attracted 208 poker players to the Gulf Coast including Jeff Madsen, Jason Mercier, Shannon Shorr, "Miami" John Cernuto, James Van Alstyne and Chris Bell.

Unfortunately, those poker players will not survive Day 1 while Jonathan Little, Tommy Vedes, Hoyt Corkins, Paul Wasicka, James "mig.com" Mackey, Matt "All In at 420" Stout, Chad Brown and Gavin Smith all ended the first session of game play among the top ten in total chips.

Dwyte Pilgrim, already on a winning streak in 2010 with two victories and one 2nd place finish in preliminary poker events at the Southern Poker Championship, ended Day one as the overall chip leader but ultimately fell out of the money in 24th place. Day Two saw 106 participants return to action and by night's end, only twenty-seven players remained in contention.

Despite the formidable chip stacks they brought to the game that day, Wasicka, Stout, Brown, Smith and Little all bust out of the game while Tyler Smith, Jared Jaffe and Kantor pulled out to the front of the group. Also going home that evening were World Poker Tour (WPT) champions Daniel Negrenau, Nick Schulman and Joe Tehan.

Of the twenty-seven players who survived to Day 3, right cashed in including Vedes (17th place), Mackey (14th place), Justin "Boosted J" Smith (13th place), JJ Liu (8th place) and Ayaz Mahmood. Andy Philachack was the television-table bubble boy, going out in 7th place at the hands of Corkins.

Corkins received not only the most name recognition to the final table, he also brought the biggest chip stack, outchipping his closest opponent by 2:1. Seat 1: Tyler Smith (1,169,000), Seat 2: Hoyt Corkins (2,069,000), Seat 3: Jonathan Kantor (894,000), Seat 4: Jerry Vanstrydonck (1,044,000), Seat 5: James Reed (377,000) and Seat 6: Jared Jaffee (762,000). The $739,486 Corkins won for finishing in 1st place took his overall poker career tournament earnings past the $5 million mark.

02/11/2010, Thursday
Matthew Dorst

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