DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins will take a commanding chip lead into the final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Southern Poker Championship. The tournament marks Corkins’ sixth WPT final table.
Corkins sent Andy Philachack packing on the final table bubble. Philachack pushed his chips in with A-K and found himself ahead of Corkins’ A-Q. However, the flop came A-Q-4, giving Corkins top two pair and leaving Philachack rooting for a king or running cards for a straight. It was not meant to be, as the board ran out 6-10 to set up this afternoon’s televised six-handed final table, which will air as part of Season 8 of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. Philachack took home $67,000 for his seventh place showing at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, the site of the Southern Poker Championship.
Corkins won the Season 2 Foxwoods World Poker Finals and was also the runner-up in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Three seasons later, Corkins returned to a final table at the Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker and, during Season 6, Corkins claimed second in the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica. His most recent final table appearance came in December 2008, when Corkins finished sixth in the prestigious Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Corkins, decked out in DoylesRoom attire following Tuesday’s play, told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman, “I want to get first or second because that would give me 4,000 WPT Points. There are only three people in that club – Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Gus Hansen.” Corkins has $2.6 million in career WPT earnings and is one of the most recognizable faces in the game today.
Knocked out in eighth place was top female pro J.J. Liu. In her final hand, Liu moved all-in over the top of a raise by Jonathan Kantor. James Reed called, Kantor re-shoved, and Reed got out of the way. Kantor flipped up pocket aces, while Liu showed pocket eights. The board ran out 9-6-4-K-J and that was all she wrote for Liu, who has two WPT final tables to her credit. Liu finished fourth in the Season 4 Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic and took second in the Season 5 Bay 101 Shooting Star event.
The top 18 players in the WPT tournament finished in the money and the title of Bubble Boy went to Sam Rashid. As has been a theme in the Southern Poker Championship, Rashid ran into a higher pocket pair, as his kings could not draw out on Narinder Khasria’s aces. The board came 9-3-2-Q-10 and the field rejoiced as Rashid exited empty-handed in 19th place.
Players were jolted awake in the early morning hours today by the hotel’s fire alarm after smoke was reported on the ninth floor. Jared Jaffee, who made Wednesday’s final table, commented to the WPT’s B.J. Nemeth, “I knew the world would end if I ever made a final table.” The Beau Rivage is the tallest building in Mississippi at 32 floors and features 1,740 guest rooms.
Among those still remaining in the WPT Southern Poker Championship is Mississippi native Tyler “Tydean” Smith. He was the executioner of James Guinther, who was eliminated in 10th place for $25,000. Guinther was all-in pre-flop with pocket tens, but ran into Smith’s pocket jacks. He couldn’t dig himself out of the 4:1 hole and Smith boosted his chip stack to 750,000 as a result. Smith reached the final table of the Southern Poker Championship for the second straight year; he took fifth in 2009.
Heading into today’s finale in Biloxi, Smith sits in second place on the leaderboard with a stack of 1.17 million, trailing Corkins’ pile of 2.07 million:
1. Hoyt Corkins – 2,069,000
2. Tyler Smith – 1,169,000
3. Jerry Vanstrydonck – 1,044,000
4. Jonathan Kantor – 894,000
5. Jared Jaffee – 762,000
6. James Reed -377,000
The six remaining players are competing for a top prize of $739,000, while each is assured an $86,000 payday for making the final table:
1st Place: $739,486
2nd Place: $366,643
3rd Place: $196,829
4th Place: $135,079
5th Place: $106,134
6th Place: $86,837
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