Maurice Hawkins Looking for Gold in Marathon

Maurice Hawkins isn’t hard to miss in a poker room – he’s loud, sometimes sporting bleached-blond hair and usually has giant stack of chips. He’s the all-time leader with 10 World Series of Poker Circuit rings and has $1.58 million in WSOP cashes, but has yet to win a bracelet.

Hawkins is second of 56 returning players for Day 4 of the $2,620 Marathon event and has his eyes set on the bracelet. “I would love to get a bracelet,” he said. “The bracelet would great because then they can stop saying I don’t have one – that gets on my nerves. If I would have played a full schedule for the last six years I would have three bracelets.”

In comparison, he’s brimming with confidence after winning six rings over the past two seasons. He hit the WSOP Circuit hard to prepare for the Series. “I grind all the Circuits and tournaments that are profitable for me,” said Hawkins. “I was having a final table rate of one out of three tournaments.”

“So, I feel my game has exceeded, or exactly where I want it to be,” he added. “I came in with a lot of confidence – it’s good when you start making $20K or $30K and you’re still upset because you feel like you should always get first. That’s how I feel whenever I’m in a tournament.”

The structure of the Marathon Event features 100-minute levels – close to pace of the Main Event – and Hawkins feels he benefits from the extended levels. “I would like to see this structure more than once, but across the board we wouldn’t get enough events in,” he said. “I think the price point is still great because you’re playing for $600,000. This is just one month out of the whole year, so if I take six or seven days to win $600K, that never hurt anybody.”

Despite his table talk, Maurice Hawkins has intense focus at the table. (Photo: PokerPhotoArchive.com)
“Back in the day great structures was what we wanted and we would fly across the country for a good structure,” Hawkins said. “Now it seems like ‘Oh, where can I spend the next bullet at?’ and I don’t ever want that to be my mindset. This is pretty much my Main Event and I feel like I should do well.”

Hawkins doesn’t mind the fact the Marathon took so much time on the schedule. He said, “I’m not trying to see how events I can play; I’m trying to have a very profitable summer.”

Hawkins’ goal to be profitable lines up with the fact he feels he has nothing to prove. “I set self-goals, I could care less what people think of me,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious what I am – I’m one of the best. Point blank, hands down, any arena, any time.”

“I don’t play high rollers because they’re a lot of money,” he added. “I don’t network to get in the fields and talk to the right people and do all the things you have to do to play in those events. I’m more of a loner – a lone shark. But if I was in those events, I would beat those too because I win at every stage.”