Southern Championships final set to begin

Hoyt Corkins is one step closer to getting his hands on his second world title as he sits at final table one million chips in front

Hoyt Corkins is poised to walk into the history books as he takes his seat at the final table at the WPT Southern Poker Championships. It has been six years since Corkins won his then record breaking first place prize of $1,089,200 at the World Poker Tour 2003 World Poker Finals and he is hoping that his lead of nearly a million chips more than anyone else will enable him to join the select few players that have won two World Poker Tour Titles.

Corkins has made no secret of his ambition: "it’s a big deal" he said. "I want to get first or second because that would give me 4,000 WPT points and only Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey are in that club."

Six players make up the final table playing out from the Beau Rivage in Bilox, Mississippi. Although the names are mostly unknown, there will be plenty of skill that could thwart Corkin's second WPT title victory. Jared Jaffee and Jonathon Kantor both recorded wins in the Southern Poker Championship's preliminary events and Tyler Smith has secured over $300,000 in life time tournament earnings. They beat off stiff competition to get to the final table including WSPOC winner Andy Philachack, who bubbled the final table coming in seventh. Other names who fell by the wayside where WPT Ladies Night Winner J.J.Lui (eighth) and Dan O'brien in ninth.

The current chip count is as follows: Hoyt Corkins (2.06 million), Tyler Smith (1.1 million), Jerry Vanstrydonck (1 million), Jonathan Kantor (894,000), Jared Jaffee (762,000) and James Reed (377,000).

Hoyt Corkins was born in Alabama and started playing poker at the age of 19 after receiving lessons from his father. Often known by his nickname 'cowboy' as he always wears a cowboy hat and boots to the table, he has become known for his softly spoken voice and loose aggressive style. He secured his first World Series of Poker bracelet back in 1992 for winning the 1992 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, and won his second at the 2007 World Series of Poker, where he won the $2,500 6 handed No Limit Hold em event, claiming over $515,000 in prize money. The WPT Southern Poker Championship will be Corkin's fourth final table and as of 2010, his live tournament winnings exceed $5,000,000. Away from poker Corkins tends to sixty heads of cattle in his home state of Alabama.