5 Jun
Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, one of the main players behind the Full Tilt scandal which cost players on the site $400million+, shocked the poker world by appearing yesterday at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, stating:
I’m just here to play poker.”
The 2000 WSOP Main Event champion surprised almost everyone when he sat down to play the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship, his first live event since the disastrous ‘Ponzi scheme’ downfall which precipitated Black Friday back in 2011.
Ferguson, along with co-founder Howard ‘The Professor’ Lederer, and Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar, have been ostracized by the poker community since the site was shut down by the US Department of Justice and player funds were discovered to have been used to pay out massive sums to the men and other owners of the company – nothing being left over to recompense the site’s customers.
Having never admitted wrongdoing nor apologised for his role in one of the darkest days of online poker, Ferguson has been absent from the biggest event of the poker scene for years, but yesterday he walked into the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to take his place among the thousands of other competitors.
His return was short-lived and unspectacular, Ferguson busting out early in the $10K 7-card stud bracelet event, and refusing to comment beyond his solitary “I’m just here to play poker” response – which he re-iterated twice to reporters, evidently unwilling to answer further questions.
The poker community had been rife with talk about Ferguson’s counterpart in the ‘Ponzi scheme’, Howard Lederer, who finally apologised for his part in the debacle two weeks ago – a move many felt was a signal for HIS return to the WSOP hunting grounds which had seen him lift 2 bracelets before his downfall.
Lederer’s statement, released by Daniel Negreanu on his site, opened: “I am writing to apologize to everyone in the poker community, especially to all the players who had money on Full Tilt Poker on April 15, 2011.”
When Full Tilt Poker closed in 2011, there was a shortfall in funds, a distressed sale to recover those funds, and a long delay in repaying players. Throughout this period, there was little explanation for the delay, and no apology. Players felt lied to. They trusted the site, and they trusted me, and I didn’t live up to that trust.”
In a move thousands of players had been waiting 5 long years for, Lederer stated: “I take full responsibility for Full Tilt’s failure to protect player deposits leading up to Black Friday.”
Chris’ Jesus’ Ferguson, however, has never commented on his own role in the Full Tilt scandal, denying the allegations through a lawyer. The allegations were that Ferguson and others had: “lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited.”
The majority of those affected by the Full Tilt ‘theft’ of player funds have since been recompensed, after PokerStars bought out the company with the proviso that they re-imburse more than $300million.
Ferguson’s arrival at the table on Saturday night in the Rio provoked much surprise but little public comment. One player who did speak out about Ferguson’s appearance was Layne ‘Back-to-Back’ Flack, who stated: “People realize they don’t know the whole story and don’t know what to say or what to think,” he said.
He continued,
We can’t point fingers when, basically, we don’t have all the facts. A lot of people are going to be confused about what to think, or how to act, and it’s easy to talk about someone when they’re not there. It’s easy to point fingers, but when they’re here, it’s not so easy, especially without all the facts.”
Expressing a viewpoint which the vast majority of poker players are likely to disagree with, 6-times WSOP bracelet winner Flack added, “Chris Ferguson has done a lot of great things for poker. He’s a standup guy, and all the decisions made by Full Tilt Poker don’t fall on him.”
I firmly believe he didn’t take one dime from anybody. It’s just not in his nature. It’s more in his nature to give everything to everybody, than take anything from anybody, and that’s a fact.”
Ferguson busted out about an hour and a half after starting his ‘comeback’, despite quintupling his stack at one point in a hand where he held pocket 8’s. He disappeared as quickly and silently from the tournament hall as he had arrived.
With the WSOP summer festival only just under way, it is still anyone’s guess if Ferguson will play more events or, indeed, if Lederer will join him at the tables. PokerTube will keep you updated of course on any happenings over in Vegas!
