Nestled in the scenic gulf coast city of Biloxi, Mississippi, the Southern Poker Championship had some local flavor as well as a sprinkling of the top pros battle it out for the latest World Poker Tour event.  In the No Limit Texas Hold’Em Main Event, the bigger names bubbled to the top and several flat out bubbled.  One of the most successful players when it comes to Biloxi events is online poker pro Tyler Smith, who added another TV final table to his resume. 

Smith, profiled before on Bet & Win Poker is an up and coming player from Mississippi, perhaps he’s already achieved too much to be called an Up and Comer.  The online poker player has arrived and he’s been there for at least a year.  Live or online there are few better than Smith and his humble demeanor only enhances his likability in the new age of webcam coverage (scroll down for his interviews with Amanda Leatherman). 

Smith who doesn’t travel far for big buy-in poker events doesn’t need too.  He won 124k for a second place finish at the same casino in September.  He’s won over 100k at Harrahs New Orleans events which is but a short car drive away for Smith.   And of course in the same event last year he won over 134k coming in 5th.   Smith’s final table experience, despite his young age, on many days would be the most at any final table, but that doesn’t hold true when Hoyt Corkins is in the tournament.

Hoyt, an Alabama Cowboy, got his start driving the back roads of the deep south looking for games, so the fact that he would return to Biloxi and achieve success is no surprise.  Hoyt’s success in World Poker Tour events includes televised victories and a number of cashes, the most recent a sixth place finish in 2008 Doyle Brunson’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic/WPT event Season 7 Main Event.  Hoyt pocketed over 216k for that one.

Hoyt’s big scores include a WPT victory in Season 2 for over one million and a 2nd place in Season 6’s World Poker Open for 458k.  World Series of Poker bracelets for 96k and 515k.  He’s also recorded cashes for 381k and 325k.  It’s no surprise when you add them all together he’s won over  4 million dollars with 44 lifetime cashes.  So despite Tyler’s credentials Hoyt was the one everybody feared.

The rest of the final table were no slouches either.   Jared Jaffee, James Reed, Jerry Vanstrydonck, and Jonathon Kantor each had names that began with J but none were jacks and none were poker jokers either.  Jared Jaffee  has 5 cashes to his name and winnings over 71k in live poker play.  Plenty more deep runs in online play too.  Jaffee might have come into the final table as the hottest player of the bunch having won a preliminary tournament for 49k and taking 3rd for almost 8k.  There is nothing liked being zoned in when Main Event play starts and Jaffee was most likely to be in the zone.

James Reed’s pedigree is not quite up to Jaffee’s as an online search reveals zero cashes to his name and certainly no final tables.  Jerry Vanstrydonck has a perfect name to make fun of had he been an early bust-out (Jerry NiceTryDonk) but names can be deceiving.  Vanstrydonck has cashed in a WPT Main Event.  True it’s his only cash to date and it was for 5k and it was for finishing 87th but it’s better than James Reed.

Jonathn Kantor’s recent is heater is very similar to Jaffee’s.  At the Southern Poker Championship he’s already won a preliminary event for 68k and min cashed in another event (18th for a little over 1k).   He’s got two other cashes to his name 2nd and 18th.    Still, as final table begins the big targets will be the two biggest stacks:  Hoyt Corkins with 2,069,000 and Tyler Smith with 1,154,000.  The four Js are within hailing distance but have some work ahead of them.  James Reed is the short stack with 377k, Jared Jaffee sits at 762k, Jonathon Kantor at 894k, and Jerry Vanstrydonck the only other man over the million dollar barrier at 1,044,000.