Professional poker player Hoyt “Cowboy” Corkins of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, who has won two World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship gold bracelets and almost $4 million in tournament prize money, has had his home ransacked and his bracelets stolen.

According to media reports, a burglar or burglars broke into Corkins’ home at the Spanish Trail Golf and Country Club, a gated and guarded community in northwest Las Vegas, ransacked the home and stole numerous items, including two WSOP bracelets, a World Poker Tour (WPT) championship bracelet, a safe, electronic equipment and about $10,000 in cash.

Also taken from outside the home were a sport utility vehicle, a jeep and a motorcycle belonging to Corkins, media reports said.

Corkins had been out of town for about a month and had just returned home and learned of the burglary, media reports said.

A native of Alabama, the 48-year-old Corkins still owns a ranch there and splits his time between the ranch and his Vegas home, media reports said.

“I feel like I was possibly targeted because I was gone from Vegas for a month,” Corkins told a reporter. “It would have been easy access.”

Reflecting on the burglary through the prism of a poker player, he added, “You got to be lucky through life, and sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes you’re not. A lot of it is dealing with your bad luck.”

Up until now, it’s pretty much been good luck for Corkins–and plenty of it.

He turned pro at age 19 and hasn’t looked back, earning almost $4 playing tournament poker over the last three decades.

According to tournament records, he has finished in the money in a WSOP event 19 times, including five times at this year’s WSOP.

His crowning achievements in WSOP play were a first-place finish last year in a six-handed, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament, earning him $515,065, and a first-place finish in 1992 in a pot-limit Omaha tourney, earning him $96,000.

At this year’s WSOP, his best finish was fourth place in a H.O.R.S.E. tournament, earning him $81,699.

He has also finished in the money in numerous WPT events, including winning one in 2003 and earning over a million dollars.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)