Biography of Hoyt Corkins

Hoyt Corkins keeps sixty head of cattle at home, but that number may grow now that he is back on the poker tournament circuit.

Hoyt won the 1992 World Series of Poker Pot Limit Omaha event but stopped playing poker for awhile. He started playing major tournaments again in 2003 and has decided to concentrate on the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker (at least as far as tournaments are concerned). Hoyt sometimes plays poker just to relax and said that the game is not just about the money for him. He likes No Limit Holdem because of the action and because it is considered the glamour game. He also likes to play Pot Limit Omaha.

Corkins burst back onto the scene in November 2003 by winning the Foxwoods World Poker Finals No Limit Holdem World Poker Tour event. Along the way third place finisher, Phil Hellmuth handed him a memorable nickname meant as a putdown: "Mr. All-In".

I asked Hoyt if he read Phil's article about the tournament and he told me he did, but he did not have one bad thing to say about Phil. He said he doesn't mind if people think he is "Mr. All-in" We discussed his play at Foxwoods and he said the cards were falling for him that day. He was lucky to catch a couple of river cards. I tried to get him to say something about Phil and he only stated that Phil deserved to finish higher than third place.

Mr. All-In's aggressive style soon managed to get him to another final table, this time at the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure.  Hoyt had a 3-to-1 chip lead over Gus Hansen when he called an all-in steal move by Gus before the flop. Gus held T9 of diamonds while Hoyt had a dominating hand of A9 of clubs. A flop of Q92 put Hoyt far in the lead, but a heartbreaking ten came on the turn and a blank on the river to give Gus new life.  After Gus managed to get a slight lead over Hoyt, they played an all-in hand where Gus had two pair and Hoyt a flush draw and gutshot straight draw.  The river gave Gus a full house and the title, but I'm sure we'll be hearing more from "Mr. All-In".

I had heard Hoyt wasn't feeling well on the Pokerstars cruise, so I asked him about it. He said he felt sick with the flu and it was wearing, but he wouldn't blame anything about his game that day on that. I was impressed with his finish especially considering he didn't feel well. He did not get lucky on the final hand and that is the best way to finish a tournament in my opinion. He put his opponent all-in when he had way the best it, and when he was the underdog he got all his chips in on a solid draw.