Why would Ferguson and Lederer return to poker?
Everyone is shocked at the return of the former Full Tilt owners, but why on earth would they return to the community that hates them so much?
The reemergence of Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson to the World Series of Poker would have been shocking to most, were it not for the oddly timed apology from Lederer for his role in the Full Tilt scandal.
That set off alarm bells in many of us, who felt it was a cynical ploy to return to the tables under the guise that ‘all was forgiven’ and enough time had passed for anyone to care.
It’s not shocking they returned to the tables, what is shocking is why they would want to?
Why play surrounded by hate?
I don’t know about you, but I go out of my way to avoid socially awkward situations. If I have upset someone, I usually try to make amends, or avoid aggravating the situation. I don’t mind admitting I have, at times, pretended not to see people across the street whom I have annoyed in some way.
So the prospect of being drawn at a poker table with another player who doesn’t like me would cause a reasonable amount of anxiety. The prospect of sharing a table with a player who hated me would be very uncomfortable.
How, or why, Ferguson and Lederer are willing to share a table with eight other players who at the very least have shown contempt for them at some point, is totally beyond me. I can’t even begin to think about what making the walk from the entrance of the Rio to their table must be like, knowing full well there are probably 1,000 people in the room who hate their guts.
Do they still love poker?
Conventional wisdom might suggest that both men are sociopaths, which would comfortably fit the narrative many of us have for them. They didn’t care about the poker community when they mismanaged player funds into oblivion, so why would they care what they think now? It’s easy to assume they are devoid of empathy, and maybe they are.
They may also have no respect for a poker community which, at times, has been quite fickle at naming and shaming cheats and scammers. I like to think that isn’t the case anymore, but many a shady player has been allowed to get away with bad debt and cheating for too long, because we were not quick enough to speak up. Perhaps Chris and Howie think that, after a few weeks of being regular fixtures at the tables, our anger will downgrade to simply saying mean things about them behind their backs.
It could also be simply that these two men love the game of poker so much, they will endure anything to return to it. They both made their name winning bracelets and together founded a huge poker room. Just because they presided over the biggest scandal in poker history doesn’t (technically) mean they don’t love the game.
It might be all three things and many more, we will probably never know. The one thing I am 100% confident about is that the Howard Lederer apology was precisely what we all thought it was, a disingenuous attempt to creep back into the poker community.
Have they got away with the Full Tilt scandal? They probably have. Thankfully for all parties, most of the missing funds have been returned in one way or another, and obviously had they not, we wouldn’t have seen Chris and Howard this year. Social isolation and disrespect from the community is a genuine punishment of sorts, but only when you gave a shit about the community in the first place.
Why would Jesus and the Professor return to the WSOP when they are so unpopular? Share your views in the comments below:
