This week, Maurice Hawkins won a WSOP Circuit ring to move into a tie atop the leaderboard for most rings won for the second time this year and now has 19 rings to his name.
When it comes to controversy and the distrust of the poker community however, Hawkins is in a league of his own.
Both of Hawkins’ wins have come with a dose of controversy.
In March, Hawkins won his 18th bracelet, and second of 2025, by taking down the Main Event of the WSOP Circuit stop in Baltimore but only after winning a significant pot and eliminating Divyan Satyarthi in a pot that was mistakenly shipped to Hawkins, even though Satyarthi had tabled a better hand.
Video of the hand playing out was posted by poker.org and some questioned whether or not Hawkins was aware of what outs Satyarthi had.
The discussion that followed in the days that followed that win centered around a multitude of issues, most notably whether or not an observer of the hand – including media – should say something when the dealer awards the pot to the wrong player.
The controversy that Hawkins finds himself in after this most recent win, a $400 buy-in WSOP Circuit event at Horseshoe Tunica, is far uglier and part of a recurring storyline that follows him from stop to stop.
In the days leading up to the event, Randy Garcia, one of Hawkins’ former backers, called out Hawkins for a debt that goes back to 2019. Garcia was awarded a six-figure judgment against Hawkins and is still attempting to collect.
“Maurice is a pathological liar and a dead beat. I will do everything in my power not only to get my money back, but expose him for the fraud he is. He has now owed me for 6 years. I backed him and loaned him money when his bills were past due for his family and this is how he repays my kindness.”
On Thursday, PokerNews’ Chad Holloway shared a video from Denise Pratt where she confronted Hawkins in an attempt to get him to repay a debt he has to her. In the video, Hawkins can be heard calling Pratt “a dumbass bitch” before walking away from her.
There’s long been an argument that poker needs more characters. It’s a throwback to the early days of the poker boom when the likes of “The Professor”, “Jesus”, “The Tiger Woods of Poker”, “Devilfish”, “The Grinder”, and “The Mouth” filled the seats in televised poker and gave fans watching at home somebody to root for – or root against.
Hawkins will tell you that he’s simply very confident in himself. Others will describe him as cocky and arrogant. In his winner’s interview after his win in Baltimore, Hawkins addressed this as the backer’s controversy at the same time.
If you are against me, you better jump on the bandwagon now. Either that or turn off the news. Oh, and one more thing, I back myself! So take that, haters, Hawkins told poker.org.
He doesn’t lack charisma, he’s talkative and engaging at the table – usually in an attempt to get under other players skin – and quotes like that could and should make him a media darling, but the trash talk, controversies, and debts that seem to follow Hawkins from Circuit stop to Circuit stop are an issue that can’t, and frankly shouldn’t, be ignored.
While amassing a resume like his would normally be worthy of respect, some of his fellow Circuit regulars don’t feel he’s worthy of respect for a number of factors.
Speaking to a few players with a promise of anonymity makes it clear that his reputation isn’t something worth bragging about.
I try to separate the person from the poker accomplishments, but it gets harder as the bad behavior continues, one Circuit ring winner admitted.
His actions and attitude towards his opponents, sometimes including recreational players for whom playing in Circuit events is a big deal, also draws the ire of more respected and established pros who make their living playing at the mid-major level.
“His table talk crosses the line sometimes,” said another player. “Behavior off the felt is also a factor. I don’t respect Maurice as a person.”
What Hawkins will describe as confidence often comes across as arrogance.
Hawkins frequently talks about being one of the best players in the world and while he’s found a high level of success on the Circuit, another player thinks he’d be in for a reality check if he were to move up to something like the World Poker Tour or the PokerGO Tour.
Even if you’re one of the best players on the Circuit, you’re just a big fish in a small pond. He’d be dead against actual good players in the long run, said one player.
The financial problems are also an issue for some other players. The group of players who travel from stop to stop are familiar with each other and clearly share notes on who can be trusted and who should be avoided when it comes to lending money, buying pieces, or backing.
I know (Pratt) and I hate how she’s been treated. She’s a wonderful lady and it sucks to see her treated this way,” said one player. “I wish judgments could be issued against him so that the victims could be paid from his winnings.
There are some in the poker community, including Matt Berkey and the OnlyFriends Podcast crew, who think that poker would be best served if media outlets and fellow players stopped giving him a platform to promote himself even while he continues to win.
While that argument certainly has some merit, the community is also being served by putting a very bright spotlight on the issues that surround Hawkins, most notably his apparent refusal to pay back debts in a timely manner and the way he talks to people that has nothing to do with the game itself.
Players, whether they’re owed money by Hawkins or not, should continue to call out Hawkins for his behavior, largely to make it less likely that another player falls victim to him.
Media outlets should continue to report on Hawkins while not shying away from pressing him with difficult questions about his behavior both on and off the felt.
Poker can always handle adding more characters to help the game grow, but more importantly, poker needs players with strong character.
